Don’t play cards with a guy named Mac, cos whatever happens buddy, you lose.
Oh, wrong lessons.
Don’t plan to start a bike ride from a given tube or rail station without checking first whether it has elevators (lifts) to get across the platforms to the exits (the way out). At Amersham we had to unload the bikes, carry up the gear and the bikes, walk them over to the other end of the bridge and do it all over again.
East Midland Railways is easier to deal with than Cross Country (and their routes cost more if you buy at the station) and the bike racks on the East Midland trains are a little easier to negotiate than the latter.
The British Cycle Network has A LOT of unpaved, narrow paths and follows a lot of canals, which have kissing gates or similar style gates through which it is very hard to negotiate one’s bike. We are very hopeful that most of the EuroVelo routes are better. It turns out that these gates are designed to keep horses (and their riders) off certain routes, but they are an absolute bitch for loaded bikes.
Scotch in pubs is cheaper than in the US. Angie’s cousin Philip says it’s because there aren’t duties here. But it does vary from pub to pub.
Maybe the most important lesson so far, even more important than avoiding train stations that don’t have lifts (elevators), is that it is crucial to have a really good breakfast before riding, or else you may be in a calorie deficit all day.