Grinder backpacking Europe

I am taking my first trip to Europe this week and I have to say I am quite excited! I have been to Asia three times but I've never been to Europe. I have planned multiple trips to Europe before but for one reason or another it always fell through. A couple of months ago a friend told me about a great flight deal that was happening on a site called gotogate.com. I was able to book a round trip flight to London from Winnipeg for $368 USD, I couldn't say no to that.

Over the last couple of months I played around with a couple of different itineraries but settled on this one because of how badly I want to visit Italy. The other option would have been doing all of the UK, Amsterdam and Belgium but I chose this instead. I arrive in London on September 6 where I will spend 5 days before hopping on a train to Liverpool home of my favourite band in the world! I will spend 2 days soaking up everything Beatles before I fly direct to Naples, Italy. My itinerary for Italy from there is 3 days in Naples with a day trip to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, 4 days in Rome (Vatican), 3 days in Florence (Pisa) and 2 days in Venice. After Italy I will fly to Nice for 4 days where I plan on making day trips to Cannes, Monte Carlo, Menton and San Remo. Finally I will fly back to London for two more days before heading back to Canada.

This is very much a holiday and my plan is to focus on enjoying all of these countries. However I will definitely be visiting casinos and I will try and play a bit of poker in London and possibly Nice if it is available. My plan is to visit 31 casinos, the majority of those are in London and Liverpool.

I will be staying in hostels as I did in Asia but these are quite a bit more expensive but still not too bad. I am averaging $23 USD a night for the trip. I am open to comments and suggestions but I am not big into museums so maybe don't suggest too many of those :P

Looking forward to read the TR.

Have fun and post some legit Italian food pics please.

PG, you are visiting a place that isn't known for its tranny boys, whatever will you do?

Travelling alone or with someone?

Pricey, but my favorite pictures I have (both framed) are of me with my two fiancees on a gondola on the Grand Canal in Venice. First one with then fiancee first wife in 1981, second one with now fiancee 2016.

Go see the David even if you are not a Museum guy.

Quote: AxelWolf

PG, you are visiting a place that isn't known for its tranny boys, whatever will you do?

Dont worry, he is going to the Vatican so I think he has that covered.

Quote: SOOPOO

Travelling alone or with someone?

Pricey, but my favorite pictures I have (both framed) are of me with my two fiancees on a gondola on the Grand Canal in Venice. First one with then fiancee first wife in 1981, second one with now fiancee 2016.

Go see the David even if you are not a Museum guy.

I have not seen the David in Italy, but I have seen, for an aggregate of many hours, the exact copy from them in Sioux Falls SD.

SOOPOO is right. It's worth its own visit, with enough time to let it soak in, not just a glance. The other worth lengthy contemplation is his Pieta, which is in St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican.

In London, the Tube stops running for several hours around midnight, but there's still a lot going on in the Picadilly Circus/Trafalgar Square part of downtown at that hour. It's about the only area that still cranks late that I've seen.

I do like the museums, pub food, West End theaters, and neighborhood markets, so I would probably be spending my time differently than you will. It'll be interesting to see where you go and what you do, given the huge number of options you have.

I would not have guessed Liverpool would offer enough to make it worth a 2 day trip, but I've never looked at it as a destination. Feel free to post detailed info about what you find there.

In Naples if you have time, take a boat around to the various grottos and islands in the vicinity. Awesome nature and some really cool places to swim.

I tell everyone going to London to visit the Tower of London and see the crown jewels. When else will you get a chance to see the world’s largest cut diamond?

Have a great time! I am looking forward to following your adventures.

Max I will definitely rub the amazing Italian food in all of your faces :P

Axel it is amazing how everything always comes back to trannies and Miatas with you... just saying.

Soopoo I'm travelling alone on this trip. I do plan on taking a gondola ride and seeing the David.

Babs I do plan on visiting a few places that you would in London just not 17 museums and 34 churches lol. As far as Liverpool I just want time to do everything Beatles related and still have a few hours to visit the casinos.

UnJon I will actually look into that right after I send this post.

Aye it is on my list!

I would scrap Naples and go straight to the Amalfi Coast (via tour of Pompeii). You won’t regret it. I stayed in Positano in April and would definitely recommend

I slept for under a hour last night before my 5 am flight to Toronto today. I’m currently waiting to board the flight to Halifax, I can’t say I’ve ever been there before. I have a bit of a long layover in Halifax so maybe I’ll grab some sleep.

Double post. I have to say I didn’t know that Canada had four time zones before today.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Double post. I have to say I didn’t know that Canada had four time zones before today.

I thought Canada had 6. Actually, I thought it only had 5 -- the same 4 as the continental US, plus Atalntic Time Zone for the Maritimes -- but the Interwebs say Newfoundland has its own. =)

Hope you have a great trip, PG! I'm looking forward to all the pictures that will make me jealous!

A while back I caught part of a travel show on PBS where the host went to an old school restaurant in Italy that specialized in regional beef. The waiter would bring out a big tray of raw cuts for diners to choose, then they would prepare them to order in the back. What made it memorable was the size of the cuts. They were “flip your car over Fred Flintstone” sized, and intended for sharing, so I think it would be just right for you PG. I’ll look for a link to the video.

Edit: Found a snippet. The region is called Chianina.

Quote: Joeman

I thought Canada had 6. Actually, I thought it only had 5 -- the same 4 as the continental US, plus Atalntic Time Zone for the Maritimes -- but the Interwebs say Newfoundland has its own. =)

Hope you have a great trip, PG! I'm looking forward to all the pictures that will make me jealous!

I’m going to blame that one on the lack of sleep. I didn’t know there was more than eastern, central, mountain and pacific time in Canada.

Quote: Ayecarumba

A while back I caught part of a travel show on PBS where the host went to an old school restaurant in Italy that specialized in regional beef. The waiter would bring out a big tray of raw cuts for diners to choose, then they would prepare them to order in the back. What made it memorable was the size of the cuts. They were “flip your car over Fred Flintstone” sized, and intended for sharing, so I think it would be just right for you PG. I’ll look for a link to the video.

Edit: Found a snippet. The region is called Chianina.

Looks very yummy!

You have time to kill in Halifax and you're not going downtown? When else are you gonna grab that Casino Nova Scotia chip?!?

Newfoundland time is a :30 offset. Insert Newfie joke here.

Quote: rdw4potus

You have time to kill in Halifax and you're not going downtown? When else are you gonna grab that Casino Nova Scotia chip?!?

Newfoundland time is a :30 offset. Insert Newfie joke here.

I haven’t slept in 30 hours, the car will be $50 or who knows how much for two long taxis. I could take a bus for 70 minutes each way lol or I could just hit it when I eventually make my way out here. I’m planning on being in Boston for a couple months next year when the Wynn/Encore opens so I was planning on doing a maratimes trip then.

The Red Sox are getting hammered so I’m going to find a quiet corner to sleep in for 4-5 hours. Gnite lol

Oh btw RDW what do you think I did first when I got off the plane in Halifax? I checked how far the casino was from here.

Quote: rdw4potus

Insert Newfie joke here.

Canadian journalist wandered around Vancouver, BC asking visiting American tourists to sign a petition on behalf of the Canadian Moose who ate parking meters in Vancouver and would be helicoptered to Newfoundland but would always wander back within a few days and resume eating parking meters.

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland are a world unto themselves.

Good luck with your tour of Europe.

If the massage booth is still open (the proprietor is retiring), I highly recommend it. There's not a lot of quiet space in YHZ since it's just one big open hallway. maybe at the far north end (face the windows and turn left).

I think it's a flat rate to downtown from the airport. Something like $40 each way. I've always just rented a car - it's a cheap market and there's an Irving station on-site so refilling is laughably easy. You could probably hop the Delta Hotel shuttle and then take the indoor walkway from the hotel to the casino downtown, too. Might have to pay cabfare to get back from downtown to the airport in that scenario...

I like how you won't find a way to go 20 miles today, so the obvious solution is just drive from Boston later:-)

Well I would also do PEI and New Brunswick with the two Nova Scotia casinos.

Well I slept on the floor of the airport for 90 minutes or so, I felt like I was 70 years old when I got off the floor. I’m too old to sleep on floors lol. I went and got a booster juice to try and put something healthy in my body and now I have to kill another 3.5 hours until takeoff. I love layovers! 🤣

Ok, so you slept... But did you also see the end of the game? Holy rally!!

I did lol! I was watching it on my phone just before I fell asleep. What an ending to the game. Resting 5 starters, fall down 7-1, tie it up just to go down again in the bottom half and then Brandon Phillips who has been the minors all year hits the game winning 2-run homer lol. Can’t write it better than that.

I’m in London, dead tired. I got to my hostel without any problem, now I must sleep for a bit. Plan for today is probably sleep and then casino hopping since I won’t have much energy today.

Quote: speedycrap

Looking forward to read the TR.

same

Quote: rdw4potus

You have time to kill in Halifax and you're not going downtown? When else are you gonna grab that Casino Nova Scotia chip?!?

Newfoundland time is a :30 offset. Insert Newfie joke here.

im going to nova scotia next week on cruise ship.
didn't know they have a casino there.
if its easy to get to the casino from port, i'll get a chip

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m too old to sleep on floors lol.

Were you the only person having a layover? Why didn't you ask the airline to schedule a young German girl on the same flight?

I think it's about 10 minutes walk.

Quote: 100xOdds

im going to nova scotia next week on cruise ship.
didn't know they have a casino there.
if its easy to get to the casino from port, i'll get a chip

I think it's about 10 minutes walk.

Quote: 100xOdds

im going to nova scotia next week on cruise ship.
didn't know they have a casino there.
if its easy to get to the casino from port, i'll get a chip

Where is your cruise port? In the Casino Chip of the Day thread, I have posted chips from two installations of Casino Nova Scotia, one in Halifax and one in Sydney.

I'm late to this thread but I live in London (full-time AP) and if you want to meet up on your way back out to grab a quick coffee and chat about casinos then drop me a PM!

Quote: Tree

I'm late to this thread but I live in London (full-time AP) and if you want to meet up on your way back out to grab a quick coffee and chat about casinos then drop me a PM!

I will be back in London the 30th and I leave on the 2nd so we could do that if our schedules work.

Ok! London!

I arrived in London around 11 am on Thursday morning completely exhausted. After I picked up my bag, I bought a SIM card (pretty terrible service), an Oyster card and loaded it up. I headed to the tube so I could get to Soho where I was staying. I stopped at a food stand and grabbed the big breakfast as I was starving. It was a spiral sausage (yes like a poop emoji), 2 pieces of bacon and a hash brown in a soft bun, I was very happy with this.

I rode the tube for about 35 minutes and then walked the 5 minutes to my hostel which was easy with Google Maps even if the service is slow. I checked in and slept for the next 5 hours.

I didn't have much energy when I woke up so I walked around checking out the area and collecting casino chips. I started with Grosvenor Rialto where I would win for the first and only time on the day. I won £20, I had to play roulette to get a £1 chip. Next up was Horizons where they smacked me around pretty good for £100 but they gave me a £5 FP chip for liking them on Facebook so that is like breaking even. I then played poker for about a hour at Casino at the Empire, I lost £135 and then I left cause the game was crap. I was on the waitlist for 2/5 but the list hadn't moved since I walked in. Interestingly enough this casino is a Caesars Total Rewards casino, I didn't know they owned it. I found a few Hippodrome chips in the £1 stacks which is odd. Leicester Square Casino doesn't exist unless it is invisible. I asked and they said Horizons and Empire were the only ones in Leicester Square. The Leicester website on Google goes to the Hippodrome site, figure that one out?!? Next up was Hippodrome and I lost playing war which was the only thing with a spot open, it's hard to win that game when you get 5 high for that many hands in a row. Next up was Genting Chinatown where I played for about 8 minutes and left down £50 again. I visited Grosvenor Russell Square and St Giles but they both use the same chips as Rialto sadly. I did find out at Genting that I would be able to get into a couple of their private clubs as they are less private than the super privates like Crockfords. I called it a night and went to sleep.
I got rained on.


The next day I walked for 11 miles around London, exploring and seeing what I could find. I walked to Hyde Park and explored that general area and then I ended up in Kensington Garden and purposely skipped going into the palace.
Fish and chips for lunch, the fish had bones for some reason.

I also ended up at a street with a whole bunch of food tents set up later on, I settled on the Cuban sandwich.

I stopped at Palm Beach and Colony Club which are semi private but not really as they let me in without a membership. I broke even at Palm Beach and lost £100 at Colony. At Palm Beach I had to play £2 roulette to get chips. I broke even at Park tower, I kept a £5 chip because the ones were too faded to even see anything on them. Cromwell Mint took me for £100 and Grosvenor The Gloucester did the same. They had different Grosvenor chips so I kept one. This is the point where I walked through the gardens I believe, it was quite peaceful and the weather was great.

The Golden Horseshoe had the same Grosvenor chips so I couldn't get anything from there. I then played poker at the Vic while I charged my phone in their charge box, I paid £2 because I was at 3% and no idea how to walk the 50 minutes back to my hostel. I lost £500 playing poker in the hour after I got it in with the nuts and the guy makes a boat on the river. Oh well I don't like money on this trip lol. My next stop was The Sportsman which is also a Total Rewards property, who new? I lost £60 playing BJ and walked out with my head down lol. My last stop of the day was another Grosvenor casino but I knew they had chips but they weren't what I thought... They didn't have the £1 or £5 that are on MoGH so I kept a £25 chip like a baller who was down a ton of money and said f**k it. They were using the generic Grosvenor chips for the smaller denominations for some reason.

I was totally beat from the travel and all the exploring I did so my plan was to take it easy and sleep decently early. I grabbed food at this Turkish chain where they sell Simits which are Turkish bagels. I had one with huge chunks of feta and tomato which was great, I also had the chocolate one which wasn't.

I also got oreo cheesecake

I also had a headache so I thought that was the plan until this cute American-Vietnamese girl in my dorm convinced me to go to a EDM club with her, truthfully she didn't have to try too hard. Btw I will answer Romes question now, no I didn't, I struck out. A 19 kid from the dorm joined us and we went out around midnight. The line wasn't terrible and we were in in less than 45 minutes. The cover charge of £25 was bit steep but the night was fun. We grabbed drinks, checked out the different floors before joining the mosh pit like dance floor. By the time we left my head was pounding from the strobe lights and the loud music. We took the tube to Chinatown and grabbed a late night snack. I had the seafood noodles which were very good. It was a fun night and I'm glad that I went even if it meant the next day would be a rest day.




I got to sleep around 5:30 am with a splitting headache, I took Tylenol a few times through the night and woke up around. It took me a while to drag myself out of bed but I managed to do it. I went and found steak and ale pie, I want to try as many local dishes as possible. It was served with peas and mash, everything was good but the gravy was too salty for my liking.

I didn't do a whole lot the rest of the day, I went to bed a bit earlier but still too late.

I woke up and headed out around noon. My head still hurt a bit but it wasn't pounding anymore. I stopped at fancy café for breakfast and has the English breakfast. It is a weird combo of foods but everything was very tasty.

After breakfast I walked along Westminster where they were having some sort of bike thing going on. It wasn't a race because they stopped the bikers every so often to let people cross the street. I walked through Green Park I think, not totally sure. I ended up at Buckingham Palace where I spent some time taking pictures and just taking in the area. I was more amused by all the funny pictures the tourists were taking.

Btw the phone booths are everywhere!

Then today I decided to take the mandatory tourist picture in the phone booth.

After Buckingham I headed to Big Ben which I was excited about as I love clock towers. I got there and found out that it is under construction until 2021 so this is all I got to see.

After Big Ben or the lack thereof I took the tube to the last casino I hadn't visited in London which is Aspers. I played poker and won $55 over a very swingy 6 hour session. The reason that I went to the casino was mostly because I wanted to watch the NFL kickoff and I figured that was my best option. Around 9 I took the tube back to Soho (it's pretty easy to use) and watched Netflix in bed for too long. I was then woken up at 9 am by two girls having the loudest conversation which woke me. I glared at them but they didn't seem to care which is why I am very tired right now. That is my excuse if this rambling post makes no sense.

Today I got roped into going for breakfast with this woman in my dorm because she was chatty and I was too nice apparently. She wanted to talk about travelling in Asia and I had to get breakfast anyways. I had poached eggs with smoked salmon on toast with hollandaise sauce on top. The whole creation was too rich for my liking but it did the job of filling me up. We talked about random things for a hour (I couldn't understand half of what she said between her New Zealand accent and the noise level in the café. I did a lot of nodding and laughing which worked.


After breakfast I took the tube to St Paul's Cathedral, it's nice but I really didn't care to go, especially for 18 quid. (I'm British now :P)

I then walked to the Borough Market where I ate everything! I bought so much food and I sampled a lot more. I started with fresh lemonade and calamari.

I then sampled some cheeses and dried meats eventually buying some really nice chilli dried sausage? I don't think they call it sausage but I am blanking.

Next up was the bread and I made a terrible mistake. I like sourdough so I bought a mini loaf of sourdough with grains and seeds in it (truthfully there was more of those than bread) which tastes awful so I gave the rest away. Then I sampled almonds and bought cayenne garlic almonds that were odd but tasty. I sampled some more cheese, some more meat and finally a brownie, I bought the brownie.

I left the market before I bought anything more and headed to the Tower of London. I crossed the London Bridge and took some pictures of the Shard building, including this one of me using it as a hat.

Next up was the Tower of London which I would call a castle but hey I am just a silly tourist. I then took the mandatory selfies with the Tower bridge which is nicer than the London bridge.

At this point I found the tube and headed back to Soho. I ate my market purchases and packed for my train tomorrow morning to Liverpool. Beatlestown here I come!

I didn't keep great notes so some of this might be jumbled or said twice. I plan on keeping notes like I did for Asia for here on out because this is too hard to do completely from memory.

So many casinos? Any craps? NL hold them??

Just spotted this thread so it's a bit late to offer advice on London casinos. I haven't been to Liverpool for a while but it has a few small-medium casinos. I assume if you've been to Grosvenor and Genting then you have a list of theirs.
^ The UK doesn't have many Craps tables - the Hippodrome and Victoria come to mind and there may be a few others I've not seen. Outside London they are few and far between, there used to some in Manchester but most have now closed.

There are 4 casinos in Liverpool that I’ll be visiting. Technically one is not in Liverpool, it’s just on the other side of the water. I didn’t notice craps anywhere except for the Vic.

Btw all poker that I play is no limit Holdem.

PG, there are a couple of things I want to comment on regarding your very nice post. First, in case you didn't notice, you made two typos that kept two photos from appearing in the post. One was the use of a { instead of a [, which blocked your photo of the rainy street scene. The other was a case of a few repeated characters that blocked the image of your steak and ale pie. If it is too late for you to make those edits, you might ask a friendly admin for some help.

Second, I found something rather weird in your first photo from the EDM club, the one with the red light backdrop. Maybe it's just something associated with my monitor, but if I view that photo from an angle looking downward at it, your face is (dimly) evident in front of the crowd. However, if I look at the photo at an upward angle, it's as if your face completely disappears into darkness. I have no idea how that works, and I just noticed it because of the angle change while scrolling through the post.

Doc I made those fixes thank you. I was half asleep while I was writing this.

I’m not sure if that colour problem is your monitor but I don’t notice that at all on my iPhone. I wrote this on a desktop and I didn’t notice an issue on imgur when I was posting it on there.

Quote: 100xOdds

im going to nova scotia next week on cruise ship.
didn't know they have a casino there.
if its easy to get to the casino from port, i'll get a chip

If you go to Sydney, the casino is pretty far from the port. If you go to Halifax, it's just up the boardwalk. There are some crazy-good restaurants in Halifax if you happen to be there at mealtime.

PG, I was so impressed in your previous travels with the apparent weight loss. Seeing the food you are eating this trip I am thinking you may be putting it back on.

Great trip report. Thank you and keep it up.

I’ve walked 40 miles over the last 5 days, I’m not too worried about what I’ve been eating lol. Btw it’s not getting any better when I get to Italy, we both know what the food there will be like.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m not sure if that colour problem is your monitor but I don’t notice that at all on my iPhone.

I didn't mean to describe it as a problem, more an interesting feature. I'm reading on my phone now and can't see what I was trying to report. On my computer, it's a bit like a 3-D effect, as if the view were through a set of blinds so that at some angles (upwards) the face image is blocked, while at other angles it may be seen. I guess it might be like looking through a set of polarized filters, where the angle affects what is seen.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’ve walked 40 miles over the last 5 days, I’m not too worried about what I’ve been eating lol. Btw it’s not getting any better when I get to Italy, we both know what the food there will be like.

Looking forward to the food in Italy. I would plan on fasting while in England.

Did you see the Crown Jewels?
There are suits of armor on display in the Tower of London. What I remember the most was how short people were back then. Henry VIII’s looked like it was made for today’s husky 6th grader.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I also had a headache so I thought that was the plan until this cute American-Vietnamese girl in my dorm convinced me to go to a EDM club with her, truthfully she didn't have to try too hard. Btw I will answer Romes question now, no I didn't, I struck out.

This is disappointing. Did the 19 yo kid that went with you run interception or something? It would have been hilarious if you hooked up with a Vietnamese girl in Europe after spending so much time in Asia.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Did you see the Crown Jewels?
There are suits of armor on display in the Tower of London. What I remember the most was how short people were back then. Henry VIII’s looked like it was made for today’s husky 6th grader.

Henry VIII was about 6'2". It used to be a "thing" for armorers to build scaled-down demos to take around on sales calls, and for rich knights to have a smaller version of their suits to decorate the home, though it's also true the average person now is taller than back then, by a lot. So not sure which of those pertained to what you saw, if any, but Henry was a huge guy for his times.

Irrespective of actual size and weight one thing that has not changed with better nutrition and iodine intake is the weight of their swords thus despite any smaller stature they sure had massive upper body strength.

Note: If going back to the Manchester area be sure to stroll around Salford, an area in Greater Manchester. It is the town in the song Dirty Old Town.

I'll have Chef Michelina prepare something Italian for me tomorrow in honor of your impending arrival in Italy.