Things you rather like about this country

[Andy in Germany]

Quite a lot of people in this place don't bother to lock their doors. In other countries, the citizens feel the need to have assault rifles for "Home Defence" that fire 800 rounds a minute. What exactly do they expect is going to come over the garden fence?

The person next door who has a gun that can fire 750 rounds a minute...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Folk saying thank you to bus drivers.

I mean they are clearly paid to drive the buses, and are going that whatever way anyway, but many folk of all sorts of backgrounds, very often, me included, often say thank you when getting on and off.

(maybe this happens abroad as well - maybe some of our foreign correspondents can educate us)

Depends where you are I think: In Stuttgart it's less common. Here in the Breisgau region it is normal. The humour is similar to the UK as well.

 

[raleighnut]

I miss the England I grew up in

 

[Gunk]

I miss the England I grew up in

But in 30 years time these will be the good old days.

 

[Blue Hills]

When route finding as a (p)leisure cyclist, I find the wealth of choice in our near inexhaustible network of quiet back roads and lanes an absolute joy.

+1 I often think this. Some places I've cycled abroad have a real lack of route choices. It can be either a thundering road or nothing or a rocky track and that's your lot. I suppose we have to thank our long history, pretty compact isle and lots of folk tinkering with the countryside for work - agricultural and industrial.

 

[Blue Hills]

A rather random list, not in any order after the first entry:



My parents


York


Drystone walls


Peak district


The coast


Seaside resorts


Bike shops with cafes.


Sharing humour with random strangers


Brooks saddles


Beautiful and functional Victorian industrial engineering


Tweed rides


Pacers


Fish and Chips


Mountains, especially in Wales and Scotland


Hadrians wall


Narrow gauge railways


Smallish canals


Cathedrals


Country lanes


Wensleydale


Wensleydale cheese


Really remote places


Islands


Low tech solutions to things


Traction engines


Red post boxes


Marmite


Treacle


The Pennines


The lake district


Lots of art and theatre everywhere


Community responses to difficulty


The readiness of people and charities to jump into situations


Fishing boats


Life boats


West Highland Terriers


Eccentric ideas like mazes made of corn, penny farthing races or “Best dress Brompton rider” competitions.


Villages


Humour even in “professional” situations like train announcements.


People’s response to perceived injustice.


Second hand bookshops that don’t mind you browsing.


Being surrounded by little bits of history wherever you are


An ancient and diverse history of different people groups


Diverse and compact landscapes that change suddenly.


Small craft based businesses


Craft fairs


Forestry commission forests


National parks.


Model shops that sell interesting and obscure model making bits, and second hand models.


Model railway exhibitions


Landscapes that look “right” in the rain.


Openness to villages like Lammas and similar ideas.


Puffins

cripes - feeling homesick andy?

Linked to a few of your points above, though I doubtless found them damn odd or even sad when younger, I have a bit of a thing for those village fairs on greens you sometimes come across by chance in the warmer months where you quite often get one of those displays of perfectly polished small detached steam engines (no vehicle) sat on the ground chuntering away. Going nowhere/doing nothing. Keeps their proud owners occupied through the winter months I suppose.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Scotland’s landscapes
Scotland’s wildlife
Scotland’s access rights
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

 

[raleighnut]

But in 30 years time these will be the good old days.

Thank gawd I won't be around to see that

 

[Blue Hills]

Thank gawd I won't be around to see that

I was trying to cheer folk up with this thread raleighnut

 

[raleighnut]

I was trying to cheer folk up with this thread raleighnut

Aye yeah, ain't much to be happy about though

View: https://youtu.be/Y51iCw4R9tc

 

[Ian H]

The locals are mostly friendly, and I speak the language.

 

[Andy in Germany]

cripes - feeling homesick andy?

Linked to a few of your points above, though I doubtless found them damn odd or even sad when younger, I have a bit of a thing for those village fairs on greens you sometimes come across by chance in the warmer months where you quite often get one of those displays of perfectly polished small detached steam engines (no vehicle) sat on the ground chuntering away. Going nowhere/doing nothing. Keeps their proud owners occupied through the winter months I suppose.

Not especially; some of those things exist here, but the British "versions" are different.

As you said above, it's easy to get all negative about the UK and forget the things I do like about it, so it seemed like a good opportunity to sit down and work out what some of them are.

I never really understood the stationary steam engine thing either though.

 

[Andy in Germany]

But in 30 years time these will be the good old days.

Reminds me of the old "School days are the happiest days of your life" guff, which always sounded like an invitation to suicide.

I'd always reply "You mean it doesn't get any better than this?"

Happily, it did...

 

[Blue Hills]

I never really understood the stationary steam engine thing either though.

me neither really - that's what's so good about it - seems pointless

 

[Andy in Germany]

I miss the England I grew up in

You may have hit the reason I like it in the Freiburg region, as it's a lot like an idealised England: small villages with strong communities, a relaxed atmosphere, things close on Sundays so it's nice and quiet, and people have a sense of humour.

As an added bonus it's a fairly tolerant and open place to be as well, and you can go to France for free. If only they could have Marmite and steam engines it'd be perfect.