[Sca-cooks] OT: Visiting London

[bronwynmgn at aol.com]

From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>


<<I am going to be spending a week's vacation in London next month, and
would appreciate some tips.  This is my first trip out of the country
in 8 years, and my first ever traveling alone.*  I have a package deal
with airfare and hotel, but my time is my own to spend.  I was in
London eons ago, when I was in high school, and plan to skip some of
the traditional tourist sites, like the Tower and the Changing of the
Guards.  OTOH, I've never been to the V&A, and plan to remedy that.

What I would like are suggestions for lesser-known places to visit,
cheap eats, and stupid tourist tricks to avoid.  And answers to the
questions that I don't know enough to ask.  :-)
Apologies to those who see this more than once; I'll probably
cross-post to another list or two.
>>



You lucky dog.  Wish I was going with you.  I went on a school exchange to England when I was in high school (many, MANY moons ago) and my husband and I went for our honeymoon 10 years ago.  

As far as tips, carry an umbrella and jacket or a raincoat with you.  England is cooler than here and it tends to rain a little pretty much every day.

Pubs often have very good and quite cheap food.  We went to the pub across the street from our hotel for dinner the day we arrived on our honeymoon.  When we came back to the hotel, the desk clerk asked us where we'd gone for dinner.  When we told her, she said , "Oh, wasn't it horribly greasy?"  Actually it was excellent.  My husband had bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatos) and I had steak and ale pie, with a lovely puff pastry crust.

Use the buses rather than the taxis to get around.  They have wonderful maps and information at each stop as to not only which buses stop there and their routes, but also nearby bus stops for other routes.  We got on the wrong bus once, and the conductor told us where we'd gone wrong and let us off at the next stop, with instructions for how to find the right bus, without having us pay anything.  If you can find one, get a 24 hour bus pass for the sightseeing buses; you can ride as many times as you want in 24 hours from the time you buy the ticket.  We bought ours at 1 pm and had until 1 pm the next day.

At least when we were there, the British Museum allowed you to take pictures of the exhibits.



If you don't have to stay inside London, get a Britrail pass and do some stuff outside on the trains.  There are lots of places that you can get to in a few hours on the train and still have plenty of time to go sightseeing.  Leeds, where the Royal Armouries are now, is if I remember correctly, about 2 hours from London by train.



Brangwayna Morgan