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slip2rock - rather than hijack the smash thread, I figured I'd start a new one since you asked for my impressions of England. I'll probably break this up into several posts.
In a word, it was wonderful.
Post #1
We visited in April of 1998, spending about 11 days there. It was a little cold but overall not bad weather. We were in a large group of my family, though we did split up a bit.
We flew into Heathrow, and spent about a day and half being total tourists. Mostly that consisted of an open-top bus tour, unfortunately, which got us around to see the sights but didn't offer any depth at all. I'm sure 11 days is barely enough to see London alone. Everyone was very polite and patient with us. Even the taxi drivers were great. For our trip into town from Heathrow, we were packed into two black cabs, and had no real idea where we were going. They found our hotel for us, and when I put the fare on my credit card, I said "I have no idea what a proper tip should be, so give yourself something decent for your efforts." The tip he wrote in was about half what I would have given him. Our first hotel was awful, a tiny hole of a place in Covent Gardens just north of Hyde Park, several blocks from Kings Cross (? or Kensington Station?). It was our first adventure with English plumbing, and not a good start. The staff were courteous to a fault, though.
We had arrived early on a Friday morning and spent that day bumming around, and riding the double decker. Saturday morning we finished the bus tour, walked all round, and had a great time just looking at the historic and not-so-historic places. London was clean, the part we were in was not the best but certainly not threatening, and as our first time out of the States, even walking down an average street was interesting and exciting.
Sunday morning I left my wife and 2 kids at the hotel, and took the train back to Heathrow to pick up the rental car. For the first time, I experienced how wonderful English drivers are to the road. My first time driving right hand, out of practice driving a stick, and experiencing European intersections and lane organization for the first time. Yet in the two hours of heavy traffic getting back to Covent Gardens, I never ONCE heard a horn used in anger. People drove courteously, and as quickly as could be managed, when we could move at all.
Throughout our first stay in London, everybody was friendly, helpful, patient, and went out of their way to be nice to our kids (who were about six and three at the time).
We loaded up the car and headed west for Windsor, with the ultimate destination of Malmsbury that night. More on Phase 2 of the trip later; gotta get some paying work done now.
In a word, it was wonderful.
Post #1
We visited in April of 1998, spending about 11 days there. It was a little cold but overall not bad weather. We were in a large group of my family, though we did split up a bit.
We flew into Heathrow, and spent about a day and half being total tourists. Mostly that consisted of an open-top bus tour, unfortunately, which got us around to see the sights but didn't offer any depth at all. I'm sure 11 days is barely enough to see London alone. Everyone was very polite and patient with us. Even the taxi drivers were great. For our trip into town from Heathrow, we were packed into two black cabs, and had no real idea where we were going. They found our hotel for us, and when I put the fare on my credit card, I said "I have no idea what a proper tip should be, so give yourself something decent for your efforts." The tip he wrote in was about half what I would have given him. Our first hotel was awful, a tiny hole of a place in Covent Gardens just north of Hyde Park, several blocks from Kings Cross (? or Kensington Station?). It was our first adventure with English plumbing, and not a good start. The staff were courteous to a fault, though.
We had arrived early on a Friday morning and spent that day bumming around, and riding the double decker. Saturday morning we finished the bus tour, walked all round, and had a great time just looking at the historic and not-so-historic places. London was clean, the part we were in was not the best but certainly not threatening, and as our first time out of the States, even walking down an average street was interesting and exciting.
Sunday morning I left my wife and 2 kids at the hotel, and took the train back to Heathrow to pick up the rental car. For the first time, I experienced how wonderful English drivers are to the road. My first time driving right hand, out of practice driving a stick, and experiencing European intersections and lane organization for the first time. Yet in the two hours of heavy traffic getting back to Covent Gardens, I never ONCE heard a horn used in anger. People drove courteously, and as quickly as could be managed, when we could move at all.
Throughout our first stay in London, everybody was friendly, helpful, patient, and went out of their way to be nice to our kids (who were about six and three at the time).
We loaded up the car and headed west for Windsor, with the ultimate destination of Malmsbury that night. More on Phase 2 of the trip later; gotta get some paying work done now.
If you want considerate driving try the French, but stay out of Paris 
