LeVeL's UK trip 2019

Hijacking this thread for a quick question to FG Brits.

I'm spending a day in Birmingham in June. Well, closer to 6 hours. My plan is to take the train from the airport to City Centre and go to a pub for a bit for some drinks before going back to the airport. Don't want to exchange cash to GBP for such a short stay, how widely accepted is plastic for purchases as small as a few pints. Went to a few bars in various smaller European towns last year and most were apprehensive to take cards, but what about a major city?

Also if there are any UK FGers around Birmingham not at work at 2pm on June 17th (a Monday), drinks?

In that case you may find this link particularly handy.....
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/10-traditional-pubs-within-five-14227887
 
Last edited:
Sweet! I still run into bars here that refuse to take cards. Have yet to see a bar take contactless.

Interesting comment regarding Amex. On my last 2 Eurotrips I didn't have a problem with that - it was either all cards including Amex or no cards at all (which was nice since my Amex is my primary travel card).

If it's a big chain it'll take Amex but don't rely upon it with smaller joints. But yeah, contactless is standard across the board here now. Works well.
 
+1 for contactless (Google Pay).

From a tourist's perspective, Blind and I were in the UK last year, and we stepped off the airplane and just used our phones to pay for everything from pints (there were so many) and public transpo (since we were visiting London, we created our TFL accounts weeks before the trip). It was sooo convenient - contactless is just starting to catch on here in the US, but we really appreciated the convenience. We did end up hitting the ATM for some cash when we were getting street food, but I was surprised - even the small towns in the countryside accepted contactless easily.

This kind of thing amazes me with some countries. We're too busy with other stuff to modernize things that would really help improve things. Now if we could just get Aldi to update their paying system... :)

Anyways, sorry for off topic-ness!
 
same here!
i don't trust the security of all those NFC payments possibilities included in phones and even the new credit cards
i've disabled them all! if i want to pay, i'll slide my card! (and most importantly, enter my pin!!!! - no payment should ever be authorised without a pin!)
 
same here!
i don't trust the security of all those NFC payments possibilities included in phones and even the new credit cards
i've disabled them all! if i want to pay, i'll slide my card! (and most importantly, enter my pin!!!! - no payment should ever be authorised without a pin!)
I don't know how Android does it, but Apple Pay does require authentication from the user, either PIN, fingerprint or facial recognition depending on your settings.
 
I really couldn't care any less about contactless... On a scale from zero to a billion for how much I care, contactless doesn't even get a one.

Fair point! (Though it's so fucking convenient!) But, agreed - there are so many other things to care about.

I forgot to make a note - I would not advise taking the Caledonian Sleeper train from London to Edinburgh/Glasgow/Inverness etc. Totally not worth it for a shitty old train. They're apparently getting new trains soon, but if they're still running the old trains, I'd look at alternate routes.

Also, we did enjoy these good spots to drink and pub crawls in London:
Drunken History Pub Edition: Lamb & Flag> Queens Larder > Ship Tavern > The Seven Stars > The Calthorpe Arms
East End Moody Drinking: The Ten Bells> Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town > Discount Suit Company
Soho Speakeasies (make reservations): The Vault > Milk & Honey

Honorable mention in Glasgow: The Pot Still (for whiskies and pie)
 
Fair point! (Though it's so fucking convenient!) But, agreed - there are so many other things to care about.

I forgot to make a note - I would not advise taking the Caledonian Sleeper train from London to Edinburgh/Glasgow/Inverness etc. Totally not worth it for a shitty old train. They're apparently getting new trains soon, but if they're still running the old trains, I'd look at alternate routes.

Also, we did enjoy these good spots to drink and pub crawls in London:
Drunken History Pub Edition: Lamb & Flag> Queens Larder > Ship Tavern > The Seven Stars > The Calthorpe Arms
East End Moody Drinking: The Ten Bells> Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town > Discount Suit Company
Soho Speakeasies (make reservations): The Vault > Milk & Honey

Honorable mention in Glasgow: The Pot Still (for whiskies and pie)

http://newtrains.sleeper.scot/

I'd be down for one of those 'club rooms'. They're meant to start running late May.
 
I find all these new Silicon Valley based industry disruptors interesting, but many of them are very half assed in their implementations and lack the support capabilities of the establishments. Had a moldy house rented via AirBnB, their reply was essentially “well that sucks.” Currently having issues with tax forms with one of the new-age investment apps I use, and their reply is “nah, its cool” when it clearly isn’t. Not that disruption is bad, but I just wish it was more thought out.

Welp....


https://twitter.com/search?q=robinhood&src=typeahead_click&f=live
https://status.robinhood.com/

Though that said, its not like the institutions aren't without their issues
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ustomers-saw-online-delays-as-markets-swooned


But here we are 4 hours after markets opened and I can't make any of the moves I wanted to today.
 
Top