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Bran Dawri wrote:
There's a well-known brewery in the Netherlands that dates back to 1340. Well, it's well-known in the Netherlands. No, it's not Heineken.
An even older one exists in Poland, I believe, but I don't recall the name.

There's one in Germany, Weinstephaneran (or something like that) that claims something like the 10s, or 1200s or some such as it's opening.

There was a temple building company in Japan that dated back to about 540AD in the same family, but they went bust a few years ago.

My local pub was built in the 1500's, although admittedly it only became a pub relatively recently. - 1756.

I do find the whole different attitudes to history stuff quite funny when comparing, say, the USA to Scotland.

It's just the wee things, really. Like taking the dog out for a walk and walking past the old 'hanging stane' and hoping she won't decide to do her business on top of it.

 Easy E wrote:

 kronk wrote:
prostitution.

Yeah, I was disappointed too.

Family business... what is wrong with you?

That's pretty cool. Its good to see that the old buisnesse are still thriving.

 Skinnereal wrote:
I heard about a US hotel that billed itself as historic.
When it was due to JFK having stayed there, it lost some of its oomph.
Of historic interest, yes.
Historic itself, not really.

Age and history is a problem though. Just try improving traffic-flow through a UK city. It took me an hour to drive 5 miles into Oxford last week. The view wasn't that great either, with huge stone walls and lines of vehicles all I could see.

To be fair half the town was under water most of last week...

 Steve steveson wrote:

 Skinnereal wrote:
I heard about a US hotel that billed itself as historic.
When it was due to JFK having stayed there, it lost some of its oomph.
Of historic interest, yes.
Historic itself, not really.

Age and history is a problem though. Just try improving traffic-flow through a UK city. It took me an hour to drive 5 miles into Oxford last week. The view wasn't that great either, with huge stone walls and lines of vehicles all I could see.

To be fair half the town was under water most of last week...

That it was, but:
The only close car park was getting totally rebuilt, meaning I had to drive through town under the bus station,
All on-street parking for a mile or 2 was permit-only,
Buses had no way through either, and were stuck in the same traffic as me. Bus lanes don't work when the junction is clogged up. Park and ride was useless.

It's not just when there's a flood or something.
Out-of-town shopping is big, because town planners have their hands tied. Just suggest that an old theater is knocked down to make room for a car park. It'd get dragged through the media for years.

In the 70's I grew up in an old converted mill that was built in the 14th century. The two main rooms downstairs were old stone three foot thick, with the kitchen added on not much thinner. The upper storey was made of brick and timber frame and was relatively recent, built 'only about four hundred years ago. Some of the internal walls were terribly thin and were made of wattle and daub, plaster over wickerwork. You couldn't even hang pictures on them let alone shelving. The house has no central heating of any kind other than a fireplace, and was heated by a gas heater in the middle of the landing upstairs, the downstairs rooms were always very warm in winter, the upstairs rooms were freezing, the temperate differential in the house was quite extreme. Ceiling heights are fluctuated, upstairs was roomy, the ground floor has a much lower ceiling and the huge black oak beams overhead meant that clearance dropped below 6' in places, especially in doorways.
I loved the old mill, it had a lot of character.