Places:
England
Quick remarks:
- Oxford is insanely crowded on weekends. Stay away.
- The Intercity trains are worth the price; they're quite fast.
- If you haven't visited London, you can have a surprisingly fun time trying to
see everything in one day. Just buy a one-day Underground ticket, and run like crazy!
You can always come back later to see things in depth.
- St. Paul's is nice, but it's in an ugly part of town (faceless office towers).
- The Underground ranges from very modern to quite old; there are stations with
metal spiral staircases inside -- I mention it because, if it's raining, you'll have
water falling on your head from the shoes of the people above you. Ick.
- I understand that they're getting rid of them, but the old wooden escalators
are pretty cool.
- The district around Paddington Station is relatively pleasant, though boring.
My hotel (the Colonnade, I believe it was) was in that area, and I wasn't dissatisfied.
Apparently Alan Turing stayed there once, or something.
- Birmingham has a fairly nice downtown district, although it's not very large. It's nice
enough to pass through, or to kill some time until your train arrives.
- Birmingham itself is not offensive, but it's not exactly a "destination".
They do have some pretty good Indian food there, however. Definitely try the Balti, if
you can. There is a decent selection of B&B establishments.
- The British have some interesting flavors of potato-chip; I was especially fond of the
Bacon and Worchestershire flavors, although I'm told that the Prawn flavor is OK if you
like seafood (I don't). The packages are a bit small, but I suppose that's probably for
the best.
- The British simply don't know how to build a decent shower! I don't know why, but
in almost every place I stayed, the showers were microscopic. In two instances, I couldn't stand up straight (I'm 6.4 feet tall). I was also constantly smashing my elbows into the glass while trying to soap up.