PalenQ

The U.K. is my favorite country to travel around in and here are some things a foreigner finds to love when traveling there, which i've done annually since 1969.

DOUBLEDECKER BUSES
These are always a treat, either in London or on country roads at times. Perch myself on top deck in the front window seats if possible, just where the tree branches swoosh into the bus. What a view!

BIG RED PHONE BOXES
Love those old and i think disappearing sturdy heavy metal phone boxes that seem to be everywhere - even in rural areas with nothing else around. Cell phones gotta be making these dinasaurs but still plenty around
In London i get a kick out of looking in them at the ubiquitous pciture advertising cards posted there offering all kinds of kinky sex with pictures of young ladies or trans types. Love to take these home for souvenirs - 'dominatrice' etc.

THE OLD POST BOXES
I'm always exciting to see these old old post boxes with the name of the monarch on them when the box was put into place or made - some still have Queen Victoria's name on them - others Edward the VI and, except Edward VII perhaps, all subsequent monarchs.

TBC - anyone wants to add their loves as a foreigner it'd be fun to hear

rogeruktm

The rail system.

The Tube.

The parks

Pubs.

kleeblatt

Love:
Politeness. I adore how the British make an apology or begin a request. All those beautiful words said in their fancy way just makes me melt.

Hate:
Crossing the street the first time. I've almost had all my toes flattened a few times because I kept looking the "wrong way."

flanneruk

rogeruktm:

Being polite to your hosts is all very well. But there has to be a limit.

"Loving" isn't exactly the first verb most of us would think of in connection with our railway system.

avalon

"Loving" isn't exactly the first verb most of us would think of in connection with our railway system."


Then you must not know about public transport in most US cities!

waring

Really funny difference between the English and Americans.

We are programmed to say "thank-you" at any occassion, and Americans programmed to say "you're welcome"

I once counted saying thank you six times in making a purchase.

PalenQ

I sincerely do 'love' U.K. trains but if i had to take them daily i'd probably hate them

so again it's a foreigner's fleeting view - and i do love, really love British trains, especially the branch lines and suburban London overground even though by European standards i find them lacking greatly in comfort

I love the old Victorian brick train sheds

and the old brick train viaducts and i think, in London area, wow how all this must have looked when it was brand new a century or more ago - it really must have been the wonder of the Western world. And now it reminds me of that bygone era when the English ruled the world

And the trains - English speaking helps as i love to hear the ubiquitous cell phone conversations of fellow passengers - what they're going to do when get home, etc. even intimate conversations

and the inevitable announcement that the 'buffey' buffet car is now open and lose change would be appreciated.

Just love British trains for gazillions of reasons but glad i don't have to ride them daily.

tod

Old Post Boxes - A fine Victorian example and one of the oldest post boxes in London is located in Kensington High Street near the corner of Melbury Road.

annhig

dear PalQ,

to carry on the letter box and train theme, the house we lived in in Kent had a victorian post box in the garden wall. I only truly realised how convenient this was when we moved to another house which was not so equipped.

the same house had once been the home of one Dr. Beeching [whisper his name to all true train lovers] who carried out the railway cuts of the 1960s. not something we used to brag about!

regards, ann

PalenQ

thanks ann

Beeching - yes an infamous name to railfans - the Beeching waves of branch line closures in the 70s or so

an evil evil man

interesting you and his house!

annhig

PalQ - you may be interested to know that by the time he instigated the cuts, he'd moved from our house in Kent to East Grinstead in sussex.

Strangely enough, he recommended that the line should end at E/G, not before; the other half that splits after Oxted goes as far as Uckfield, where I suppose friends of his lived !

regards, ann

Carrybean

Black cabs, even those painted garishly with ads.

Clotted cream, double cream, Jersey milk, extra thick double cream. . .

Fish & chips.

Dislike the tube & consider more a sometimes necessary evil.

PalenQ

I do love the Tube but again would not if i had to ride it daily at rush hour.

I love hearing MIND THE GAP repeated over and over and over and over

I love Tube interchanges like Bank - a myriad of passageways leading to other tube lines and the DLR - change at Bank for anywhere in London it seems

I like the long long tube escalators and the adverts lining the walls - who needs Time Out London with the tube adverts

And Poetry On the Underground, if it's still around - poems posted on the platforms and even in Tube trains

I love the swooshing of air out of the actual tubes that announces an approaching train - incredible how the train cars just fit inside the curving tube

I love Tube stations like Baker Street - re-created as it looked in Sherlock Holmes times and there's the neat three track platform and pubs in the station

I love the Tube when it comes out of the tube in the suburbs so you can see the third rail.

I love the Tube!

hetismij

Having lived outside the UK for 24 years, the things I love about it are also things like the old postboxes and the old pubs, real ale, real cider, the puddings, the biscuits, small winding country roads, and the countryside!

Things I hate, and which make me reluctant to move back, include modern pubs, nasty fizzy beer, nasty fizzy cider, the rudeness/indifference of shop workers and of so many people in general now, and the litter and general tattiness around so many town centres, due to the shops having moved out. Plus the fact that it seems that everyone harps on about house (sorry property) prices. No-one buys a house any more they buy a property, and don't seeem to see it as their home but as an "investment opportunity". Yawn.

SallyCanuck

PalenQ I like the tube, too.

And the smaller centres with beautiful OLD cathedrals, really old, here anything built a hundred years ago is considered old.

I like being foreign but speaking the same language although everyone guesses my nationality as "American" first.

I love Marks and Spencer - especially near Christmas - I was sorry when the closed here.

I love the trains - I know the English complain about them but I love them. Here a train trip is a big deal - tickets bought days ahead of time for a long journey that only goes a couple of times a day or even a couple of times a week but in England you can decide to visit a place at the last minute, buy a cheap day return and visit a pretty market town and be back in London in time for the theatre - school kids take the train to school, something that I don't think happens here. I love the big stations in London. We have nothing like them.

And since I started tracing my mother's birth family - I like being able to say I'm visiting cousins in England. Growing up, we only had family here at home.

I loved taking my mother on the train from London to Leicester to show her where her birth mother came from and taking her into her first pub in Leicester.

RM67

'School kids take the train to school, something that I don't think happens here'

I certainly used to - in the days of British Rail! 12 car diesels with a buffet and bacon sarnies; doors you could open while the train was still moving; two hour waits in the snow as one after another was cancelled, but you couldn't go home because the headmistress would actually phone the station and instruct the staff to tell us to wait!! Sitting in first class and being yelled at by the guards; pretending I'd lost my ticket so I could buy 'Smash Hits' and 'NME' with the money instead. (My parents soon got wise to that one and bought me a season ticket). Tearing pages out of my physics text book so I wouldn't have to carry the damn thing home for prep (homework, for those who went to a comp!!!)

Ah, the good old days!

PalenQ

<in the days of British Rail!>

was amused when i was perusing the 2008 edition of Fodor's France and they talked about 'British Rail' running trains between Dover and London

so British Rail still lives on in some sources

sirbasil

Also river cruises on Thames and day trips in Kent
http://www.hotelara.com/england/

Fra_Diavolo

Country pubs and small village churches. Thatched roofs. Barrows. Real ale. Scrumpy. Savory pies. Winding lanes and standing stones. Ruined castles and abbeys.

And then, of course, there's London . . .

travelgirl2

Afternoon tea.

Free museums.

The tube.

Restaurants - pub restaurants, ethnic restaurants, Michelin star restaurants...

Places with lots of bustling activity. Covent Garden. Leicester Square.