What is the british sea like ???

Shallow waters means two things:
getting warmer faster, BUT ALSO getting colder faster.
If the theory of a shallow sea doesn't really apply to the seas around the United Kindom, then I must guess that sunshine is not enough to warm the water up and/or lack of sunshine makes the shallow waters getting colder quickly. It's a matter of "heat-balance" incoming/outcoming...

I have no reasons not to trust your Uncle. Jersey is the southermost british point, after all. Isn't it ?

And not forget to accompany it with bread. Lot of bread !
Depending how bitter the salad is, you must eat bread with salad and not salad with bread... :-) hehehehe

That's what I was thinking of. In Sicily there are some rock pools where the water is so warm to feels like you are swimming in urine (pardon my rude language)

That's true: in the Mediterranean sea we have not significant tides. I've always wondered why. Who knows ???? It is also true that the warmer the seas are, the more sharks are (see Australia, Florida and all the tropical seas...). Sharks love warm waters.

Really ? How many degrees ?

Did you see me dunking ? It looks like you did... :-) hehehehehe

 

Eventually I tested what swimming in northern seas feels like.
I recently visited the Isle of "Westerland", North Frisia, Schleswig Holstein, Germany.
Westerland is the northernmost part of Germany.
It borders to Denmark.
It lies at a latitude of 55 degrees north.
The same latitude as Newcastle.
Actually Westerland is not a proper island since a strip of land join it to the mainland.
Cars have to get on special trains to reach Westerland.
These trains stop at the railway-station of "Sylt-Westerland".
When I was in Sylt, I walk from the railway-station to the beach facing the north-sea.
Just ten minutes walking through a straight pedestrian area bordered by lots of shops, souvenirs shops, venues, pubs and stuff like that.
The atmosphere is one of "seaside-resort".
The air temperature was at +18 C.
Once I reached the beach, I tested what swimming in northern seas feels like.
Yes because Sylt is namely by the North Sea.
I would expect a worse feeling.
I mean:
I must admit that was a bit shocking to dip in the sea water.
But - actually - not that much...
I think - probably - that's a matter of temperature gap between outside the sea water and inside the sea water.
So I find more shocking when I dip in the Mediterranean sea water when the sunshine temperature can be at +40 C and the sea temperature is at +23 C (a 17 temperature degrees gap) than when I dip in the North Sea at Sylt where the air temperature was at +18 C and the sea temperature was around +16 or +17 C.
Just a very small temperature gap between outside the sea and inside the sea.
When the wind was blowing, the feeling was that outside the temparure was colder than inside the water. That's due to the chill effect due to the wind.
So the sea was like a sort of blanket/cover.
After that, I rent a bycicle and I ride for 10 miles, from the Railway Station Square of Sylt to List (the northern-most german city).
Looking at all those thatched country houses that I encountered on my bycicle-path, I could not avoid to think about the same thatched country houses that are in Britain.
After all, history teaches us that hundreds years ago, people from Schlewiswig-Holstein and Friesland crossed the North Sea, settled in Britain and gave origin to the English language.
They were the "Angles" ("Angeln" in german language), the "Jutes" and the "Saxons".
The "Angles" came from "Angeln" (the north-eastern part of Schleswig-Holstein) and settled in "East Anglia" (Norfolk and Suffolk).
I suspect that the word "England" come from the name of these people.
I'm not sure. Is that true ?
The "Jutes" came from Jutland (the peninsular danish region), north Schleswig-Holstein and north Friesland.
They settled in Kent, London Thames' Surrey side, Surrey, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The Saxons came from north Saxony and south Schleswig-Holstein.
They settled in Essex, London, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire.
I suspect that the words "Essex" and "Sussex" come from "Saxon".
I am not sure. Is that true ?
During my way back to my hotel in Hamburg, I crosses Schleswig-Holstein by train.
I looked out of the window and I found that the countryside, the wildlife and the environment of Schleswig-Holstein are a little bit similiar to those of Southern Britain.
Maybe the Jutes, Saxons and Angles found an "ideal environment" when they settled in southern Britain.
Also in the Architecture of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg I found some things similiar to Britain.
I mean, expecially in Hamburg, all those buildings in dark red bricks like the georgian architecture style.
I find that Hamburg is the most "british" city of Germany.
Whatsmore Hamburg, as London, is crossed by a river that has an estuary, after some twenty miles into the North Sea.

Here I post some pictures.
Some of them show some very nice lawns.

Hamburg. Das Rathaus (The City Council)



Hamburg: A red-brick "Georgian style-alike" building



Hamburg: "London-alike" park (by the "Aussenalster" lake)



Beach in "Sylt" (pronounce "S" like in "as", "Y" like "Ü" in "München"). Sylt is in the northernmost part of Germany on the North Sea. Here I swam !
Here many people gather to practice surf and wind-surf.



A beautiful "carpet-lawn" in front of the Sylt "Rathaus" (City Council).



The grass-lawn of my dreams:



After 10 miles by bycicle from Sylt, I have reached the northernmost city of Germany: List
The Board reads: "Herzlich Willkommen in List in Deutschland ganz oben". I translate: "Welcome (with heart) in List in upper (northernmost) Germany". "Oben" means "Above". "Ganz" means "Very", "Fully".



Thatchec country houses near the way from List to Sylt



Sylt-Westerland Lighthouse




I hope you enjoyed !
Bye !

 

There aren't that many thatched houses in Britain these days. Most of them burned down at one point or another. There are still a few kicking about that haven't burned down yet, but with highly flammable roofs it seems only a matter of time.

Yes, 'England' is believed to be derived from 'land of the Angles'.

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That is one of the main reasons we've been invaded so many times. The irony is that most of the invaders wouldn't have even known we were here if it hadn't been for that fact that Britain has a seafaring heritage dating back at least 6000 years, and our ancestors went abroad to trade, thus advertising that Britain existed. Britain has been invaded many times because our climate is perfect for farming, we rarely get prolongued droughts, heat waves, floods etc, and we don't usually freeze to death in winter because the sea acts like a big storage heater, and the gulf stream carries warm water right down the west coast. Early invaders also came for our beer and women, which were, are, and always will be the finest in the world

 

Ziggy Italians refering to Vinegar it is BALSAMIC VINEGAR a tottaly different thing to MALT or Brewed Vinegar in the UK Delicious
Balsamic Vinegar, Olive Oil, salt and pepper

Jack McH

 

I've got a bottle of that Jack

 

Remember when Readybrek advertised that it could 'make your children glow'?. Not the Nine O'Clock news ran a gag with the punchline: 'If you want your children to glow in the dark ... move to Windscale.'

 

Who knows which were the FIRST INHABITANTS EVER of Britain ?
In Historical ages, I suppose that some CELTS PEOPLE were the NATIVE PEOPLE of Britain.
Anyway we are talking about those Celts whose origins ARE NOT in Britain.
Actually their origins are supposed to be in central Europe. Probably along the Rhine river.
Still, those Celts settled also into many others parts of Europe including north Italy and even as far east as in Ukraine.
That's the history of many countries in Europe.
Countries whose people are the result of a "merging" of people whose origins were - for all of them - basicly - in mainland-central-continental Europe.
That's the case also for Italy, whose ancestors (the Latins) are supposed to be some Italic people whose origins were not in Italy but in central-eastern Europe along the river Danube.
Then they crossed the eastern italian alps and they settled in peninsular Italy.
The history of european people and probably the history of the whole mankind is the history of people who joined and separated-from each other over the ages.
That's - on my opinion - the intriguing thing about HISTORY .
We - as mankind - are "migratory animals".
Our history is also the history of our "migrations".
For sure, those lands that are lands of "IMMIGRATION" (not to be confused with the word "EMIgration") are lands whose living conditions proved to be some favourable ones.
Both, for example, for the presence of a river or a lake or a "natural harbour", and due to a fovourable climate as it is - for example - the case of Britain.
I can testify that as a personal experience when I lived in London: my nose never froze during winter and my forehead never sweat during summer.

As far as "BEER" is concerned, I've always had a doubt:
which is the "HOMELAND" of Beer ?
ENGLAND or GERMANY ?
IRELAND or DANMARK ?
I know: everyone will say: "WE are the beer's Homeland".
English will say "England".
Irish will say "Ireland".
Danish will say "Danmark".
Germans will say "Germany" adding to that the fact that the "Beer Festival" takes place in Munich during the "Oktoberfest".
Who knows who's right ? :D

Yes, BALSAMIC VINEGAR but also WINE VINEGAR or APPLE VINEGAR.
It is depending on the peorsonal own taste of evryone of us... :WINK1:
I use Lemon-juice because I don't like the VINEGAR'S smell...

 

Its hard to say who was here first, seeing as the evidence of settlement here dating back to well over 6000 years ago.

One thing is certain, it was not, contrary to popular belief, the Celts. The Celts colonised the British isles later, having came from south east Europe, around what we now call Greece. As we are talking prehistory, there is no definite way to say whether the Celts invaded or just came here and integrated. Some archealogical evidence of the early Celts suggests they were war mongering barbarians, but more recent theories suggest they were largely peaceful people and their weapons were more to do with their spiritual beliefs rather than for war. We have no way of know the truth. The evidence pre-dates written records by several thousand years.

I would guess we are all right. It is believed that 'beer' was figured out by many peoples over time, independently of each other. Beer was originally nothing like beer we have today, and was 'invented' as a means of sanitising germ ridden water. Adding hops and barley and yeast and allowing it to ferment meant that the alcohol that formed killed off some of the pathogens that would otherwise cause nasty diseases and bad bellies. How ironic that it was invented to stop us poisoning ourselves and yet so many people deliberately poison themselves on it by drinking too much of it

Beer in Britain is different to beer whose origins lie on the mainland of Europe. It is purely down to the yeast that was traditionally used, with a different strain being prominent in Britain to what was usually found in Europe. To a lesser extent differences in the barley and hops used had an effect too. Later, as beer evolved into something closer to what we know now, different brewing techniques between Britain and Europe resulted in very different beer, with Britain producing the lovely dark full flavoured ale and bitter, with Europe producing the much lighter flavourless larger that is prominent in Europe.

Important note: When I said that Britain produces the finest beer and women, I say this tongue in cheek. We do produce fine things here, but fine things are produced all over the world