Scotiabank in Europe and the UK

I've done some reasearch in hopes of being able to open a bank account in Canada for the Uk and discovered Scotiabank has a "global alliance" with many banks in Europe:

BNB, BNL for france and italy
Barclays Woolwich for Italy, UK, Spain
Deutsche Bank for Germany, Poland and Spain

You can use their ATMS without being charged. Does anyone else have experience using Scotiabank while traveling in Europe? Im hoping to live in the UK and just want to make sure that I wont get stuck without a bank or ABM to go to. I'd hate to rack up a ton in charges.

I opened a Scotiabank account before going to Mexico for a few months and it worked out very nicely. I could withdraw from the branches with no charges, but still was charged at ATMs...don't remember if it was expensive or not. My Grandpa lives in England and has an account with Scotia so he and my mother can access it easily to pay bills here and there. Personally I would get an account with Scotia before you go. If you find something better when you get there, great! But better to be safe.