London Calling

[MrFurious]

Heading to London with my wife for 8-9 days in late November. She will be in a training class during the work week so I'll have to find something to do with myself for those 5 days.

My tentative plans for the week - no big deal if I don't get to everything:
Pubs
Churchill War Rooms
Tower of London
Changing of the Guard
Pubs
Casino - any recommendations for Poker rooms? Prefer Hold 'Em.
Shakespeare's Globe Theater
Any War museum that I need to see?
Pubs
Big Ben, Parliament
The Monument to the Great Fire of London - I hear it has great views and seeing some of the history of the city would be great.
Trafalgar Square
HMS Belfast


I really just want to hang out and relax and see some of the out of the way places. I don't want to rush from place to place just to stand in line. I want to take the train down to France and visit Normandy. Has anyone done this and have recommendations for travel arrangements/tours available?

We may take a side trip on the weekends to either Italy, France, Ireland. Are any of these easier than others? RyanAir has cheap flights.

We will probably see a show while we are there. Any recommendations? I think her work group will take in a show one night, but I don't know which one or which night yet.

Any info you can give me would be great. I don't really care to see too many of the tourist sites (I grew up in Germany and saw tons of castles and churches on field trips) but is there anything that I must see.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[umjewman]

War Rooms is a must. Good that it is on your list - make sure you fit that in.

Imperial War Museum is pretty good for a war museum - not sure I would call it a must see though it has been 13 years since I was there.

Globe is great, certainly worth seeing. My wife loves Borough Market, which has a lot of good food and is good for a bit (it does get crowded).

I would suggest a walking tour with London Walks. You can see the things you want to see without standing in line and pick up a few trivia tidbits that nobody will find interesting.

As far as shows, they have them all there, more or less. You can get cheap tickets in Leicester square.

France is probably the easiest for a weekend trip... I trained it to Paris - didn't even bother with a flight.

[Fresno Bob]

You should go to the British Museum, I'd also recommend going down to Greenwich and going on the Cutty Sark (one of the old tea ships from the age of sail), and yea, you can get on the Chunnel Train and be in Paris in 2 hours, much better than fighting back and forth with 2 airports, plus all those cheap flights land in crappy out of the way airports.

I'd suggest going to Stonehenge/Avebury/The Long Barrow but you'd burn a whole day doing that.

[rhd]

I've been to England only once, for about a week, so I'm no expert, but here are some suggestions:

- Yeah, I'd also recommend Stonehenge, more or less a must see, which is about an hour away.
- You said you werent too interested in churches, but I considered Salisbury Cathedral one of the highlights of my trip. If you're going to Stonehenge anyway, it's rt nearby. If you're not driving, maybe there's a tour that includes both.
- Since you're going to the Tower of London, take in nearby Tower Bridge also.
- Since you're taking in a show, consider one at Royal Covent Garden. I wanted so much to go there - practically any show would have been fine just to visit the place - but I went in early September and they said the show season hadnt quite started yet. This shouldnt be a problem for you. Your wife might like it.
- Dont know if you or your wife like jazz but if so Ronnie Scott's is the place. It's in the west part of downtown.
- Another thing I wanted to do that I didnt get a chance to was to tour one of the movie studios. Both Pinewood and Ealing Studios are in London. Dont know anything about the guided tours but I figure they must have some.
- The "London Eye" or "Millennium Wheel" or whatever they're calling it now is a touristy spot, but I'm sure it offers great views of the city. If you're not afraid of heights, unlike me.

Other places I went: Oxford, Cambridge, Coalbrookdale (birthplace of the Industrial Revolution), the old suspension bridge in Bristol, Dover (white cliffs and castle), Canterbury (old cathedral where Beckett was killed).

Also, since you'll be mostly on your own, I'd rent a car, if you can park it near your hotel for not much charge. London has a restriction on parking in or near downtown during normal business hours, so this might be a bit of a problem if that's where your hotel is. When I was there, I got a motel in the suburbs and took the "Underground" (subway) during the day and drove at night and on the weekends. Maybe you could rent one for just the day and return it that evening so you dont have to pay to park it. If you rent one, dont worry about driving on the other side of the road, that's pretty easy to get used to. But pay a little extra and get an automatic because shifting w your other hand is a little difficult to get used to. And be very careful entering intersections after stopping at stop signs - you'll understand what I mean after you try it a few times.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip!

[johnnya24]

If you are looking for a trip to mainland Europe while you are here, then the Eurostar train to Paris is a no-brainer ... especially if you've never been to Paris ... but even then Paris is the best tourist destination in the world IMO. Takes you from the heart of London right into the heart of Paris in a couple of hours. You can add at least 5 or 6 hours to any journey with Ryanair or Easyjet because the airports they use are usually out of the way, and of course the pain in the ass waiting and waiting at airports. Book a hotel near the Gare Du Nord, which is just up the road from Montmarte and Sacre-coeur, and it'll be like a long commute rather than a journey.

Most of your desired destinations are in the same approximate areas:

1. Westminster, War Rooms, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Piccadilly are all in comfortable walking distance of each other, as are:

2. Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, Globe Theatre

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1. Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Whitehall and War Rooms are just up the road from Trafalgar Square, which is also the location of the National Gallery ... which is free and contains some amazing artworks ... deals with everything up to Impressionism. It's also connected to The Mall and Buckingham Palace. Continue up from Trafalgar Square and you get to Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly (theatre district) ... and behind that takes you into Soho, and then on to Oxford Street / Regent Street depending on which way you go.

2. When I go to London, I almost always walk from Westminster down the South Bank all the way to Tower Bridge ... it's a really nice flat walk, with lots to see on the way, including many of your desired options.

On the way you will pass:

The Aquarium, London Eye, Southbank Centre, National Film Theatre, National Theatre, Hayward Gallery, The Shard, City Hall ... in addition to the must sees I've marked on the map:

Tate Modern, St Pauls, Globe Theatre, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge and Tower of London. You didn't have Tate Modern on your list, it really should be ... it's free and an amazing space for modern art ... I'm not sure if they've finished the extension yet.



You could do that walk 2 or 3 times during your trip and not regret it ... see something different each day, and still have a lot left undone.

For such a massive city, a lot of the cool stuff is really well condensed.

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As for the other suggestions in the thread:

- Ronnie Scott's (in Soho) is great, but will be dependent on what's happening at the time ... and the location of your hotel ... it can run into the early hours.
- I really enjoyed the Imperial War Museum the one time I went, but that was a long time ago. They had a detailed scale model of Auschwitz, which was massive even in small scale ... and they could only fit the entrance section to the complex. It was really quite disconcerting seeing that.
- The British Museum is staggering ... it should really be on any list ... and like Tate Modern and the National Gallery, it's free. It's also in central London, a couple of stops along the Circle line (or the Central line).

By the way, I emphasize the free venues as much for the NO QUEUING aspect as the value aspect. You simple walk into Tate Modern and the British Museum and wander around.

I'd also suggest looking up concerts and events that are taking place while you are there ... there is always something big happening in London ... so why not take advantage ... but tickets are a bitch to get in the open market. You have to go to websites Viagogo and secondary ticket markets usually.

I wouldn't recommend going out of London AND going to Europe on such a short trip. You'll end up running around and not really enjoying it. Sticking to central London, and a couple of days in Paris would fit quite nicely IMO.

I'll add some more stuff as It comes to mind. But I'd definitely add Tate Modern and The British Museum to your must do list: Tate Modern because of its proximity to your other desired locations, and The British Museum because it's amazing.

[MrFurious]

Thanks for the info guys. It's really good stuff.

[Gregg]

Have a great trip!