London advices

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

I would highly recommend a boat ride from the Thames Southbank if you dodecide to go to Greenwich - the greenwich observatory, maritime museum, and surrounding views are really worth it (they also have a planetarium at the observatory which has some great short movies - the "blackholes" showing rocks!). Plus, from Embankment station, which is directly on the water, a boat ride from there would only be 45 mins max to Greenwich. The Thames Clipper is the fastest way to get there, and costs about £4 each way. During your ride, you can have uninterupted views of all the major landmarks - big ben and the houses of parliament, St Paul's cathedral, canary wharf and the "gherkin" building, etc... It's quite a refreshing ride on a hot summers day.

Definitely. The low cost makes it a much more attractive proposition than the tourist boats too.

Just to add to this excellent travel advice. If you feel brave enough to catch a bus between locations then do so rather than catching the tube. The tube is convenient but you can miss a lot that you would see on the top deck of double decker.

If you want to catch the tube, catch it from Holborn to Tottenham Court Road. It's only one stop but you pass through the old, disused British Museum Station which is in darkness and if the train goes slowly is as spooky as hell.

Make sure you get a travel card (£7.50 per day) for all zones. It gives you the freedom of all public transport in London and lasts until 5:00am the following day so you can catch the night bus back while drunk (not if you value your life). Even better get an Oyster card. http://www.tfl.gov.uk is the best place for information on travelling in London.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, get an Oyster card. I don't think you need all zones, since there isn't much outside of zones 1 and 2.

 

[An Officer]

Yes, definitely make use of the tfl site. It has a very useful journey planner that allows you to type in you location and destination, then gives you the fastest route there, listing all alternatives as well.

If you do go to the National gallery, I strongly advice lunch there in their dining rooms - all of the surrounding eateries are horribly expensive and the quality is very low. You could always opt for a sandwich from the local supermarkets, but if you want to treat yourself, the Dining rooms at the museum are average price - but the quality of the food and the service are closer to a 5 star arrangement. Lovely bright rooms with gorgeous views, too. They also let you order off the menu, or make slight adjustments, without extra charge, if you ask nicely.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

You could check out if there are any film premieres coming up in Leicester Square. Not to see the film as such but for all the red carpet razzmatazz ~ the atmosphere is great! http://premierehub.com/premieres/index.php
Damn shame you weren't there end of April

 

[Goliath]

^ A fruitful trip, I see. It's tragic, but so funny. Is that for real?

One hundred per cent real, unfortunately.

 

[Pingfah]

If you plan to visit the Tate Modern beware, it is the most depressing art gallery of all time.

 

[Goliath]

If you plan to visit the Tate Modern beware, it is the most depressing art gallery of all time.

What? What makes you say that?

 

[Holdfast]

While we're on the subject of visiting London...

I recently heard from a colleague of mine after he returned from there.

He's a History professor, like me, and has recently written a book about monuments to early 20th-century British generals like Herbert Kitchener and Douglas Haig. He took this trip to obtain photos for this book.

Here are the results:

I completely mis-timed my trip to start with. Not only did I not realize that the British May bank holiday was a week later than Ontario's -- meaning I lost 15% of my research time -- but my efforts to get photographs for my book was stymied by

1) the surprise closure of the National Army Museum,

2) the inaccessibility of all but one of the items I ordered at the British Library due to their moving of materials to a new offsite storage facility at Boston Spa,

3) the stands put up for trooping of the colour which entirely obscured the statue of Kitchener in Horse Guards,

4) the unexplained locking of the Kitchener Chapel in St. Paul's,

5) the absence of any photos of either the unveiling of the Haig or Kitchener memorials in the National Archives (a surprise to me given practically every other major memorial has dedication photos),

6) the inaccessibility of the photo archive of the National Media Museum (its in Bradford, why?),

7) the idiots at the Tate getting the wrong files ready for me -- I only had one half day booked in there -- which meant that if the Tate has good material I didn't see it,

8) getting into a shouting match with one of the staff at the Imperial War Museum, and subsequently leaving without looking at anything in their collection.

Result: absolutely no images for my book despite 8 days of increasingly frantic attempts to obtain them.

Compound that with losing a crap load of my (needed) travel receipts due to an over zealous maid in my room, and doing something really bad to my knee on the third day of the trip so that the remaining 7 days comprised increasingly painful hobbles around London.

And lastly, I was punched in the face by an irate, drunken Manchester United fan who, pissed that Man U had lost to Barcelona that night, took a dislike to me for reasons unknown on the train back from giving my research talk at Huddersfield.

All in all, I think this trip counts as an unmitigated disaster. I will have to find images by remote, now. Possible, but harder, costlier and more time extensive. Fuck.

Needless to say, I hope your trip goes better than his did, iguana_tonante.

Gold.

 

[Pingfah]

If you plan to visit the Tate Modern beware, it is the most depressing art gallery of all time.

What? What makes you say that?

I just came out of there on a real downer.

Perhaps it was the giant whirring, thumping machine that does nothing of any importance, or the grubby imposing power station they built it in, or the fact that when I went everything seemed to be devoted to decay and dystopia, but it gave me a headache and I felt like shit when I came out of there

 

[Hermiod]

I would suggest that if you are capable of doing so, walking is a much more pleasant experience than using our public transport.

Despite the way it looks on a tube map, everything in Zone 1 is much closer together than it appears. I used to have a Tube map which showed how far apart the stations are in reality to scale rather than the official Tube map which is designed to be easy to read and not indicative of actual distance.

 

[Niorah]

If you plan to visit the Tate Modern beware, it is the most depressing art gallery of all time.

What? What makes you say that?

I just came out of there on a real downer.

Perhaps it was the giant whirring, thumping machine that does nothing of any importance, or the grubby imposing power station they built it in, or the fact that when I went everything seemed to be devoted to decay and dystopia, but it gave me a headache and I felt like shit when I came out of there

Make that two of us. What a depressing place. Thankfully I don't care much, if at all, for Modern Art, so I do steer clear of the Tate as much as I can.

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

I would suggest that if you are capable of doing so, walking is a much more pleasant experience than using our public transport.

Despite the way it looks on a tube map, everything in Zone 1 is much closer together than it appears. I used to have a Tube map which showed how far apart the stations are in reality to scale rather than the official Tube map which is designed to be easy to read and not indicative of actual distance.

This is great advice. I'm a big fan of walking around town. Make sure you take the time to walk over the Thames on one of the bridges (Millenium is good if you do go to the Tate). Like the good geek that I am I have a favourite bridge. It's what used to be called the Hungerford Bridge before it was rebuilt and I think is now the Golden Jubilee Bridge. It is a nicer way of getting from Waterloo to Embankment station while avoiding the tube.

For a good tourist experience I'd like to recommend http://www.walks.com/ this company. There is no need to book and their walking tours are really informative and well presented. The best one IMO is the 'secret london' walk on Tuesday morning.

 

[Hermiod]

^I'll second that recommendation. I went on one with my team at work a couple of years ago and learned a lot.

 

[Goliath]

Make that two of us. What a depressing place. Thankfully I don't care much, if at all, for Modern Art, so I do steer clear of the Tate as much as I can.

Your reactions astonish me.

It would never have occurred to me to call the Tate Modern 'depressing'.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

 

[VulKhan]

Yep, you should definitely visit the Tower of London, too! It's the most awesome place and so very interesting!! If you go there, be sure to take some time for your visit, though, cause you can easily get lost in there due to all the fascinating exhibitions (a room full of old weapons and armour for kings and their horses in the White Tower, for example.) We were there for 3 hours or so. It was great.

Also, another thing just came to my mind: I think for a 5-day stay in The City, it would pay off to get The London Pass. With this pass you can have cheaper tickets (or even free entry) to more than 55 attractions, like the aforementioned Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, HMS Belfast, etc. (however, Tower Bridge, for example, is not included as far as I remember). Since I assume you want to see a lot of things, it would be worth it!
You can get the pass in every tourist information bureau around the city, or buy it online (until may 8th you get £10 off when ordering online).
Here's the link for more information: http://www.londonpass.com

 

[judge alba]

if you get time a couple of evening walks with a tour guide would be well worth itme and my partner use 'original london walks' they are pretty good and you dont have to book in advance. thier better one is along the thames wlak starts at blaackfriars ends at london bridge. you get to know about the local history plus stop in a couple of pubs.if youre intreasted in a market there's always portabello road. it's pretty big.otherwise theres always hampton court. its a way out but go by boat and its pretty relaxing.havent been for awhile but i had heard that the best way to tell where someones money is was to stand near a sign warning of pickpockets and watching to see where some people put thier hand to check there's is safe. bond street had them not sure if they still do.covent garden is a good place to visit got the transport museum though thats normally filled with screaming kids and there's a few street perfomers that are pretty good too.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Yes, further to previous posters, walk rather than tube inner London. There is so much you'll miss otherwise. And be a total tourist and get a characatature done by one of the street artists! Cheesy but fun ~ and don't forget to haggle. Hope you have a fantastic time iguana tonante

 

[Geckothan]

You'd best bring a stab vest.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Wow, fantastic advices everybody! I'm treasuring them, and making good use of the links. I will definitively get an Oyster Card. The London Pass sounds really like a good deal, thank you very much, VulKhan!

I will try to go around by walk as much as possible: the best part about visiting a new city, beyond monuments, museums and such, is to stroll lazily around with your nose in the air, breathing the unique atmosphere of each. I just hope my poor knee is up to the challenge! I also plan to explore a lot of cheap ethnic eating spots around: it's not an holiday without some adventure!

The boat ride to Greenwich is a also wonderful idea, I wouldn't though about it on my own, thanks you An Officer.

You rule, guys and girls! Mwah!

 

[An Officer]

My pleasure, iguana_tonante.

Oh, and when you want to stop in a bar or cafe... whether you stand or sit, the charge is the same, so you can rest your weary legs without having to pay extra. Although I do enjoy propping up the bar myself, all the closer to the bartender, and the quicker those aperol spritzers can arrive.