>>415204

> How much of this fair land of ours have you lads actually visited?

Not that much of it lad, and there's a good reason for that; for about the price of a wet weekend in Warwick I can spend a fortnight in the Algarve getting pissed on 1 Euro pints of San Miguel.

A fair bit. Mostly cities.
Is that real? That looks suspiciously like it was made in terragen.

When I moved to Yorkshire I'd never been anywhere other than cities, so I was pretty floored when I took a walk up Ilkley moor. After that I've made a conscious effort to see more of this stuff, mostly in the north, with my car and a roof tent.

Any of the national parks will blow you away if you've never really thought about them before. It really feels like another country if you're a city dweller like myself. I had never considered it possible to feel isolated on this crowded island. Yorkshire Dales are great, Snowdonia and that part of Wales, and like you say, most of Scotland is breathtaking - I highly recommend doing the North Coast 500.

If you have a car, these places are a few hours away at most. If not, they're still pretty close.

>>415210

The OP picture? It's the Glennfinnan viaduct, which definitely exists cos I've been there. Probably the image is just HDR'd and edited to fuck

A fair bit. Most of it except further south than London, really.

Most of it's shit; it really depends what you're into though. There's some really nice forestry in North Yorkshire, for example.

If you like driving, mid/north Wales has some great, completely empty, NSL twisties through dramatic hills.

If you like getting into a fight outside a takeaway at 3am, my glorious hometown of Wakefield is the right place for you.

Some of the far northern Scottish beaches can look almost tropical at the right time of year; if you go in June it's almost 24hr daylight too.

Manchester has some decent cultural landmarks, and is a decent night out.

Do you know what blew my mind? West / North Wales. It feels like hardly anyone talks about Wales, but damn, it was breathtaking. Even the towns - places like Conwy seem like ye olde Britain in the most charming way.

I've never been to Northern Ireland, for what it's worth. But I'm sure it's lovely.

Absolutely loads.

>>415217
Part of me wants to go to Belfast, since I've heard it's come in massively in recent years, but at the same time the political climate has deteriorated and I don't really fancy getting shot or blown up.

>>415220

And Brexit isn't going to make it better, with the EU border now effectively running right through the island.

>>415221>>415220

Indeed. The situation and attitudes have steadily improved over the years (a decade ago you still had rockets fired at police stations, hand grenade bank robberies, and plenty of people being killed because of their surnames) and the impossible requirements for a brexit border will undoubtedly all of that very quickly.

It's baked into the Good Friday agreement that there's free trade and passage between the north and the republic, so even the subtlest border gate will quickly find itself stuffed to the brim with Semtex by the 'disbanded' para groups who are just waiting for a chance to play freedom fighter again. Even if you believe that won't happen (it will) it's undeniable that the political outrage will be massive and unrelenting. Nobody wants a physical or even political restriction on that border, not even the staunchest republican actually wants a big feckin wall between him and the north.

>>415222

I think a lot of the peace process of the last 25 years was directly facilitated by the fact that both the UK and Ireland began seeing each other as fellow EU members who were now united for a greater goal.

Now with Northern Ireland being non-EU and Ireland still firmly in the EU with a strong desire to stay that way, it sort of has the potential of propagating a new sentiment of "us" versus "them". The common thread of EU membership is missing now, if you know what I mean.

>>415223
Blame the DUP. Their insistence on being every bit as British as the rest of the union is more or less what's derailing everything. May managed to get agreement on the border, and then they undermined it by going on national telly and saying it was unacceptable to treat NI as a special case.

All of which is a real shame, because you can get a SailRail from more or less anywhere on the network to Belfast for around £60.

>>415224

I've frequently not even bothered to take my passport on flights to Belfast, and have crossed the border loads of times. I genuinely don't see it ever being more difficult than that, and it's going to be a huge problem soon enough.

I've visited more places abroad than places in Britain. I'd love to see the Scottish highlands.

>>415222

>Nobody wants a physical or even political restriction on that border, not even the staunchest republican actually wants a big feckin wall between him and the north

It's still going to be difficult having a fortified border as EU law requires it on the EU's outer boundaries, and making it just permeable enough that Irish citizens can cross it freely into the UK and vice versa.

This will probably not necessarily affect your cross-border commute every day if you live in Ireland and work in the UK or the other way round. But the whole countermilitant daft woggery and illegal mmigration what-have-you will make it difficult to keep truly open borders similar to the way they are now.

>>415228

There are only three options that are compatible with EU law:

1) a hard NI/RoI border
2) a hard border across the Irish Sea
3) the UK remaining in the single market

Option one would break the Good Friday Agreement. Option two would be vetoed by the DWP. Option three means that we can't negotiate our own trade deals. The EU negotiating team have made it very clear that no other options are on the table.

The Northern Ireland trilemma has rendered any possible Brexit scenario a political disaster. The entire fate of the Brexit negotiations rest on Sinn Fein and the DUP finding a mutually acceptable option. As far as I can see, we're totally buggered.

>>415230
Jimmy Saville has started campaigning for a second referendum. We're not going to leave the EU.

>>415231

>>415237

You can't help wondering if the majority of the public would still vote leave a second time if the question was put to them again. Now that we know what a complete unmitigated clusterfuck a decision like this can end up being.

Let's not forget that this started out as a power play by are pigfriend Cameron. It was a strategic career move that unexpectedly blew up in his face resoundingly.

>>415254
I voted Leave and I'd still vote Leave if there was a second referendum.

Anyway, let's not shit up this thread by talking about Brexit when we have /pol/ for that. The best part of the country to visit is probably North Wales, provided you miss out Bangor and Holyhead.

>>415231
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/Jimmy-Saville-backtracks-on-call-for-second-referendum-and-calls-it-fake-news-a3751816.html

?

>>415254
Unfortunately, after seeing some research done by YouGov, I think the result would be similar https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/11/02/year-remainers-warnings-havent-made-leave-voters-a/

>>415256
Yeah, I don't know what >>415254 is talking about, I thought it has always been widely reported that polling has been virtually identical since the referendum - the country split down the middle.

By now I think we'd get a Remain result by virtue of the old racists dying off.

>>415255

I voted remain because I knew that we would find ourselves in a clusterfuck if Britain left the EU. Then again, I was never as staunchly "remain" as some people that I know. My remain vote was more a reluctant one, you know, the lesser of two evils and what-have-you.

But before this thread really gets shat up by another remain or leave cunt off, let's get back to OP's original topic.

Four of my coworkers want to go to Cornwall for a four-day weekend in spring and have asked me if I want to come along. Among other things, that time will be spent fishing, beer drinking without their wives, and hopefully enjoying the spring sun. They will be staying in some sort of converted fishing cottage right above the beach and they've got room for one more person. It sounds very tempting, as I've never really been to Cornwall except as a weelad with my parents when I was about two or three years old.

>>415204

http://www.secretnuclearbunker.com/

If it can be guaranteed that the housing prices will crash like george osborne promissed I'd vote leave in an instant otherwise I'll vote remain.

I realise my motives are as absurd as burning your floorboards to heat your house, but it seems like the government isn't ever going to solve the housing shortage in the south east so here we are.

>>415260
Osborne didn't say there'd be a house price crash; he said that the rate of growth in house prices would reduce if we left but they'd still be going up. Either way, it was a massive own goal and ended up increasing support for leaving.

>>415258
Do it. Why the fuck not. Suggest north Wales next year, cheap as fuck and all.

Because of this thread I've just gotten back from North Northumberland, and it was lovely compared to my shithole city. Cheers lads.

>>415294
Was it camping in Kielder or a caravan on the coast?

Neither, I ended up in Berwick. With a student ticket and the patience of a saint, you can end up on the Scottish border for £3.20 and 2 and a half hours of your life spent

I'm a huge fan of seeing tiny Northumbrian villages though, there's something very Catherine Cookson that breeds a pride in a time that never truly existed about the whole experience.

>>415298
Berwick's funny to an outsider, well me at least, you over hear people talking in the street, one will clearly sound Geordie while the other is clearly Scots but you never hear something in between.

>>415299

I know a lass from Berwick and you can basically hear whichever accent you're listening for, like observing an electron.

>>415204

The country is fantastic in regards to getting outdoors and scenery. Celebrating this is called racist by leftists, who prefer inner city stabbings and graffiti wank to Glencoe.

>>415506

Are you mental or just indoctrinated?

>>415516

Neither. I left Izlam a long time ago.

>>415506

>The country is fantastic in regards to getting outdoors and scenery. Celebrating this is called racist by leftists

I can't say I've ever found the letist who even suggested this. Honestly this shit leaves me scratching my head. Is this some sort of bad attempt to maniplate the conversation?

>>415518
“They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman 
and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box. All through the critical years many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British. It is questionable how much effect this had, but it certainly had some. If the English people suffered for several years a real weakening of morale, so that the Fascist nations judged that they 
were ‘decadent’ and that it was safe to plunge into war, the intellectual sabotage from the Left was partly responsible. Both the New Statesmen and the News Chronicle cried out against the Munich settlement, but even they had done something to make it possible. Ten years of systematic Blimp-baiting affected even the Blimps themselves and made it harder than it had been before to get intelligent young men to enter the armed forces. Given the stagnation of the Empire, the military middle class must have decayed in any case, but the spread of a shallow Leftism hastened the process.”

- George Orwell, “England Your England”, 1941

>>415519

And how, if at all does that quote apply to "outdoors and scenery" and leftists calling that racist?

Or is this a demonstration that you are making a bad attempt to maniplate the conversation?

>>415519

A shocking indictment of modern society, if by 'modern' you mean 'nearly 80 years ago', of course.

>>415518

>>415521
Those who ignore history are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

The Guardian is living proof that the mentality of the shallow leftist from Orwell's time still exists today.

>>415521

A lot of Orwell's stuff holds up very well today. The guy was remarkably prescient, and not just in that "hurr we live in 1984 for real!" way.

Although that is true as well.

>>415524

>Although that is true as well.

Not quite.

>>415523>>415524

Sure, he still knows how to make a cup of tea, and I won't deny there's a certain element of self-loathing involved in being a hand-wringing left-winger, but again, nobody in human existence has ever said it was racist to like the Lake District, until this thread, anyway.

>>415529
>nobody in human existence has ever said it was racist to like the Lake District, until this thread, anyway.

I've certainly read articles from Londoners stating they feel uncomfortable venturing into the countryside because of how white the demographics are there, with them insinuating it's a bad thing compared with modern and diverse London.

Then again, my other half's mum lives in Hull and when she comes to visit the town we live in now she can't seem to get over the fact that the school our kids go to is about 95% white British; her other daughter lives in a shithole council estate and the school her sprogs go to is approximately one-third chav, one-third eastern European and one-third eskimo.

>>415545
>her other daughter lives in a shithole council estate and the school her sprogs go to is approximately one-third chav, one-third eastern European and one-third eskimo.

That's pretty British compared to most in the country.

It took me a trip to Middlesbrough to realise how nice the rest of this country looks, thankfully I was only passing through.
It was a overcast day and I have fond memories of being in an Asda carpark looking at the smoke/fumes of a steel mill which was next to it, driving out of the city to find the "city" surrounded at all sides by one sprawling mess of pipe lines and what looked like oil refineries.
I remember the transporter bridge looking glum on the grey sky, it's blue paint work covered in grime and dirt but still blue.
Never again I promised myself, never again would I visit this hellhole.

>>415548
Take a visit to Immingham or Holyhead. Now they are proper shitholes.

>>415548
What about the Cleveland Hill, Captain Cook's monument, The Institute of Modern Arts with all its Picassos, Yarn village, the transporter bridge...

Ok, it's not as nice Hartlepool, but I tell you Middlesbrough is a darn fine place to live.

>>415570

>but I tell you Middlesbrough is a darn fine place to live.

Admittedly I've only stayed in Boro three times but the first time out travelodge was locked down because of nearby gunfire, the second time the van we were sleeping in was broken into, though they ran off when they noticed there was people in it, and the third time a drunk bloke with a baseball bat climbed into the back garden of the house we were in, and started screaming about his ex-missus that he presumably thought lived there.

The bridge is very inspiring, though.

>>415204
The Peak District - everything between Manchester and Sheffield - it is wonderful.

Just spent a weekend in Cumbria after not expecting a great deal and was blown away. I had no idea places like Ullswater and the Borrowdale valley actually existed outside of Wainwright paperbacks. It's easy to see how quaint glen-nestled villages like Grasmere inspired some of our nation's most outstanding literary laureates.

Cheap pints too.

I'm off to Glasgow in a few weeks, using it as a jumping off point for the central belt and the Trossachs. Any tips for not getting killed?

>>415590
City centre Glasgow has as many bearded alt-folk musicians, community jugglers and vegan cafes as Brighton and does not feel very dangerous at all, although people do like a drink there and the chavvier West Side is a bit lively on a weekend. Don't go into a flat-roof pub in a far-flung suburb and shout something about sectarian football is the only tip.

>>415590
I went a few years back and was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting roaming gangs of heroin-addicts and drunkards, abandoned boarded-up shops and brutalist tower blocks, but it all seemed very clean and civilized.

>>415590

The city centre is all craft beer and big food places. There will be a few steaming cunts and loads of tramps and rough sleepers.

West end is where all the hoi polloi tend to go. It's nice if you've got the cash. The kelvingrove and botanical gardens are really worth a visit.

The east end is really friendly these days barring a couple of areas. I'd avoid the gallowgate and Bridgeton all together but stay on Duke Street, but don't go any further than the Alexandra bar, lest you wind up in bigot land.

The north of Glasgow is a bit of a wasteland in places and really posh in others. The only place I can recommended (and it is barely north) is the Glue Factory in possil park. It gets used as an art gallery now and then, some interesting pieces on show.

The south is the new student hub, and also home to a lot of Glasgow's Asian community. Some properly nice food can be found there, and a lot of pubs too. OK for a visit but its still largely residential.

Glasgow is good for live music too, there is always something on in one of the venues. Start with Nice N Sleazy then adjust for taste on any given weekday.

Hope that gives you an overview.

If you're going the rest of the central belt, don't bother unless its Edinburgh or Stirling on a good day. Don't go to Falkirk.

I'm going to East Anglia for the weekend. One of my former coworkers bought an old country cottage there that he has now finished converting, and he is throwing a housewarming party.

I've never really spent much time in East Anglia, so it should be fun.

What's the closest 'proper' forest to London? I was considering Epping but it looks more like a glorified park.

>>415658
>What's the closest 'proper' forest to London?

You'll have to ask a true scotsman.

>>415658
New Forest, Thetford.

>>415658
Virginia?

>>415658
>>415662

The New Forest won't be good if you've heard the four minute warning.

Today I have been to Pontefract.

The first thing that struck me was the smell; due to the nearby Haribo factory the air was thick with the smell of sweets. The influence of Haribo on the town was clear from the majority of the Christmas lights in the centre being in the shape of gummy rings, cherries and fried eggs.

The town itself should be nice. It has a castle. It has a racecourse. It's a historic market town with nice wide streets and pretty buildings. However, the majority of the buildings are occupied by pound shops or other peddlers of cheap tat. It was also noticeable how the quality of the architecture declined drastically as soon as you were outside of the historic streets; concrete monstrosities. Other than the odd butcher I can't recall seeing much in the way of independent businesses.

The air was thick with the smell of sweets, but it couldn't mask the despondency that permeated everything. Pontefract strikes me as the kind of place where anyone with anything resembling ambition moves away from as soon as they are able to. It's hardly surprising that shoppers don't want to go there, what with the retail park and Xscape being a few minutes away on the other side of the motor junction and Leeds a little farther along, but it's a crying shame that a town centre like that is wasted and decaying.

>>423432

It's just one of those commuter towns with a couple of council estates. It feels grim because it's the sort of place where you live, and maybe have a local pub in, but you work in Leeds and more often go out in Leeds (or Wakey if you're on a budget). The only people stuck in the town itself are doleys, teenage delinquents and pensioners. There are places like that up and down this country.

Sor of related, I know a lass from York who works in Leeds, and is moving to Castleford. She says it seems nice and she never goes out in York anyway. She's in for a shock and it's going to be funny as fuck.

>>423432

You should go to M&Ms world in Leicester square. That place is bizarre. I went the other day and the stench is unbelievable: the smell of m&ms is so strong it almost gives you an instant headache.

What an odd thing. Leicester square itself is a bit of a mystery, but four floors devoted to one brand of chocolate? I'd forgive it were it something like 'Dairy Milk World' or 'Jaffa Cake Land'. I think, rather wonderfully, Leicester square demonstrates the clear crapness of our nation.

>>423432
If you think it's bad now, the Haribo factory USED to be the massive building near the Morrison's. Imagine the smell then.

I always though the new factory looks far too dystopic to be a sweet factory.

>>423434
Agreed, you never forget the smell of M&Ms World.

Even the concept of the place is utterly baffling. There are like five floors, maybe more. It's one in one of the biggest tourist spots in the country.

And it's filled, wall to wall, with merchandise of M&Ms.

And inexplicably, after ten years, it's still there.

It makes as much sense as a Twix theme park.

>>423433
>I know a lass from York who works in Leeds, and is moving to Castleford. She says it seems nice and she never goes out in York anyway. She's in for a shock and it's going to be funny as fuck.

Oh, she's in for an absolute treat. It's a toss up between Cas and Dewsbury for the worst commuter town for working in Leeds.

I feel like going camping in 'proper' Scotland this summer. Where are the best places to stay/visit? I'd be going with my kids so it'd be a mix of taking in scenery, visiting historic sites and whatever else there is for a decent day out.

>>427021

The thing that Scotland wants you to do is tour the North Coast 500 - a route that takes you around the entire country and is meant to provide you with the best scenery and landmarks. As you can legally wild camp in Scotland too, that's what I would do. I'm half planning it myself this summer.

https://www.northcoast500.com/explore-the-route/

>>427023

I'm not sold on the idea to tour Scotland.

For most of that trip, you will probably have to brave shit weather and people from the shallow end of the UK's gene pool.

>>427033

Then you're one of those mongs that think everyone in Scotland is a Glaswegian* and the whole place is just heroin and chips and you'll never really know what true happiness or awe or beauty is until you open yourself up to the possibility that the world might not be exactly as you imagine it, and that going to see it for yourself might actually be a pleasant experience.

*and doesn't realise that Glasgow is not even that bad

>>427023
The NC500 is just the very top of Scotland, from Inverness to John O'Groats, along the north coast, then down past Ullapool and then back round to Inverness. Ullapool is the most beautiful coastal town in the UK, imho.

>>427033
Oh to be such a naive flower again that the weather and people would top your list of annoyances. I bet with the weather we had this year it is going to be absolutely apocalyptic with midges come summer.

>>427036

>and the whole place is just heroin and chips

And deep fried Mars bars. Let's not forget the deep fried Mars bars.

>>427040
Barely anywhere still does this, much to my chagrin as I've always been too much of a coward to try it. Apparently there is a science to it, with only certain types of chocolate confectionery being suitable.

>>427041

I wonder what whoever invented deep fried Mars bars was thinking the moment they first put a chocolate bar in a deep fryer.

But you hear of stranger things. Like deep fried insects. Did that come about because some cooklad couldn't be arsed to give the tub a proper clean and then found a few roaches twirling around in the bubbling hot oil, and thought to himself, wonder what those taste like?

>>427042

Apparently it was invented by a 15-year-old boy as a prank, which seems like an oddly reasonable explanation.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/deep-fried-mars-bar-creators-6140625

>>427044

Still seems more like a backsplanation than anything else

>>427042

As a chef I can almost guarantee it was just someone bored on a quiet day, looking at their fryer and thinking "I wonder what we can put in here". I'm quite sure the deep fried chocolate bar was invented a thousand times over before someone finally decided to try and sell it.

>>427047
This. I've deep fried a lot of things due to boredom and just having the means to do so. Deep fried Twinkies are disgusting but in a surprisingly good way.

>>427049
Deep fried garlic gave me a stomach ache the next day.

>>427049>>427050
Proving beyond doubt that the deep fat frier is by far the most dangerous kitchen appliance.

Any of you lads got any suggestions for a weekend somewhere reasonably isolated and beautiful that you don't need a car to get to?
Been feeling the need to just go sit by myself in a forest or by the sea or up a fucking hill or something and just chill for a weekend.

Based in London so ideally somewhere not a million miles away, but also ideally somewhere with as few other people as possible. Happy to rent airbnbs/b&bs etc. Think I just need to get the fuck oot the city for a few days. Think the main thing is it needs to be accessible by some sort of public transport.

>>427706
If you can make it a long weekend it's nice to take the mega bus or a train to the southeast coast or Scotland, depending on your budget and patience.

>>427706
Purbeck. Direct train from London, plenty remote, and your pick of thatched cottage Airbnbs by the coast.

>>427706
I have almost the same exact question except I'm open to travelling to places by car/motorbike.

>>427708
The bits of Scotland served by good public transport links probably aren't going to fulfill his wish of having as few other people as people, at least that was my experience when I was in the highlands last November. I can't imagine how overcrowded it gets in the warmer months.

>>427706
https://www.surreyhills.org/

>>427706

Maybe the Peak District via Sheffield? There are adequate bus links from Sheffield city centre to most of the national park area.

>>415204
I went to Rendlesham forest about a month ago, it was lovely (no aliens, unfortunately). Gonna hopefully be going up to Thetford forest, soon.

When was the last time you watched the sunrise, lads?

>>429054
Last Friday. I couldn't sleep.

>>429054

It seems funny to me that people associate sunrise with wholesomeness and beauty. To me, they're synonymous with night shifts in shit jobs and horrendous comedowns from cheap speed. I could quite happily never see another sunrise in my life.

>>429054 See it most mornings, as I sleep with the windows open and it wakes me up. I shamble to the window, say good morning to the world, and shut the fucking relentless dawn chorus and light out. Sets me up for the day.
I do like sunrises, though, they're quite nice out here. About the only time they piss me off is when I've worked through the night to hit a deadline, and sunrise is a hint that I'm not going to make it.

I'm off to Cornwall in a few weeks. Where do you lads recommend visiting? I booked it last year so I'm hoping it's not rammed with people now staying in this country thanks to coronavirus, particularly as kids should be back in school by then.

>>438631
Bude Tunnel.

>>438631
Neither are in Cornwall, stricly speaking, but they are on your map - Dartmoor is a wonderful national park, and the village of Salcombe is better than most seaside places in Cornwall.

Drive to Lands End if you want to see how desperate a tourist trap something can be - awful place.

Tintagel has a nice castle, and the Eden Project is genuinely good.

>>438631
Truro is quite quaint, Mousehole is quite nice to stay and walk along the coast. Stay clear of cockles in pubs. Don't even try them unless you know what you're getting into.

>>438631
>I booked it last year so I'm hoping it's not rammed with people now staying in this country thanks to coronavirus

Unfortunately that seems to be the case, I've recently moved out of Cornwall but have friends dotted around there and apparently some of the beaches are an absolute state but it's probably seaside towns hit the worst, although there's a load of campers around too. I'd honestly just recommend exploring around the countryside, there's some bloody beautiful walks around, Bodmin Moor's just across from Dartmoor for instance. Prepare for it to be a bit chaotic, depending where you're going to.

Devon and Cornwall are rammed with holidaymakers at the minute, even with the shitty weather for the past week. The normally 2 hour drive from Bristol down to Jct 31 of the M5 was over 3 and a half hours on Friday. Thankfully I wasn't driving north because of an accident causing a 6 mile tailback.

Saying that it does depend on what you want out of where you're going. Tintagel, Looe and Mousehole are quaint seasidey places, with plenty of coastal paths which can make for a pleasant ramble. Of course there's Newquay for a piss up amongst the hordes of hen and stag does.

I would personally recommend North Devon near Ilfracombe for a good mix of the 2.

>>438646
>I would personally recommend North Devon

Agreed - this is the thing about Cornwall - it's a tourist shithole where the people are fucking yokels. It's a lot like Florida in that it has beautiful scenery spoiled mostly by the locals and their pursuit of the tourist coin. Devon is next door, there is much less traffic and its the smarter holiday destination.

Looking for recommendations of places that are a nice walk, and a nice drive on the way, because I've just got a new motor. Let's say I'm setting off from Beeston.

My favourite place was probably Snowdonia, it was only let down by being rammed with posh southern tourists and all the pubs charging accordingly. I've been all over the Dales and a fair few places in the Peaks, I've never visited the Lake District and I've been meaning to go up to Scotland for years but never got around to it.

>>438734

The lakes are lovely but will also be ram packed at the minute. Lancashire is very nice, but as you're from The Other Place it's probably too close to home and also your bitter rivalry will ruin the experience.

Scotland is personally my idea of a lovely place with a lovely drive, basically the whole fucking lot of it, but the North Coast 500 route is full of the sorts of locations you describe, and the drive is, of course, spectacular.

I'm not up on how friendly Scottish people are to us dragging our viruses across the border and wandering about small towns at the moment, but if it's all okay, then that's what I'd be doing.

>>438735

My missus lived there for the best part of her childhood so she has a bit of the accent, I could get her to do all the talking to conceal our Englishness.

Any particular recommendations? More seriously, I'll leave it til next year if the Scots are still taking the 'rona a bit more seriously than we are down here, but it'd be good to know.

Would a holiday home be a decent investment? By this I mean buying on a holiday park rather than an actual house where someone could live. It's my last day in Cornwall and these are for sale where I'm staying:-

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/55478651

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/55420741

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/53504242

They're leasehold, with about 960 years left on the lease, and there will be costs like cleaning and site fees but properties similar to the one listed for £40k were being let out for over a grand per week this summer, albeit with refurbished kitchens and bathrooms. I can't imagine there's much potential for the resale value to go up but it seems like a decent investment unless I'm missing a fairly obvious catch.

>>438734
Walking in the Yorkshire Wolds in mid-Spring is an absolute joy. Disused railway tracks, chalk hills, dales and glacial valleys. A properly underrated part of the country.
Please come visit unless you're from West Yorkshire or a Southerner.

>>438777

Too flat, no trees, it's shite. I'd rather walk along the canal in Dewsbury.

Absolute Humberfag cope, jesus.

I went to Rochdale today. It is a proper shithole.

>>447987
I have wanted to buy train tickets to Northern towns around Manchester ever since Northern Rail was nationalised, and today I went to Blackpool. It's nice enough that it didn't feel interesting or different from what I'm used to, and so I wound up slightly disappointed. Also, I went on my own and it's November. Anyway, I thought to myself at one point that I have also been to Rochdale, because it's the end of the line on the Manchester Metrolink, and that felt weirder and more exotic than Blackpool did, even though I didn't even need a train to get there.

>>447989
I'd probably go edge of the Peak District way, somewhere like Glossop or Greenfield would be a decent base.

>>447989
>>448014
The station pub on the platform at Stalybridge is a thing of beauty.

Today I went to Tadcaster. It's the closest experience I've had to being in Wonkaville because the town is completely dominated by the relatively huge John Smiths factory, which looms over everything. The town centre felt like a bit of a ghost town, as there were many buildings in a state of disrepair which looked like they'd been boarded up long ago and many shop fronts had window frames made of wood which had long since gone rotten. Outskirts seemed alright though.

>>448816
Did you have a drink?

A friend of mine introduced me to a rum and coke at a Samuel Smith pub. Because they're insistent on everything, not just the beer, coming from the Old Brewery or businesses associated with it, you get a nice rum and a proper old-fashioned cola rather than Coca-Cola mix in fizzy water. It's absolutely fucking delightful, even if you wouldn't normally drink rum or coke.

>>448818
It was late morning when I went and the pubs I remember going past weren't open at that time. I did pick up Excession by Iain Banks for 10p in one of the charity shops though.

>>448816

It is a very odd place.

Me and a couple of mates got a train up there (I think? Can't quite remember) once so we could do a "tour" of all the Sam Smith's pubs. But once we got there we realised quite quickly it was a bit of a Royston Vasey situation, we went in the first pub, which was a really big and quite classy one, and it was full of pensioners politely (and fucking silently) eating lunch. Really odd vibe, like if we said the wrong thing their eyes would all light up and they'd turn to face us in unison, screeching, and descend upon us.

We didn't dare actually get drunk because we knew we'd stick out like a sore thumb, so in the end we just bought a few bottles over the counter and went home.

>>448820
I know it was a weekday morning but what stuck out to me is that, other than a dimly lit tea room full of pensioners, everything else was polared. Nobody was in the butchers, barbers, hairdressers, opticians, dentists or any of the shops I walked past. The person I was with told me that anybody with any sense locally moved to the likes of Boston Spa, leaving only the dregs in Tadcaster.

Been around various parts of Birmingham today. What a shithole. It felt like just about everything there has been purposefully designed to make you feel glum.

>>449946

I've always been quite fond of Birmingham, but I do have a soft spot for post-industrial decay, Asian supermarkets and needlessly confusing road layouts.

>>449948
It did seem like every 100 metres or so one road was merging into another, so drivers constantly cutting off other cars. The roads were by far more aggressive than anywhere else I've been in this country.

>>449949
The worst driving I've ever seen for a city was Bournemouth. Manchester's Curry Mile (Rusholme) is even worse, but that's just one long street and the rest of Manchester drives normally, so Bournemouth is still the worst for me.

>>449946
I had to live in Birmingham for a few months for work and it was the most depressing place I've ever spent more than a few days.

>>449946
I've only been to the centre, Alum Rock, and Shard End, and thought it was quite pleasant. Having said that, I grew up in Bradford, so areas full of sari shops and shitty takeaways are nostalgic for me.

>>449950

I think every MP should have to walk down curry mile before they are allowed to make any decision regarding immigration.

>>449957
Why?

>>449958

Because it's hard to be a cunt when you've got a belly full of delicious and remarkably inexpensive curry.

>>447989
I went on a second "support Northern Rail by buying a random ticket" day out today, and I chose to visit the delightful and exciting city of Preston. It's very nice, but that could have just been the weather. I did like it, but it feels very strange, like it has no personality at all. It's a perfectly wonderful small provincial city with absolutely no identity. I wanted to take a picture of myself near a famous landmark, so I went to the bus station with its acclaimed architecture. It's a good thing I did, because that's really all Preston has. All the other buildings that you'd expect to be in big squares, like Preston Town Hall and the Guildhall for example, are actually hidden away on small side streets. Stephen Hendry owns a snooker club in Preston, so I thought I could go there and just fuck around on a table if I got really stuck, but it's miles away from central Preston so in the end I just went to the park. It's an absurdly hilly park, but again, it is very nice.

The utter lack of obvious tourist attractions in Preston is making me reconsider my plans to go to famously dull places like Blackburn and Burnley. Even if they just have different accents and funny-coloured wheelie bins, that would be enough for me, but Preston couldn't even manage that. Although again, the park is nice, and has free public toilets like a true socialist paradise.

>>451335
Did you see the garish statues near the corn exchange?

>>451336
Bugger. I don't think I did. I pretty much went up and down Fishergate and a few streets near there; I saw a couple of quite boring statues (Robert Peel by the small park with a silly name, like Winky Park or something) but if they were interesting colours then I missed them.

>>451339

>>451339
I was also going to say the National Football Museum, but turns out that's moved to Manchester.

>>451343
I know the faces are ridiculous, but I don't entirely hate this. It represents workers being killed, and the workers are all memorable, distinct individuals. The killers, meanwhile, look cool but they're all the same, identical copies of each other. It's a shame the expressions are so absurd, because other than that, it's quite a good piece of art. I can certainly see what the artist was going for with it.

>>451335

That's a scarily accurate description of my lackluster hometown.

Not far from where you were, you could have taken a delightful stroll down Old Cock Yard to see the garage (or remnants of,) where they found the remains of a suspected Peter Sutcliffe victim.

>>451349
See, this is what I never liked about Preston, always so full of themselves.

>>451349
Do you pronounce Aqueduct Street as Ack-ee-dock. My Dad and Grandad did (with tounge somewhat in cheek knowing that it was wrong, but just doing it the local way).

>>451351
No, I don't think I've ever heard it pronounced like that.