I second that.

Also, The Welcome Institute further along Euston Road often has some great exhibitions.

Berlin is great, but not the place it was before the wall came down. Used to be fun going through Checkpoint Charlie for real. Could have got shot once climbing on the barrier to photograpgh the Brandenburg Gate when it was between West and East if my German comrades hadn't have dragged me down. Sounds like the Zoo has improved - it was one of those awful ones when I went there.

Angel Islington is nice to sit and eat in the day, plenty of cafe's and restaurant/food places.

Nice hidden things, go to the monument in the city or the market close to Liverpool St Station, Barnes is good as is Richmond Park. Hire a boat on the Serpentine in Hyde Park try Harrods or Kew and there are plenty of Museums in Kensington.

Two questions folks
A nice place on the South Coast, picturesque yet busy with things to do, not Bournemouth, Brighton or Weymouth.

Anyone ever been on the Ffestinniog(sp) Railway, anyone recommend it and if so what stops to get off and site see?

OK this is a bit obtuse, but I've been tasked with finding accomodation for around ten males (why is it always me who has to do this bloody thing) who want to go walking in the Ingleton/Settle area in September, has anyone any experience of where such a party could stay, all of the pubs etc that I've looked at so far have a few rooms, most of which tend to be doubles, I'm sick of sharing a bed with my mates so just want twin rooms this year



Problem is that in that area there are no large hotel premises really, I'm at the point of kicking this one into touch.

There are alot more interesting places; alot more pleasant places; and alot better places to eat and drink in London. I would not advise a tourist with limited time to go there in preference to other places.

see proper London mate, it's as close as like to get to the east end

Oh, I don't know, depends on the tourist's interests.
With both The Red Lion and The King's Head pub theatres close to hand, plus Sadlers Wells as well, it's not too badly-off for culture.
Camden Passage for antiques.
Not only that but Upper Street is rammed with restaurants and pubs for all budgets and tastes, all the way up to the triangle.

Prague, anyone? Taking the missus there at the end of the month, never been before, heard good things!

It's great.

Keep well away from District 11.



We don't want home county bell-ends like you pervading our vicinity.

I hear Arbroath is nice this time of year !

thought you'd be off to Croatia mate ?

Went earlier this year mate.
Bit of culture for me this weekend.
I'll be mingling with the French travelling masses at the KC.

should be at least two travelling fans, maybe three !

must win game for both teams and hopefully the Cats will have some players back

do you need any useful french phrases WZ ?

like...'Wos your name darlin' or,

'I know a great little boozer round the corner, fancy a pint ma cherie ?'


one hint for all travellers to France - forget it until september as the roads heading south are jammed !

'Get stripped, you're picked'.

"déshabille-toi, je te veut"

pronounced 'dezzabee twa, jerteveur'

good luck

"Un jambon est un biere s'il vous plait"

Twenty years ago next year me and my brother did our own Tour de Bretagne on bicycles with a tent and the above was the full extent of our French, we didn't even take a phrase book, in fact our kid didn't even take his passport



We survived, but the diet was a bit boring, apart from the beer bit.

the mind boggles JC ! how did you get in and back without a passport BTW ?

next visit ask for "une galette complète et un cidre SVP" - deeelicious !

(nb:cider is the national drink of Brittany and galettes are savoury pancakes)


great place for a holiday though and easily reachable from the UK of course and not too bad this time of year with a good climate and not too many tourists like down south

recommended places in Brittany ? well, Quimper is brilliant and Vannes is good but if you want a more seaside destination go for la Baule which is great for kids - for the more romantic on the forum take the missus to Pornic which is a nice fishing town type place - guranteed leg-over and great fish restaurants

Is it?

not quite, but who cares ?

The French, one assumes.

My brother was a world traveller when we cycled Brittany in '93, he'd literally only just returned from hiking all the way around the world for 18 months, you could say that the air turned blue when we got to the ferry terminal and he realised that he didn't have his passport with him.

Luckily it was 1993, the world wasn't as paranoid as it is now, we were on bikes at the ferry terminal and they let all the cyclists board first so he just got himself into the middle of a group of bikes and rode straight through the passport check at Portsmouth, when we got to St Malo the next morning there wasn't a soul to be seen on the dockside to check documents





I took the family on holiday to Benodet a few years ago and so of course Quimper was on the agenda, beautiful old town, and because the family all wanted to just lie on the beach I had a fantastic two weeks of driving myself all along the south coast visiting all sorts of villages, Concarneau, Pont Aven, had a great time.

Went to Dom Rep last July, hotel was nice but the place itself is a bit rough, much prefer Cuba with part stay in Havana.

Egypt should still be hot in October. I am going to Red Sea on Monday for 2 weeks, temps are high as 42 at the moment

Long time ago, spent 3 weeks in Vancouver and a week in a place called Esquimalt on Vancouver Island, absolutely fantastic if you like wild life (Orcas are numerous). A place I have always wanted to go back to, but never made it.

Are you mad?! I hope you'll be scuba diving or visiting sites most days because it'll be way too hot for a sunbathing holiday. Egypt and Turkey (and Arizona) are the hottest places I've been and even the locals tell you not to go in August!

Loved Egypt for the diving and the cheap beer. Hated Egypt for the Egyptians, won't be going back for that reason. You've not been hassled until you've done Egypt.

You get out of a taxi at your hotel and taxis nearby zoom up and start beeping and shouting at you, even when they've seen you just arrive. Go into some of the shops and they lock the door behind you. We walked past one shop in Sharm and the owner started following us down the street "why you no buy my things" - he got pretty abusive "you f*cking English", etc until we got stern and told him to fook off back to his shop. The females in the group were pretty scared and none of us did any more shopping after that.

I realise they are a culture of traders but the sooner someone educates them that if they backed off,Western Europeans would be MORE likely to shop.