My Uk And Europe Experience :)

[Aussie Peg]

Hello fellow travellers!

I went on a holiday to the UK and Europe for 7 weeks over christmas from Australia and had written all this info in the Aussie thread in the international section. Someone (gfp) pointed out that I should put it in this section too so i've just copied and pasted the following info-rama from my posts :

i've been a busy bee on holiday in the UK and Europe, it was amazing! I did pretty well staying gluten free and only had a few gluten issues which is pretty good for 7 weeks away smile.gif Tesco and Sainsburys (UK supermarkets) have the most amazing gluten free food - chocolate cakes, apple pie, english muffins, bread rolls, bagels, and so much more i cant think of right now, and it was all yummy, no wonder i put on weight lol! They don't label if their glucose syrup is from wheat though so i had some problems with their lollies as i'm pretty sensitive.

ooh ooh ooh...and we went to a little farmhouse in switzerland and the lady there put on a lunch for us and supplied me with gluten free bread she bought locally and it was the most amazing gluten-free bread i've ever tasted!!! i've got no idea what brand it was but it was delicious untoasted with just cheese on it even! Ah, fond memories

Pubs were really good when i asked for gluten free and told them what i couldnt have, there was only one incident with a meal labelled as gluten free on the menu (i double checked with the waitress too) and it came out with a stack of crumbed onion rings on the plate lol!

England was surprisingly easy to cope with, rather expensive though but at least i was well fed biggrin.gif We mainly stayed at bed and breakfasts so i took gluten-free cereal with me from tesco and had that with hard boiled or poached eggs, some places even got gluten free bread in for me!

For lunch, i made sure we had a marks and spencer nearby because they seemed to be the only place where i could buy a premade lunch to go - always salads lol, but they had about 4 different ones which are gluten free (greek salad, garden salad, cooked salmon with potato salad and some others i can't remember, well labelled too) and they are delicious!! For places to eat at for lunch, i often got a baked potato with cheese and salad with no dressing at pubs, everyone was really helpful but i had to explain a bit more thoroughly in the country towns and tell them exactly what to put and not put on my food.

I always carried around snacks from the supermarket with me too so if i was stuck without a place to get lunch, i could always just buy some cheese and ham slices to go with crackers i brought.....there were these crackers in a black box in some herby flavour but i cant remember the brand but they were amazing!!! *Edit: just remembered the brand, "TruFree" Open Original Shared Link

Only the big supermarkets have a gluten free section, i was caught out once when there was a mini tesco and i thought i'd be ok but they didnt have anything specific so i just had some coleslaw which was safe.

For dinner, we usually ate at pubs so i got steak and vegies or roast lamb and vegies, making sure i told them what i couldnt eat, they do a mean roast i must say! Yum! Indian take away is pretty safe too if you avoid deep fried things and naan bread (always make sure about it all though). If you have access to a microwave, soup and crackers is another good option for dinner. Some Marks and Spencers had one microwaveable meal that i could see that was safe - i think it was a singapore noodle one.

If you are staying at a B & B, it would be a good idea to take your own gluten-free bread with you and buy some toasta bags (Open Original Shared Link) to prevent CC and just ask to use their toaster.

Cup-a-soups are handy to have with you too, there were a couple of safe flavours, and fruit, always a good snack!

Now, as for the plane trip, i specified with both companies i was flying with (quantas and british airways) that i needed gluten free meals but on the way there one of my meals came out with a normal bread roll thrown on top!! i knew as soon as i smelt it that it was dangerous so i handed it to my dad to eat, i had wet wipes with me so gave my hands a good wipe and avoided touching anything which had been contaminated (everything is packaged so i just had to be careful with lids etc). I worked out that if they give you something breaddy which isnt in a packet or cling wrapped, then dont eat it! Also, any gluten-free breaddy things they did give me were often made with gluten-free wheat starch which is annoying coz that still gives me D! On the way back on the plane, i was given a little box of rice bubbles as part of my breakfast but in the ingredients it had malt extract listed so make sure you check labels on things like that! Apart from these hiccups, the rest of the food was fine and gets served to all us special people about 10 minutes before everyone else and its labelled with your name and seat number so they make sure they're giving it to the right person

Its a good idea to take crackers and biscuits on the plane too and anything else you can think of (probably not fruit and vegies though), and i found fruit tingles helped with any nausea i had too Longlife flavoured milk in the little tetra boxes with straws (they've got different names in different states so i thought i better just describe them lol) would be a good idea too as they're nice and filling

Also, when telling people what you cant have, make sure you list malt and malt vinegar too because people dont usually associate malt with gluten

Phew, thats all i can think of for now but if anything else comes to mind i'll let you know!

....just remembered, there are gluten free FLAVOURED potato chips in the shops too!!! None of this plain chips business like over here! Just read the labels and you should find some

There are no guarantees about the pub food but i never had any problems except for the incident with the crumbed onion rings. I dont think they really use any gluteny things with the roasts except for the sauces which they would make separately. I emphasised that i couldnt have flour and bread at all as i think these would be the main culprits. I took restaurant cards with me everywhere too so if i thought it was risky at all i would break out the cards

We went to Europe on a bus tour and stayed in France and Italy, having the restaurant cards made it so much easier, i even got gluten free gelati from a place where no-one spoke english! In Italy i was generally given risottos and grilled meat or fish, very yummy! In France i had salmon and rice and a prawn cocktail, another night i had trouble finding food as my family just got toasted sandwiches so i went to a little supermarket and got bits and pieces like cheese, plain salad,yoghurt and hommous - sometimes i just had to improvise lol In Amsterdam I had delicious grilled chicken with a salad, it was so juicy! I cant remember what i had in Germany but it was organised by the hotel and i recall was very nice. In switzerland we came across this little pub in Lucerne and it was probably the most delicious dinner of the whole tour - pork chop, roast veggies and garlic butter all done to perfection and was very reasonably priced! The owner of the pub was so nice and we were the only people there so he really looked after us, spoke english well too! Lunch was tricky though because we didnt have much time as we were usually on the way somewhere so i often had the crackers i had brought, baby bell cheese and whatever else i could find.

For dessert in every country on the tour we were given fruit lol (I was travelling with a friend who is allergic to dairy so we were quite a pair hehehe) and in one place in italy our dessert came out and it was a whole orange unpeeled on a plate, we just cracked up laughing!

I hope all this info is useful, good luck with your travels everyone, i'm happy to help anyone with questions

........just had to add how zany the toilets in Germany are - they clean themselves!! Brilliant!

[Phyllis28]

Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed it very much.

[georgie]

Peggy, Do they have gluten-free wraps like Freedom make here ? What did your friend eat if she didn't eat dairy? I am about to test dairy intolernace and it maybe a trip overseas as Gluten AND Dairy Intolerant !

[Aussie Peg]

Twas my pleasure Phyllis, its so nice to be able to help others out with my info!

Regarding the dairy:

In europe, my friend and I were mostly given the same meals as they were made both gluten and dairy free to save time. She is able to eat gluten so she had a lot of dairy free sandwiches or salads for lunches. She had restaurant cards too which made them aware of how dangerous it is if she eats dairy (dairy makes her throat swell up, traces just affect her tummy luckily), I think she had a few traces incidents which should be ok if you're just testing intolerance.

Most of the food in the special gluten free section in tesco and sainsburys is both gluten and dairy free which was wonderful, they have the best gluten and dairy free brownies and soy custard (i think the custard was in the normal custard section), you couldnt tell that either were dairyless!!! Everything has an allergen label but you still need to check the ingredients as some unknown brand we had on the boat to europe didnt list dairy on a product which had cheese on it! The big brands are much more trustworthy

....I just remembered that I was mildly glutened when i had bacon on my baked potato - It was at a little tea shop in a small town and I was told that their butcher wouldnt have used wheat in it but they werent certain so I just risked it as it sounded delicious. I wasnt positive that it was the meat as CC could have been the issue but it happened again with bacon so be wary of processed meats with no label to check or no butcher to ask!

i'm off to bed now, i hope this has helped a bit!

[lesley]

I went to Ireland last summer and stayed at a B&B which had the best gluten-free cook ever!

Riverside Farm, Gorey. It's south of Dublin. I was even given a gluten-free snack to use as a packed lunch each day. Fab!

We also went to Centre Parcs in Holland and the chefs in all the restaurants cooked separate dishes especially for me.

In Austria I stay in at least a 4 star hotel and email them first to make sure they can cater for me. Lunch out is a problem!