Pubs, Pints and Pies

It’s official, I have been told I have am now qualified to be an Englishman. I spent the past 4 days with some interesting chaps in the UK. It was a blast. The team was really fun and they made sure I got the full English salesman/soccer fan experience.

I spent most of the day Wednesday with our sales manger for the UK. We visited a farmers union, an ATV dealer and then a Victory dealer. After the last visit, we had about 1 ½ of driving to the office and it was 1:30. We were hungry. I had heard of this food called Ginster’s earlier in my week, joked as the salesman food. Lucky for me the gas station we stopped at had some. Now this thing looked like a large hot pocket. Pastry with meat, potato, sauce, can’t be that bad. The best part was that I couldn’t heat it up. “That’s not how we eat them.” So being the trooper I am, I ate my Ginster’s pie. It wasn’t terrible. The sales guy told me they are great, because you never know when your next meal will come. And that was true. We did not eat until much later that night, but I was still full, or sick from the thought of what I ate. When I got back to the office I told them what we had for lunch and they all felt sorry for me. But hey, live and learn. And when in Rome…

So after my day of being a traveling salesman and eating like one, we hit the local college pub to watch the big football game, Liverpool vs. Everton, two in-town rivals. It was a great night. I enjoyed my pint in an English pub before switching to some good wine. But they said because I had my one, I was qualified as an Englishman!! The game went to overtime and the good team, Liverpool, ended up losing with 2 minutes left in the second overtime. It was an amazing game. Now it was 11pm and we were very hungry. Good thing I had the Ginster’s 10 hours earlier, I was still feeling it, not sure if that is a good thing or not….

So in Coventry, England at 11pm where does one go to eat? Of course, the local Kebab shop. It wasn’t the best meal I’ve eaten, but at 11pm, it hit the spot. So after a day of Ginster’s and Kebab, I slept pretty well.

I woke up the next morning and did a nice walk around the castle/hotel to work off a little of my salesman food. I took some last pictures of the fresh snow around the grounds. It was a great trip to the UK, some new experiences and the office promises they will take me for good food next time I visit.

More stories soon.