Blue View – Thames Path Gear List - Revisited

Blue View – Thames Path Gear List - Revisited

Now that we've completed the Thames Path, I thought I'd do a review of the gear we thought we needed versus the gear we actually used. There were more than a few things we brought that we didn't need and only a couple of things we had to hunt down and buy while there. Some weren’t too surprising, but there were a few revelations…


Read More

Blue View - The British Loo

Blue View - The British Loo

The word 'Loo', which is a bit foreign to most of us Americans, is the British slang for what we call a restroom or bathroom. The origin of the term is not known for sure, but the most plausible theory is that it is derived from the name 'Waterloo', which was the trade name for a very common cistern used in British outhouses in the early twentieth century. Go into any pub in England and ask for the loo or the toilets, and you'll be directed to the little room that has toilets and sinks.

The differences between our restrooms and their loos go far beyond just the name, however…

Read More

Blue View - British Food

Blue View - British Food

I've never had a high regard for British food. Some of my bias, I have to admit, comes from the generally bad rep it gets, and some is based on airport food I've had as I passed through London Heathrow on the way to business meetings elsewhere. I have to say, however, that either the food here has dramatically improved since our last visit, or my memory is even worse than I thought.

Read More