AJ Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 I have had a look at the Brit Rail passes, and to be honest, they don't seem that good. If we were to use them, it would be the same price as tickets to Birmingham and Manchester, which are the only inter city travel we would be doing. We will pick up oyster cards as soon as we could. Is it worthwhile booking trains now, or is it better to wait until we get there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 book now on trainline, from my experience they only go up in price never down oyster card is easy at the 1st tube station you get to 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Yes, book now. Look out for rail replacement services, especially at the weekends. They close the lines for repairs and run buses instead of trains, taking an already shit, failed, privatised service to new depths. Avoid changes on rail journeys too if poss? The clowns are all too good at ***king up connections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 On 23/10/2019 at 13:41, AJ said: I have had a look at the Brit Rail passes, and to be honest, they don't seem that good. If we were to use them, it would be the same price as tickets to Birmingham and Manchester, which are the only inter city travel we would be doing. We will pick up oyster cards as soon as we could. Is it worthwhile booking trains now, or is it better to wait until we get there? Just in case you don’t know this - you don’t actually ‘need’ an Oyster card. If you’ve got a credit or debit card that works in this country you can just use that. Obvs if you’re getting charged for currency conversion or anything then probably avoid that. But just so you know, you don’t ‘need’ an oyster. I’ve got one in a drawer somewhere but I stopped using it a while back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 I might be wrong here but using an oyster card caps your spend, if you use it a lot then at a certain point it stops charging you per journey and converts it to the price of the day ticket whereas using your bankcard (contactless) doesn't and then you add in the various currency conversion fees and charges but yeah I used to use my bank card too, its easy, then work sent me on a business trip down there and covered a £50 loaded oyster card for me which they didn't fully understand so didn't ask for it back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milfner Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Bank card gets capped too (was down there a couple weeks ago). Think it was about £8. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 £7 for the day on the Oyster is well worth it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted October 31, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted October 31, 2019 The charges are capped on cards too, automatically by day and then week and month etc. It works exactly the same as an Oyster card except that you don’t have to buy and top up and carry an Oyster card. The only reason for buying an Oyster card would be to avoid conversion charges, but if you have a bank or credit card that doesn’t charge you for foreign transaction, e.g Halifax Clarity (or the non-Sterling equivalent) then just use that by tapping in and out on the underground or buses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 11 hours ago, fightoffyour said: The charges are capped on cards too, automatically by day and then week and month etc. It works exactly the same as an Oyster card except that you don’t have to buy and top up and carry an Oyster card. The only reason for buying an Oyster card would be to avoid conversion charges, but if you have a bank or credit card that doesn’t charge you for foreign transaction, e.g Halifax Clarity (or the non-Sterling equivalent) then just use that by tapping in and out on the underground or buses. I think I will take the simpler option of getting the oyster card, rather than worry about these sorts of things, and there is no guarantee that my bank card will work in the UK. I bought rail passes for us the other day, but not without some deliberation. We got a 4 day flexi pass, which works out at about 160 pound. This is to cover Manchester up and back different days, Birmingham match day, and one day spare in case we get Londoned out and want to go somewhere different. According to the British Rail website, fares are quite cheap, such as Birmingham one way for about 5 pounds, but I have decided to heed the numerous advice I have received that train fares in the UK are quite expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted October 31, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted October 31, 2019 40 minutes ago, AJ said: I think I will take the simpler option of getting the oyster card, rather than worry about these sorts of things, and there is no guarantee that my bank card will work in the UK. I bought rail passes for us the other day, but not without some deliberation. We got a 4 day flexi pass, which works out at about 160 pound. This is to cover Manchester up and back different days, Birmingham match day, and one day spare in case we get Londoned out and want to go somewhere different. According to the British Rail website, fares are quite cheap, such as Birmingham one way for about 5 pounds, but I have decided to heed the numerous advice I have received that train fares in the UK are quite expensive. Oh Yeah i was speaking more generally rather than advising you directly, even though it’s your thread. If you don’t know that your card will work, then of course go with the Oyster. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 9 hours ago, fightoffyour said: Oh Yeah i was speaking more generally rather than advising you directly, even though it’s your thread. If you don’t know that your card will work, then of course go with the Oyster. Regardless whether you are generally speaking or not, any information you do provide is still appreciated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AJ Posted December 14, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 14, 2019 I am now back in Australia, and as soon as I got off the plane, I did something I haven't done for two weeks. Sweating. It was 25 degrees at 6am, and bright daylight. A big contrast I suppose, to the last time I was in an open space. I have been home for two days now, but I have put off posting as I know this will be a long post, but for those who want to know what it is like, or who cares, here are my thoughts. We did three cities. London, Manchester, and a day out in Birmingham. London is awesome, and the tube makes getting around this big city very easy. We did a lot of the touristy things, such as Big Ben, strolls over London and Tower bridges, Madame Tussaud's, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park, and Buckingham Palace. I am a big fan of history, and London is full of it. Despite the terrible event that happened on the London Bridge, we felt completely safe. Often I would go outside of our apartment for a vape, and it seemed the average Londoners were more wary of me than I was of them. We went to Ramsay's restaurant, and it was great. We were well pampered there, and the food was right up there, but then again, so was the bill. We stayed in an apartment in Camden, which offered three stations to get wherever we wanted to go. Out of the three, Manchester was my favourite city. Everything you could want was in the centre of the city, and the people were very friendly. For the first night, we stayed in a pub with a hotel attached to it. All the room bookings are handled through the pub. Walking through a crowded pub with a ridiculous sized bag on your back tends to cause some accidents. I was expecting grief, but the people there were most forgiving. At the game, when Jack scored, I did let out a little cheer before I caught myself.(" Yeeeaaa...ohno.") It was made very clear that while I sit with the home fans I am not to cheer for the opposition. ( Villa). I thought the jig was up, but luckily it was just the two guys beside me which questioned my allegiance, but they were still cool. Not as many things to do in, as compared to London, but easily one of the most laid back, easy going places I have visited. The day after the game, we went for the day back to Birmingham. Our main plan was to raid the Villa store. In our mad rush to get to the game the day before, we couldn't take time to take in the sights, as we were cutting our time fine. We managed to take a lot of photos this time, and then it was off to raid the store. I must say now the GF has caught my Villa virus, in which there is no cure or no cure wanted. She is now paying a lot more attention to Villa, but the definite tell was that she spent more than me at the Villa store. ( I spent about 120 pounds, while she spent over 200. ) Afterwards, we went back to New Street, and walked around the Bullring for awhile. A homeless guy asked for some change, and we said no. He saw our Villa bags and said we were punished enough for being Villa supporters. ( Gee, I wonder what team he supports?). The Christmas market was in full swing, and I thought it was much better than the one in Hyde Park. The city centre of Birmingham looks fantastic, but as you drift into the suburbs, things start to look a bit bleak and drab. A lot of unfinished construction, land lots with nothing but big holes and dirt mounds in them, and rubbish everywhere. Although Birmingham is a big city, it still has that work in progress feel about it. More to follow... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 As when anybody visits a new country, you cant help making comparisons. Whenever I visit a country, I usually think the same question, could I live here? Firstly, the food. Well...could be better. Our first meal in England was good ol' fish and chips. The fish was rubbery and soggy, and the chips were undercooked and made from old potatoes. As restaurants go, you get what you pay for. If you take the cheap, simple option, you may pay for it in other ways. There was a nice Thai restaurant in Camden, which we went to a couple of times, but choices along the length of Kilburn Road were quite limited. Otherwise, we would just get something some M & S. England has some of the best beers in the world, and I was stoked to hear that the pub I was staying at in Manchester had Timothy Taylor's (my favourite) on tap. I was introduced to this stuff called curry ketchup. That stuff is magical. The best thing about England, is the people. Tom Baker is absolutely right when he says " Its the people of Britain that makes this grand country go round. Push it. Push it real good.". Everywhere we went, the people were so friendly and approachable. When we first arrived in London, from the Heathrow transit line staring at a rail map in Paddington station trying to navigate our way to our apartment in Camden, a young lady approached us offering to help. We had worked it out, but it was astonishing that this girl had broken her stride to get to where she was going, just to help two strangers. It pretty much set the tone for the whole trip. Everyone was so friendly and approachable, and that is quite rare in a large city. People say Australians are friendly. The truth is, we aren't really. Another time, we were on the train to the Leicester game, and I said to the GF " I have never been surrounded by so many Villa fans. This is so awesome." The guy sitting across from us overheard me, and said " Wait till you get to the game." . He was a pleasure to chat to on our way to Witton station. I always liked the English because of the sense of humour, but after the trip, I now appreciate them even more so. The exchange rate from Australian dollars to British pounds is about 2 to 1, so for the first couple of days, we were doing the maths of doubling the price to get our " home" value. By doing this, everything was ridiculously overpriced, and it made us reluctant to spend any money at first. We realised this is limiting our experience, so we ended up phasing this out of our minds, and just going with it. Even after forgetting about the exchange rate , England is still quite an expensive country, especially compared to other European countries. We saw an advert for police recruiting, and they were advertising a salary of 30 000 pounds. Sorry, but that is pretty bad. With cost of living in mind, this must put a strain on some people if wages are low. We were going to an European country in the winter, so we knew what to expect from the weather. We were leaving 30 to 40 degree temperatures, with daylight running from 5 am to 8 pm, to a country where we had to layer ourselves in clothing before we think about going outside, with only about 8 hours of daylight. I actually prefer cold to hot weather, as it is easier to be comfortable. There was some rain, but nothing that really effected our plans, we just rolled with it. English weather gets a lot of stick, but it wasn't really that big a deal. Would I live in England? Probably not, no. The weather overall, the congestion of people, and the cost of living would probably get me down over the long term. Would I recommend England for a holiday? Oh heck yes. England has so much to offer to see and do, and is wonderful for getting out of your comfort zone without actually being uncomfortable. My main goal in England was to see the Villa, and I did that. Twice. That in itself made the trip worthwhile, but to take everything else into account, I had an excellent time. I would go again in a heartbeat. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 16 hours ago, AJ said: The best thing about England, is the people. Tom Baker is absolutely right when he says " Its the people of Britain that makes this grand country go round. Push it. Push it real good.". Everywhere we went, the people were so friendly and approachable. When we first arrived in London, from the Heathrow transit line staring at a rail map in Paddington station trying to navigate our way to our apartment in Camden, a young lady approached us offering to help. We had worked it out, but it was astonishing that this girl had broken her stride to get to where she was going, just to help two strangers. It pretty much set the tone for the whole trip. Everyone was so friendly and approachable, and that is quite rare in a large city. People say Australians are friendly. The truth is, we aren't really. Another time, we were on the train to the Leicester game, and I said to the GF " I have never been surrounded by so many Villa fans. This is so awesome." The guy sitting across from us overheard me, and said " Wait till you get to the game." . He was a pleasure to chat to on our way to Witton station. I always liked the English because of the sense of humour, but after the trip, I now appreciate them even more so. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted December 18, 2019 Author Share Posted December 18, 2019 (edited) 9 hours ago, lapal_fan said: Apologies, lol, especially to my fellow Aussies. No, we are not that bad, and it is a massive faux pas on my part for misconstruing that. Generally speaking, we are mostly a friendly, easy going and reasonable lot, but just like any country, we have our fair share of a-holes. Unfortunately, I see them every day, whether it is some dick swerving through traffic causing you to brake because he crosses too fine in front of you without indicating, some butthead who tries to intentionally cut in front of you at the supermarket, or the morons who have never even travelled out of their state that jump online and proclaim their support for Trump because " lefties are evil". I retract what I said in my previous post. The overwhelming majority of Australians really are wonderful people and no matter where we live, we will also have people that bring good people down, because, y'know, people. It is also unfair to compare a third of a lifetime in one country to a two week jaunt in another. Australia is a lovely country, and I am very grateful that I live in such a wonderful place...despite the idiots. Edited December 18, 2019 by AJ sic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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