[Sca-cooks] OT: Visiting London- long

[Johnna Holloway]

LONDON Advice

Sue and I have gone in 2004, 2006, and again this past spring in 2009.  
We seem to manage pretty well. James and I were there for the 1984-85  
academic year and back again in 1998.  So anyway from an experienced  
traveler--

What I do is go through and start a file on London. Then as I come  
across things and activities I cut and paste items and add them to the  
file. I then print the file off and take it with us. I try to not haul  
more than one guidebook over.  I also look things and stores up and  
copy off their info to take. I also did a major search on the travel  
websites like Fodors and the news sites before going just to check out  
what people were talking about that was of interest. You might run  
your hotel through tripadvisor too so you know what sort of area it is  
in and precautions like eating elsewhere and not in the hotel.

If you are taking a pc, you may or may not have internet. Our hotel  
ended up not having internet available over Easter weekend. You had to  
sit in the bar in order to use the net. Of course we kept running into  
things where the most up to date information was posted on the web  
which we couldn’t get to. Internet fees can be very expensive anyway.

I do urge everyone to buy an up to date guidebook for London. Go to  
Borders or B&N and check them out first. Find one you like and buy it.  
Also something like The London Mapguide is invaluable. Once you are  
there you can hit tourist information and get brochures or buy a copy  
of Time Out. If you want theater tickets, you should be able to get  
half price tickets after you get there.

One book that I love for countryside house and garden tours is  
Hudson’s Historical Houses and Gardens. It comes out annually and  
includes all the houses and gardens that are open to the public along  
with admission fees and dates of being opened. It also covers London.  
Mark which places you are interested in and Xerox those pages. Take  
the Xeroxes with you and leave the 600 plus page book at home.

(Anyone who is driving should invest in a good road atlas. I don’t  
care if the rental car comes with GPS, get an atlas too.)

You didn’t say where you were staying but you may want to get one of  
the combination tube and bus fare cards. Or the tube now has the  
Oyster Card, which you reload with pounds. It’s a tap and go farecard. https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do

The UK’s credit cards increasingly have smart chips in them. The USA  
cards don’t which means you often will have to go to a window and ask  
them to manually swipe your credit card.  Tell them it’s an American  
card. This was the way we used to get our oyster cards reloaded in  
April. It also slows up shopping in some of the shops.

London is building for the Olympics. Certain tube stations and lines  
are closed. This can make it somewhat difficult to get places.  Be  
sure and get a bus map with updated route information in case you need  
to take a bus and not take the tube.

  Places to see: V&A- yes. National Portrait Gallery, National  
Gallery, British Museum.

  British Library is interesting and for a librarian probably a must  
see.

Shopping-

Books for Cooks is always good. www.booksforcooks.com

4 Blenheim Cres  London, W11 1NN, United Kingdom  +44 20 72211992

Across the street is a Spice Shop.

  Foyles has updated and turned into a decent bookstore which takes  
credit cards now.

  Try not to have the shops ship books home. The shipping costs can be  
more than the purchase.

  I took the new Lands End carrier type cloth bags with me this past  
spring and they worked very well. They fold up when not in use. Much  
easier to handle than plastic shopping bags.

Do get your luggage weighed before you get to the airport. Sue’s one  
bag was a couple kilos over so she took stuff out and placed it in her  
carryon luggage. Unfortunately what she took out was her make-up bag  
and security made her toss everything at the checkpoint. Also no- you  
cannot carry back in your hand luggage items like jams, jellies, lemon  
curds, etc. Buy them past security.

  For October, a good raincoat and rainhat would be worthwhile.

Hope this helps

Johnna