As we wrap up our England shoot and head for Italy, here are a few more observations.
Dial 1-800-DEFIBRILLATOR. Today’s England is not your grandmother’s England. Traditional red phone booths are rare, and many of those that survive have found new roles…like defibrillator stations. (My crew — producer Simon Griffith and cameraman Peter Rummel — are so excited to be working in England that I’m thinking it would be smart to know where the nearest one of these is at all times.)
We bookended our England shoot filming big events for our upcoming hour-long European Festivals special. We started in Scotland, with the Highland games. I was careful not to break anything as I failed to lift the “Smiddy Stone.” From England, we headed to Siena to film the Palio…and the world’s wildest horse race should be quite a spectacle for our public television viewers. Stay tuned.
Mmmm… English breakfast food porn. This (or some variation on this plate of cardiac arrest) was my breakfast each day for 18 days: fried egg on greasy fried bread, fried tomato, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, and often a big scoop of baked beans. (Maybe this explains the need for public defibrillators.) By the time I left England, I was ready for a lighter prima colazione in Italy — and that’s where I’m posting from next.
This is Day 89 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, Siena, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.
Oh my! You know what frightens me most about the prospect of travel in Europe? No, not terrorism. Breakfasts like these! Is it thought terribly rude to ask for something a little less life threatening?
If you tour with Rick in England, you get breakfast every day because you’re out the door early, and you don’t have to eat that stuff.
Some of London’s old red phone booths are even used as mini-libraries now that everyone has cell phones/mobiles.
With all that grease, is it any wonder why the Brits call breakfast a “fry up.”
We’ve been to England, Scotland and/or Wales five times in the last eight years and I have never eaten the full fry-up.. We stay at B&Bs and have always had a wide range of choices that include a variety of cereals, fruit, yogurt, breads, muffins and even cheese. One lovely place in Wells offered the most extensive breakfast buffet we have ever seen. We would have had to pay a slight bit extra for a cooked breakfast but no one did as we were all thrilled with the homemade breads and jams along with everything else you could imagine. When I have had a cooked breakfast, it is usually fresh and light, rarely greasy. And we’ve always been able to select what we want. It is far more rude to leave food on your plate. We don’t stay at particularly expensive places either: most are small home-based B&Bs. So don’t worry. You should be able to get what you want to eat.
This is a real man’s breakfast. Those ladies that commented can have their gluten free breakfast. I’m all over a “Fry Up” Yummie.
I am British and a fry up like this is a very occasional treat! Just once or twice a year. I am travelling with my husband in the USA at the moment and have to say that your meals (including breakfast) are HUGE! We can never finish a meal here. One of your sandwiches feeds both of us. For dinner we just have one course and always have to leave some. One dessert here would feed a family.
I love to read your reports especially the ones from Portugal. We have a place in Salema, our American friends love visiting the village made famous by Rick Steves!
You guys look like you’re having so much fun! And yes, we’ve also had as much fun on our trip to Scotland and Wales. The food, I have to agree, is really awesome. The breakfast spread at this one place we stayed in – and it was a teeny, tiny cottage BnB – was HUGE! And oh so tasty! Fry-ups have my – and even my kid’s – unanimous vote! Thanks!
My husband wanted to take my photo in one of those red phone booths. The odor of urine was so strong I posed outside the phone booth instead.
I’m also British, but an ex-pat now living in New England.
If your fried bread was greasy, Rick, it means that whoever was doing your breakfast didn’t cook it properly! SMOKING hot oil, and only a few seconds a side. It should CRUNCH when you wat it.
And yes, for most people, cooked breakfasts aren’t an everyday thing, although there are always the exceptions whose arteries appear to be self-cleaning and can get away with anything.
I have to say that American breakfasts, at least in my local diner, aren’t any better. Streaky bacon (in British parlance, i.e. very little meat, mostly fat), cheap fatty sausages and your fried bread is replaced by fried potato! I echo Gillian’s comments about portion size in the USA, bad news for those of us with an ingrained habit of clearing the plate!
I’d go for a full fry anytime, although it would be especially tasty after a night of pub crawling! I can’t wait for the new festivals special!!
Not sure what the last comment regarding a terrorist bombing in Turkey has to do with this post. Is Rick supposed to say something about the world’s daily terrorist acts? Maybe just the all-too-frequent urge to criticize, that social media unfortunately fosters.
Absolutely right! Rick Steves only says something
about terrorism that impacts his tour itineraries, bookings,
and cancellations by nervous tourists who need his
simplistic reassurances.
The photo of this ‘fry up English Breakfast’ does not do the genre justice. My experience has come with orange marmalade, a lovely broiled tomato with herbs and grated parmesan, crispy toast served on a rack to promote cooling, beans (traditional partner with toast), ‘best bacon’ (cured sliced pork tenderloin), fruit juice, coffee or tea. I found breakfasts in a decent B&B or hotel to be tasty, healthy and digestible–if hearty. Of course, we ‘Ricknics are expected to be able to do a good bit of walking before dinner, so it is wise to ‘carb up.’