Cobblers Everywhere

[Melbourne Cobbler]

You don’t have to travel that far, scrumping in the neighbours garden raises the pulse.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Nearly forgot, off the beaten track gem, Brno in the Czech Republic. Fly direct from Stansted, lovely. Fascinating fact, once missed a flight and drove from my old house in Northampton to the Grand Hotel in Brno through the channel tunnel and clocked exactly 1000 miles door to door.

[Tabasco Kid]

Shame about Boris’s bridge.

That was never going to happen. Build a bridge on top of the largest munitions dump in the UK?  Good old, out of sight out of mind...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort%27s_Dyke

[therealpattcobb]

I'm shocked none of you have ever visited Ireland (the Republic or Northern Ireland). Scotland is uniquely different to England (and Wales) - I first visited there in 2000 so relatively recent - and Wales (where I was educated and brought up from aged 3 to 18 inclusive) has it's own distinct culture.

I forgot
 Ireland - Dublin and Kildare
Northern Ireland - Belfast

[therealpattcobb]

So where have we been?

My only forays outside of Europe

USA - New York, Philadelphia
CANADA - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Niagara, Quebec City, Ottawa

In Europe

France - Lille, Paris, Lyon, Marseille
Germany - Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt Cologne, Essen, Wupperthal, Dortmund, Marburg, Mainz, Munchegladbach, Koblenz
Belgium - Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven
Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Delph
Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sitges, Girona
Italy - Milan, Como, Rome, Bologna, Pisa
Switzerland - Zurich
Austria - Salzberg, Vienna
Czechia-  Prague, Kutna Hora, Pilzen České Budějovice
Slovakia - Bratislava
Latvia - Riga

Granted some of these cities were day trips.

My favourite cities of those Cologne, Vancouver, Prague, Barcelona, Bruges
Least favourite Bratislava, Nice

Most favourite city - Liverpool

New York is, well New York isn't it?

Greatest city in the World - London, for me knocks spots off them all including NYC how lucky that most of us live within an hour of this city!

As you can see I like a bit of civilisation, I dislike a beach holiday.
Also if needs must I have no qualms going in Macdonald's, Starbucks, Costa etc. Sometimes a new city is bewildering, stick to what you know eh?

Just some musings,
 Lyon my favourite French city so far, Marseille as mentioned earlier on this thread my least favourite, I actually quite like Brussels. Germany and the Germans have more in common with us Brits than we admit to.

I could go on,
Best transit system London, then Berlin!
Nicest people - Riga, although that is still fresh in my mind from last month
Best airport Heathrow Terminal 5
Best food ( to my tastes) Cologne
Best beer Kolsch in Cologne, and of course Prague

Also I have visited most UK cities, and a few towns too (it's called supporting NTFC).

Can make good cases for Leeds and Sheffield, less so Manchester (except for one particular street!)
Birmingham doesn't count because I very nearly live there, 20 mins on the train, but it has some really nice suburbs .

I Prefer Glasgow to Edinburgh.

Belfast had the best city tour Falls and Shankhill roads included!

Give me any city to live in...
Tough, I reckon I would go for Liverpool

[Worthless Recluse]

Sounds like Sings got this one in the bag.
Perhaps a competition to see who's been to a place country/city/region no one else has.
Anyone else got Colombia on their list?

[singcobb]

I could go on,
Best transit system London, then Berlin!
Nicest people - Riga, although that is still fresh in my mind from last month
Best airport Heathrow Terminal 5
Best food ( to my tastes) Cologne
Best beer Kolsch in Cologne, and of course Prague

Best transit London, then Munich.
Nicest people - Penang and Malaysia in general.
Best airport Changi, Singapore.
Best beer Tiger, or finding a pub in Budapest that served Charles Wells.

[XVK]

Worst airport...... Dublin,  €15 for a Guinness in 2006, I dread to think how much it would cost now
Nicest People........ Chiang Mai, very friendly and not looking to scam you
Best airport.......... Changi, no competition
Best food............. Cairns, Singapore, Thailand
Best transit system.......... Singapore
Best Beer............. Tiger, Toohey's new and Singha

[Manwork04]

Worst airport...... Charles de Gaulle
Nicest People........ New Zealand
Best airport.......... Dubai Emirates First Lounge, although the Concorde Lounge is good @ LHR
Best food............. Gold Coast Queensland, amazing fish restaurant
Best transit system.......... London
Best Beer............. Paulaner Wiessbier

[BackOfTheNet]

Out of the places I've been, the one I'd recommend to anyone is Iceland. The place is just so chilled and laid back, as are the people. They like a swear, they like a beer and there's just no hint of agro anywhere.

We realised after a couple of days we hadn't seen a single police man because they aren't particularly needed!  We did a guided tour while we were there and one of the places they take you is the presidents house. It's in the middle of nowhere and not a single cop, soldier, security guard or fence in sight. In fact, the only piece of security was a little sign showing a map of the premises with a line drawn across the lawn indicating that anything beyond that is private property.

As we were leaving a guy went past walking his dog. The guide went "oh look, there he is." He waved.

[XVK]

Out of the places I've been, the one I'd recommend to anyone is Iceland. The place is just so chilled and laid back, as are the people. They like a swear, they like a beer and there's just no hint of agro anywhere.

We realised after a couple of days we hadn't seen a single police man because they aren't particularly needed!  We did a guided tour while we were there and one of the places they take you is the presidents house. It's in the middle of nowhere and not a single cop, soldier, security guard or fence in sight. In fact, the only piece of security was a little sign showing a map of the premises with a line drawn across the lawn indicating that anything beyond that is private property.

As we were leaving a guy went past walking his dog. The guide went "oh look, there he is." He waved.

I met a party of very drunk Icelandic ladies in Spain, they know how to enjoy life!

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Worst airport...... Dublin,  €15 for a Guinness in 2006, I dread to think how much it would cost now
Nicest People........ Chiang Mai, very friendly and not looking to scam you
Best airport.......... Changi, no competition
Best food............. Cairns, Singapore, Thailand
Best transit system.......... Singapore
Best Beer............. Tiger, Toohey's new and Singha

Top tip, if you fly to Oz with Singapore Airlines the transfer lounge in Changi Airport has a hotel where you can book rooms in 3 hour blocks. You need to pre book it but you can take a shower and all that malarky and it really helps to break up the trip. They call your room when its time to leave for the next flight.

[XVK]

Top tip, if you fly to Oz with Singapore Airlines the transfer lounge in Changi Airport has a hotel where you can book rooms in 3 hour blocks. You need to pre book it but you can take a shower and all that malarky and it really helps to break up the trip. They call your room when its time to leave for the next flight.

Thanks, my travelling days are over for the foreseeable future, filial duties and all that. I flew Quantas to Oz, cost me £45 and an ungrade to business class as well!

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Thanks, my travelling days are over for the foreseeable future, filial duties and all that. I flew Quantas to Oz, cost me £45 and an ungrade to business class as well!

How did you find them. I properly hate Quantas, the management team couldn’t run a bath.

[DavCobb]

Out of the places I've been, the one I'd recommend to anyone is Iceland. The place is just so chilled and laid back, as are the people. They like a swear, they like a beer and there's just no hint of agro anywhere.

We realised after a couple of days we hadn't seen a single police man because they aren't particularly needed!  We did a guided tour while we were there and one of the places they take you is the presidents house. It's in the middle of nowhere and not a single cop, soldier, security guard or fence in sight. In fact, the only piece of security was a little sign showing a map of the premises with a line drawn across the lawn indicating that anything beyond that is private property.

As we were leaving a guy went past walking his dog. The guide went "oh look, there he is." He waved.

Weird, as my memories popped up from 3 years ago today when I was there.
I loved Iceland and spent 4 days there. Driving from Reykjavik it soon feels like a barren and magical world, without seeing any other vehicles for miles in some directions.
We drove for hours and on day 1 sought out a restaurant from a travel programme called 'Fjorubordid' which is a shack place renowned for langoustine soup. 

Standing across from one another on the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates is special. The waterfalls are beyond incredible, swimming in the hotel springs and food is absolutely amazing. It may be notoriously expensive but you don't get served any crap. The worst part of the trip was the Northern lights. I wasn't actually that bothered and we left on a coach about 11pm to the starkest, pitch black, coastal spot. Waited ages for our eyes to adjust and then no sign of them. The coach was there for over 3 hours so I wandered back and went to sleep on it.
My favourite bar was called 'Bastard' and sold some lovely Einstok and bar food. Reykjavik is your only worthwhile base and houses something like 65% of the entire population. If you like ice cream and chocolate then a visit to Omnom is a must. You'd struggle to be vegan there!

I'd recommend everyone to go there once if you can and certainly never been anywhere else like it. You can't help but feel relaxed....unless you are waiting for the Northern lights.

[Worthless Recluse]

Weird, as my memories popped up from 3 years ago today when I was there.
I loved Iceland and spent 4 days there. Driving from Reykjavik it soon feels like a barren and magical world, without seeing any other vehicles for miles in some directions.
We drove for hours and on day 1 sought out a restaurant from a travel programme called 'Fjorubordid' which is a shack place renowned for langoustine soup. 

Standing across from one another on the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates is special. The waterfalls are beyond incredible, swimming in the hotel springs and food is absolutely amazing. It may be notoriously expensive but you don't get served any crap. The worst part of the trip was the Northern lights. I wasn't actually that bothered and we left on a coach about 11pm to the starkest, pitch black, coastal spot. Waited ages for our eyes to adjust and then no sign of them. The coach was there for over 3 hours so I wandered back and went to sleep on it.
My favourite bar was called 'Bastard' and sold some lovely Einstok and bar food. Reykjavik is your only worthwhile base and houses something like 65% of the entire population. If you like ice cream and chocolate then a visit to Omnom is a must. You'd struggle to be vegan there!

I'd recommend everyone to go there once if you can and certainly never been anywhere else like it. You can't help but feel relaxed....unless you are waiting for the Northern lights.

I got as far north as Akureyri, a whale watching hub with a couple of 'interesting' churches. Standing astride the plates is indeed a highlight, less so the aptly named Midge Lake.

[BackOfTheNet]

That all sounds familiar. The Blue Lagoon is amazing too. Spas aren't really my thing so I wasn't that keen on going, but it's a real experience sitting in bright blue, thermally heated water that's so dense with minerals you can't really see through it, even if the walk between the building and the pools is a bit nippy in your swimming shorts! Mind you, I see from the news today their car park is under about 6ft of molten lava at the moment so it might be a while before anyone can go there again!

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is also worth a visit. Where else can you see the world's largest collection of penises?

When I went their prime minister was embroiled in some sort of tax scam.  When I went into one of the posher shops on the main strip they had a photo of him behind the till. They'd drawn a Hitler tache on him, written "asshole" across his forehead and had stuck it up with a "tax free" sticker!

There were plenty of quality signs up too - one outside a cafe said "go ahead and breastfeed. We like both babies and boobs!"

Another bar had printed on the window "If you are racist,sexist, homophobic or an asshole... don't come in!"

I can only assume their prime minister was barred!

[DavCobb]

That all sounds familiar. The Blue Lagoon is amazing too.

Another bar had printed on the window "If you are racist,sexist, homophobic or an asshole... don't come in!"

We went to the Secret Lagoon after some research as was less commercialised - i.e. cheaper!
I can remember seeing that sign on a bar.



Anyway, that's our work done for the Icelandic tourist board! 

[BackOfTheNet]

The prices there are weird. On the day we got there it was getting late and we hadn't eaten so we went into pretty much the first restaurant we saw. In keeping with the general oddness of the whole place, it had an English name (which escapes me at the moment) but was run by an Asian family and served Italian food! It was nice though and we had a bottle of wine with our meal. As we left I commented that I don't know what everyone moans about the prices for because what we'd paid was comparable to London prices.

So we went into the bar over the road and ordered a couple of cocktails. They came to more that the entire meal bill across the street!!

Souvenirs were insanely expensive, so the kids got nothing brought back for them. The only thing I bought while I was there was a book by the Icelandic cartoonist Hugleikur Dagsson, well worth a Google of you have a dark sense of humour...

I could talk about Iceland all day... do we need another thread for an Iceland love-in?

[XVK]

How did you find them. I properly hate Quantas, the management team couldn’t run a bath.

It was back in 2003 and all was good, the staff in business class were very keen on us all having freshly cracked black pepper with our meals