When I were a lad

[oscarose]

Agreed. Prefer UK holidays now and the odd sortee into Europe via Eurostar or the ferry, either is hassle free and plenty of time to drink and relax. Only fly long haul e.g. to India and Australia to watch England (cricket).

[up4it]

NotAllThere: I was a bit too young to get a kick out of it!

Though I do remember that mini-skirts were in fashion at the time and my eye level was lower than the hem-line of the mini-skirts!

[TheFaQQer]

I partly agree, EO - the mystique has gone.

I'm not fussed about flying really - once I get through security, everything is out of my control. There's nothing I can do any more, so I don't get stressed. If I'm driving and get stuck in traffic, then I always wonder if I should have gone a different route (unless I'm in the camper van, where it makes little difference since it doesn't go that fast anyway!)

Flying with the right airline helps, and flying with a frequent flyer card of sufficient value makes a difference. I was 6 years into BMI's "get ten years of gold card, and you keep it for life" scheme and they're being taken over this week

[wim121]

When I were a lad, travelleing on the plane was unheard of. We knew that somewhere there were people who were so rich that they could afford to fly, but not anyone I knew
not anyone in my town.
I had heard about this new 'package holiday' thing were people flew to Spain, and I had seen and heard planes flying over, but it was all mysterious and glamorous.
Even the people on the soaps who flew out were never filmed in the airport or plane, they used to go out the front door with thier luggage, then turn up two weeks later talking about the flight.

We used to go on holiday in a boring old steam train. boring , boring, smokey, steamy and dull. Every kid wanted to be a train driver, but on a shiney new diesel, not a boring old steam train.


Nowadays, I hate flying. There is no glamour , the mystique has gone. There are even IT nerds stripping off to complain about the horrendous and stupid pocedures we have to go through to even get on a boring boring plane.

What wouldnt I give to travel around the country on a steam train. even europe. the world. to stand on the footplate and blow that whistle. fantastic

So what you're telling us is you're 47 and wistfully dreaming of what you can do after you're 50 years old?

[wim121]

Who cares about the mystique or anything else?

Holidays abroad are still best. Better weather and cheaper.

When you weigh up that a good hotel will cost upwards of £100 a night in the UK, whereas abroad, you can get an excellent, all inclusive package for half that amount over a week.

A no brainer really.

[mudskipper]

I went to an extremely posh, ridiculously expensive nursery school, by virtue of getting a free place because my mother was teaching there.

I remember telling one girl how we'd travelled on the overnight train from Jo'burg to Cape Town. She said "Oooh, you are lucky. We only ever go on daddy's plane." Poor child.

[Sysman]

I'm watching dear old Michael Portillo's programme about trains and the Bradshaw book on BBC4 at the moment.

Some of the continuity is truly amazing.

He'll get on some train with maroon carriages pulled by a little saddle tank loco, & the helicopter shot will show a lovely GWR green Castle pulling some brown clerestory carriages, until, suddenly we're back with the maroon carriages & the saddle tank again.

It really enlivens proceedings no end.

I watched that last year. There was some interesting historical stuff in it, but most of his chats to Joe Public were proper cringeworthy.

[Sysman]

Depends which country you are talking about.

British airports are a nightmare due to the number of people using them at the same time. I always liked to use London City Airport where possible because it was easy to get to, the terminal was small and the check-in times were short. By 2008 it was getting severely overcrowded though which took the shine off things somewhat.

Believe it or not, there are countries where you can park right next to the terminal without having to pay a fortune, check-in takes no more than a minute, only a short queue at security and then a short walk to the gate.

Leeds Bradford used to be good. Back in the eighties/nineties you really could arrive 5 minutes before the flight and still make it.

Or arrive early and relax over breakfast or a beer in the waiting lounge. Really quite pleasant. Non-surly service too, usually a very presentable young lady.

[TimberWolf]

How about this instead then:


Round the world in just six hours... on the Tube? Vacuum tubes could be used for super-fast public transport | Mail Online
Evacuated Tube Transport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies : et3 Network : Space Travel on Earth™

Sadly it will probably remain a pipe dream for some time to come.

[Diver]

How about this instead then:


Sadly it will probably remain a pipe dream for some time to come.

Very witty