Franco then, should be done in under 20 mins, oddonnos afterwards for ice cream

Franco Manca for pizza, Brindisa for tapas (bit pricier than nandos though)

Almost forgot, I don’t own anything from Cotic but they are always totally in tune with my feelings. I was gutted when the UK manufacturing didn’t work out for them. Hopefully they have ideas about how to tackle it differently.

Carbon and titanium would be good.

Hope
Vulpine, not MTB but great kit
Rapha and Soho Bikes – coffee
Singletrack – amazing photos and good and sometimes great words
Four4th, just for the way they thought about a light they could make and would be great

If you’re planning to move around you can get your hotel to arrange to send your bags to the next one. It was around £10 per bag from memory depending on size. It means you can still do sightseeing on travel days.

The Takayama train line running into the mountains in Gifu is a great view – all glass through the cab so you may as well be driving the train.

Hyperdia is actually really important. Don’t get it until just before you go as the first 30 days on the app are free.

caravan, kings cross[/url]

Stay in a temple with monks and eat their food.
Wander the streets of the old part of Kyoto at dusk.
Eat everything. Especially okonomoyaki.
Learn enough Japanese to tell people they can speak English. It really encourages them and gets you off the hook.
Find a fast food place that does gyoza and eat loads of them.
Think about beds. The mats are great but a pain when you’re jetlagged and your bed is in a cupboard so maybe something for week 2.
If you go to Miyajima(near Hiroshima) to see the floating tori allow time for the rest of the island which is far more interesting.
Use hotel time to get on wifi and take photos of maps. Data costs on phones are crippling.
Look up to how buy and use suica card to get around Tokyo and other cities.
Buy the train pass before you go. First class has beer on tap (on a trolley) served at your seat. It might be worth it to you.
If you want to go to the fishmarket seriously think about where your hotel is in relation to it and get there by 3am.

Rasa near Bond Street. Not sure if I’ve spelt it right. Massive dosa.

I’ve done it loads and it’s an easy drive.

My top tip is if you haven’t booked your hire car yet and Sixt is a reasonable price then use them and pre-send your driving licence details. Your pick up will then be sub 30 seconds whereas some of the other counters could have you waiting 45 minutes in ski season.

Near Marylebone
The Gunmakers, Aybrook St.

More central
The Clachan, Kingly St
Generally has a good selection of ale but not an amazing pub. Usually convenient meeting point for me.

The obvious
The Harp, near Charing Cross
Small and crowded but standing outside with great beer

Personally, I’d want to be a bit closer to the centre than Brentford. It will probably take about an hour to get there from Euston.

These kind of trips tend to be exhausting and extra travel adds to that.

Airbnb sounds good just so you can do your own breakfast when you want it rather than getting the family ready first.

this place, it’s more about the beer but the food is ok

Maltings

In Japan, there is a queue position marked on the platform floor. It positions you just to the side of the doors so that people can get off easily. Works really well and is cheap.

There’s a longer version on YouTube that shows a child getting taken out of the car and the police arriving. Great eastern road apparently

Doing it with a child in the car…beggars belief

Sounds like a good plan to me. Having driven rental Mustangs in the US I’d be avoiding them but I totally realise why it’s important.

If you’re intent on Route 66 try and plan some time around Sedona. It’s the best part of it imo.

IfI was doing it I’d be watching every episode of Diners, Drive ins and Dives and working out a plan based on that. The foie gras and chips place in Chicago sounds like an ideal first stop to me.

I just used booking and picked my next hotel based while staying in the last one. Price and availability is worth considering near national parks but no problem anywhere else. You don’t need to stay in ok motels when for the same money there will be a hotel with breakfast thrown in.

I’d be looking at finding a route viaMt Rushmore then Colorado.

Lastly, watch some geology programs on telly as it is so open and visible in places and you probably don’t remember if from school.

Sign up to jobsite or something similar and put in a fairly open search and get a daily email. You’ll have a pretty good feel for at least some of what’s out there within a few weeks.

Skiwelt, 1.5 hours from Munich is well worth considering. There’s 6 villages all around the bottom and you can ski between them all. Having also been to Kitzbuhel, Solden and Ziller in Austria and plenty of other places around the world this is still pretty much my favourite. Not many black runs though.

http://www.skiwelt.at

For a normal priced bottle I’d go for Louis Roederer NV.

Since there’s a lot of good advice, does anyone have any alternatives to Laurent Perrier Rosé? Something enjoyed equally by people who drink and those who are happy on a dirty bottle of Lambrusco?

Fish fingers and beans.

The tube runs to around midnight

Stay at Kings Cross. If you stay in a hotel at Heathrow you’ll have to get a bus back to the tube station. I doubt the hotels are much cheaper.

If you go by tube you’d need to allow about 1H10 just for the tube part of it

I usually check to make sure pre-added tips actually go to the waiting and kitchen staff and remove them if they don’t. You might be surprised at the sort of places that rob you like this.

I’m in favour of tipping. If it was shite why did you wait to the end when they can’t do much?

The O2 trains app is quite user friendly and fast. Much better than thetrainline.com imo.

Have you got a picture? It would probably get a result on Twitter.

Giftos in Southall is the only place my Asian colleague considers on a par with his mum.

Hopefully this is after work stuff and you’ll be sticking to kebabs for lunch?

3rd party is all I really need.

So far, British Cycling and London Cycling Campaign throw it in. I’ve no idea what else to look at but while I’m happily the mechanic for my girlfriends commuting exploits I’m not wanting to pay for a broken car.

There’s some value in what an agent can do in putting and keeping a chain together such as getting everyone to accept lower prices than expected because it means they get the house they wanted to buy if not the price they hoped to achieve on the one they’re selling. I can’t see that happening with only internet viewing and little effective communication. Then there’s looking after the chain and making sure no one messses up. Who’d want to be in the middle of 5 internet sellers? At least an agent has the incentive of getting 5 lots of commission and should work hard to keep it together.

The pictures and marketing stuff is childs play nowadays.

I’m not an agent and don’t particularly like them but I stll value some of what they provide.

I think it sounds disastrous. You should be holding out for 3 months skiing followed by 3 months on the bike.

I would at least be considering if you can do that financially and mentally and then working out your best tactics for requesting it.

Squarepusher @ Barbican now as well. Not your usual gig either.

Hix, dean street town house if you do central and have cash to burn. Or work you way along the river from Hammersmith, blue anchor, Crabtree, temperance ( bit c**p), white horse and then maybe hurlingham. Then taxi into to centre?

I would skip temperance and work the Lazy Fox in Fulham into that mix assuming Chelsea aren’t playing at home.

For an early afternoon start, I’d choose Brewdog over Defectors Weld to start off with.

Don’t forget some drunken Boris bikes for the longer sections.

Underworld @ Hammersmith
Fleetwood Mac @ 02

Considering Inspiral Carpets @ Shepherds Bush but it’s a busy time of year for me.

Try the Thames path. 8 pedestrians wide and still they won’t move over no matter how polite I am. The thread title is bang on.

Butlers or Jensens are my favourites.

For London based people head down to 214 in Bermondsey and try a gin flight with their own tonic water. Merchant House kind of between Bank and Smithfield know their stuff too.

Next best choice would be the Gin Mare from Brindisa.

The councils are enforcing the rules hence the random implementation country wide. My local council can’t be trusted to empty bins but are ahead of the game on stopping qualified chefs from doing what they’re trained to do.

My local pub implemented this rule months ago. They reckon it started in France and a few Frenchies spoken to have validated it.

Caragold gets my vote. When would it be ready?

Having a girlfriend mention how wearing a tie is worth guaranteed action usually helps. Justmakesure she knows the rules

Do you add sugar? You’d probably find you don’t need to with a good independent. Go and try some.