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[email protected] · December 29th 11, 09:05 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article
,
(Peter T. Daniels) wrote:

In 1992 I bought some pound notes in Northern Ireland, because I would
be staying a few days in London after my speaking engagement in
Dublin. I was surprised to read on them that they were specifically
Northern Ireland currency, even though the were issued by the Bank of
England and legal tender throughout the United Kingdom (they said.)
The clerk ("shop assistant") in the British Museum bookstore had to
call the manager before she would believe it was real money. I managed
to find a bank branch and exchange them for "real money" later that
day, so that I could spend far too much at Blackwell's in Oxford on
Saturday. (I went up to Cambridge on Sunday; I think the stores
("shops") were closed, except for a touristy establishment where the
clerk thought it odd that I wanted to buy a postcard with the arms of
all the colleges, like the one I had gotten in ("at"?) Oxford. Perhaps
the Cambridge colleges don't get along as well as the Oxford colleges?

Northern Ireland notes, like Scottish ones, are issued by local banks, not
by the Bank of England so they are not legal tender. Only Bank of England
notes have that status anywhere in the UK. You'd find Sunday very different
here these days. it's the second busiest shopping day of the week now,
despite the shorter opening hours, mainly 11-5 here.

(I also liked the fusty old Ashmolean better than the newly modernized
Fitzwilliam, but the Ashmolean has now been renovated as well so it
probably resembles every other museum in the world.)

There is still plenty of traditional museum at the Fitzwilliam!

Organ scholars practicing ("practising") in every Oxford college
chapel, vs. Evensong at King's College ... hmm ... (I missed the
"opening hours" of the Bodleian on Saturday, because I took a bus that
got caught in traffic, so on Sunday I took the train to Cambridge --
but that meant I had to sit in the narthex of St. John's College
Chapel for _their_ evensong because I'd have to leave in the middle to
catch the last(?) train down(?) to London.

The last train would have been _up_ to London. Trains normally run up to
London and down from London in this country, though there are exceptions.

--
Colin Rosenstiel