Things from other countries to improve ours

[babasaclover]

Every time I go to another country I take back things I think wow wish we did that in uk eg

•beer served in an ice cold glass from the freezer

•always getting water when you sit down in restaurant without asking

•in Ireland castles are free to get into in summer holidays!

what else do you wish we had here?

Universal means-tested high quality childcare.

fruit and vegetables that taste good

used to be the case in the UK as well, don’t know why we stopped!

Less helicopter parenting. Child allowed to practise independence instead of being babied up to 18 and then expected to miraculously cope with everthing.

Which country?

Bum guns.

Germany, switzerland, Denmark and many other.

They have recently introduced that to Ireland too

Open water swimming spots in cities like in Copenhagen - bliss! They are roped off areas with wooden decks and ladders, some have changing rooms and saunas too. Hugely popular and totally free. Paris have just done it as well. Nearest we have here is Hampstead ponds I suppose, and the sea.

To be fair in Copenhagen it’s actually the Baltic running through the island city, and Paris struggled with water quality. It could probably only work here with massive overhaul of our water system and big public investment £££.

Switzerland has barbecues in parks, with woodpiles and axes attached to a chain to chop the wood. Love it.

Yes, though the snag is that people tend to hold onto large numbers of bottles before taking them to one of the return machines at supermarkets, which means it’s not infrequent to end up in a queue behind several people all returning 100 plus at once, and if you’re unlucky, the machine says it’s full before you even get there!

The Australian way of building a railway line in the middle of a highway - just so simple to build them both at the same time

Axes freely available, you say? Yes, that could work here 😉

Yes, a lot of these rely on people being decent, community minded human beings, who don't fear strangers, as well as raising DC to be independent.

Eg Finland - there's a Finnish Mumsnetter who unintentionally causes outrage and horror if she mentions normal aspects of Finnish childrearing such as allowing her 7 YO to walk to school through the forest in the dark on his own. Totally normal and safe in Finland but of course dangerously neglectful parenting in the UK.

From my own experience in Denmark, I used to do a job where I'd have a few hours to kill while waiting for the flight back and sometimes I'd go to a waterpark that also had a spa area. Once I was about to go on the slides when a Danish woman started pointing at me and pushing her primary aged DD towards me. Once we'd established that I was British with zero understanding of the Danish for 'go with that lady', she asked me if her DD could go with me on the slide as she was tired and her baby needed changing. So I agreed as I didn't mind and guess what, she didn't think that this unknown foreigner was going to kidnap her DD.

In Iceland as far as I could tell, there was no litter anywhere. Hardly any police either. I googled and found there were far fewer police officers in the whole of Iceland than even one small city in the UK.

Clean bbq areas with toilets in beauty spots (Japan).

public transport that’s clean and joins up. So there’ll be a bus waiting at a stop to take you where you want to go when yo7 get off a train. Japan.

bicycle lanes that are safe and separated from traffic. most of Europe.

freshly cooked food rather than microwaved food brought in from massive factories in industrial estates and microwaved.

I'd like to say petrol stations that make you pay for fuel before you fill up. On the other hand I sneakily enjoy the inner competition of trying to cut the fuel off at the precise penny / pound.

Many of us in the UK eat freshly cooked food every day. It's not uncommon.

I hate when I arrive early for my train but it's sitting there locked. Doors are only opened a few minutes before departure and the last to arrive push on first.
On holiday in Switzerland recently it was a joy to find the train waiting and open ages before departure.

I should have clarified, in restaurants and pubs.

Let me blow your mind further. Iceland has no army at all (only NATO member not to have an standing army), and there’s no mechanism in the constitution for declaring war.

(Seriously, though, the low crime etc is down to a tiny population (its entire population is about that of Stoke on Trent!) and a high level of equality, high standard of living, high levels of education etc).

Shops open later in some parts of europe. Rather than retailers moaning nobody visits their shops… try being open outside of office hours!

Bike lanes that are respected.

I'm in France. The way when you walk in somewhere that everyone says hello and goodbye to everyone else, in doctors' surgeries, cafes, everywhere.

When you're driving through our village, there's always an acknowledgement from other drivers, even if you don't know them.

Stopping for lunch, not working crazy hours, spending time off with people rather than going shopping as a social activity.

Oh and a functioning NHS would be good.

Established cycle lane network - been to Denmark a couple of times and I think I'd cycle if I lived there

I liked how people cycle to the bus stop, leave their bike there to get the bus to the city and then return back on the bus and still expect their bike to be there even though it wasn't locked to anything to cycle home again.

Mind blowing when you live in a country where the majority of the population seem to hate cyclists and the provisions are badly thought out so barely adequate at best.

The mini traffic lights at windscreen level which mimic the normal, higher ones.
First came across them when driving through France in the 80's, do they still have them?

Dunkirk does, noticed them last week and thought what a great idea.

Supermarkets, definitely. Bought baguettes in Belgium last week that were fabulous, never had anything that comes close in the UK. They also had loads of "picnic" foods made in store and all the ones we tried were delicious.

Theme parks. I know we have them but all the ones I've been to abroad seem better run and organised (except Paultons possibly).

I'm also another vote for German Icecream parlours. I used to love a bowl of spaghetti Eis.