Shipping UK -> Europe

[P@rick]

Hi all,

Does anyone have experience with shipping a tuba from the UK to Europe? I wan’t to ship a tuba (currently located in London) to me (The Netherlands).

Thanks,
Patrick

[Wyvern]

If it is a matter of getting a tuba from London to the Netherlands I would suggest taking a weekend to London and collect yourself - must be better than risk damage in shipping and I doubt the train fare return costs much more.

[P@rick]

If it is a matter of getting a tuba from London to the Netherlands I would suggest taking a weekend to London and collect yourself - must be better than risk damage in shipping and I doubt the train fare return costs much more.

Yes, I thought of picking up the tuba myself. Gas and train fair will be 200 Euro. Flying is way cheaper but then again….flying back with the tuba as luggage is the same risk as shipping

[corbasse]

You could drive to Rijsel/Lille, park there for 20 euros a day and take the Eurostar. Tickets can be had for under 40 euro if you plan ahead. I find it more convenient and cheaper than the Brussels route, but then Rijsel is closer for me
If you're young enough you could mess around with all sort of train reduction schemes and go there entirely by train for a lot less than 200 euro.

[P@rick]

You could drive to Rijsel/Lille, park there for 20 euros a day and take the Eurostar. Tickets can be had for under 40 euro if you plan ahead. I find it more convenient and cheaper than the Brussels route, but then Rijsel is closer for me
If you're young enough you could mess around with all sort of train reduction schemes and go there entirely by train for a lot less than 200 euro.

Yes, I think this is the best way to go. I would have to go to Brussels by car. Don't know about parking there, but a return ticket is somewhere between 80 and 100 euros.

The only problem is that my friend in London doesn't have a car. I would have to take some trains and busses in London , but I will survive I think

[corbasse]

Yes, I think this is the best way to go. I would have to go to Brussels by car. Don't know about parking there, but a return ticket is somewhere between 80 and 100 euros.

Brussel Zuid is on the southern tip of the city center. You'll have to drive across a big part of town after leaving the motorway, not something I particularly like myself. Driving in Brussels is "special"... There's parking under the station, cost is 17 euro a day.

Some considerations:
- the parking in Lille has a 30 euro weekend (fri 16.00 - mon 10.00) special. Brussels has a 2 euro a day reduction if you park more than 4 days
- Lille station has a fast and easy connection to the motorway.
- return ticket can be had from just under 40 euro if you plan ahead (try some weekends in july/august here: http://www.tgv-europe.nl" target="_blank)
- it's (only) 70 km more than Brussels.
- France is notorious for its frequent railway strikes

[P@rick]

I plan to go on 21 june. Cheapest return ticket (TVG and eurostar Rijzel/Lille) is 77Euro. Brussel is (in total) a 2 hour drive shorter then Lille and is 80Euro (Eurostar). I'm planning Brussel.

Thanks all,
Patrick

[P@rick]

This weekend I picked up the Boosey & Hawkes Imperial (1972) including a Denis Wick 2 mouthpiece.


I really like how I sound on it .

The only thing I would prefer is bigger valve caps. The caps on this one are very tiny. A while ago I tried a B&H Imperial (1978) and this one had bigger valve caps. Is it true that B&H changed to bigger valve caps during the 70’s?

This is a (out-of-focus) picture of my valves:


This is how I remember the 1978 Boosey valves:

[P@rick]

Does anyone know where I can order the “original” valve caps? Maybe in the UK somewhere, because this tuba is more common over there?

Thanks,
Patrick