A Brief London Travel Guide

My In-laws are headed to London for a few days next month, and since I have been there, they asked for some suggestions on what to do and see. They have a list of some things to do that they got from London for Dummies. It's a pretty good list. It says in 5 days you should see some of the following sites in London:

Day One
Westminster Abbey
Houses of Parliament
British Airways London Eye (A big ferris wheel)
Tate Britain
Picadilly Circus
A West-End Show, using the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square (My suggestion for you Americans is don't do this on the first night. You're going to be a little jet-lagged, and you'll probably rather want to sleep in a dark theatre than watch a play.)

Day Two
Green Park
Buckingham Palace, where you can see the Changing of the Guard
the Royal Mews
St. James's Park, Clarence House, and St. James's Palace
Trafalger Square
National Gallery

Day Three
Tower of London, where you can see the Crown Jewels
St. Paul's Cathedral
British Museum
Harrods Department Store

Day Four
National Portrait Gallery
Covent Garden Market
Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace

Day Five
the Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
Tate Modern

For excursions close to the city (20 minutes to an hour away)
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
Hampton Court
Windsor Palace
Hampstead Heath
Greenwich

Of course, you can't squeeze all of these into 5 days, but these are some great options. Here are some of the things on this list (and others) that I especially enjoyed seeing, some places I regretted going, and some places I heard good or bad things about.

Brad's Top 5 places in London
The Tate Modern

Love it! I'd visit it again in a heartbeat. It's got some great art work by Dali, Picasso, etc. along with some really funky stuff that you would expect to see at a museum of Modern (and later) art. If you go, there is this huge photo of a graveyard, and whereever you stand in front of it, the perspective of the photo makes it look as if a road up the middle of the gravestones is directly in front of you. There are also faces on a grave that appear depending on where you stand in front of the photo.

Kew Gardens

I'm kind of a plant and tree kinda person, and if you love plants and trees, this is the place to visit. They've got all sorts of awesome plants/trees from around the world to see. It's well worth the trip.

Westminster Abbey

It's a great church to visit. It wasn't my favorite in England/Ireland out of the ones that I visited (that title belongs to Yorkminster, in York). But it's a really nice one to see. Here's a little hint. If you're Christian and you're willing to be respectful, go to a service like Evensong at Westminster. You get in for free (I think. I can't remember for sure), you see some parts you wouldn't normally see, and you get to hear some great music.

The Globe Theatre

Go see a Shakespeare play, it's pretty fun. Just don't go if it's something like Coriolanus or Titus Andronicus *ugh* If you do go, wear comfortable shoes, or purchase seats ahead of time. It can get pretty uncomfortable standing in the same spot for 3 hours.

Just sit in a Pub, have a drink, and watch a football game
You know, I think that's the biggest mistake about travelling that people make. They're too busy trying to see everything, squeeze everything in. You can't see the whole damn city in 5 days. It's impossible. I say, pick two or three things a day that you really want to do/ see (or one museum/art gallery) and just do those. Let the rest just sort of happen. See where life takes you. And if it takes you to a pub in England where a bunch of Englishmen are singing and cheering and drinking during a Chelsea/Man. U. game, soak it up, because that's what it's all about. Just be careful who you root for. : ) Your safest bet is probably to see what color shirts are the most prevalent in the pub.

People are so busy trying to see things when they travel that they miss so much. Get to know the culture of a place you visit. Have a conversation about politics over a glass of beer or a cup of coffee with a complete stranger. Most places you'll hear why people in other countries really hate America. : ) But it's good to hear their perspective. It's also good to show them that every American isn't exactly the same. Be a diplomat, make a new friend. Ask them what you should see tomorrow.

Stuff I wish I would've seen
The British Museum

I heard great things about it, but I never got the chance to go.

The British Library

You get to see some insanely old and impressive volumes by Shakespeare, Chaucer, ... you name it. But I missed it, uunfortunately.

Things I wish I didn't do or heard bad things about
The Tower of London

I remember someone telling me it was really overpriced, hokey, and crowded. I'm glad I didn't go.

Hampton Court

King Henry VIII used to live here, if I remember correctly. After seeing some other castles/mansions in Britain, this one was sorta bland by comparison. Perhaps my memory of this is jaded because I had to leave Kew Gardens to visit Hampton Court. I could've spent to whole day at the gardens. Instead I was walking around an old house. Not really my idea of a good time.

Any little tourist trap place that passes itself off as a museum of history or something like that.

Usually these places have things like wax statues or manequins and voiceovers depicting life during some time or other. Usually they're overpriced, cheesy, hot, stuffy, and sometimes they smell bad. In fact, some of them go out of their way to reproduce smells that shouldn't be reproduced just to give you an idea of what it used to smell like back in the day. Believe me, you want to avoid those smells at any cost!!! And for some reason these places like to reproduce those smells in stifling rooms with no ventilation. So you're dying while the voiceover says things like, "Imagine what it must have been like to sleep in the pig sty. Here is what it used to smell like." Or, "Here's an upclose look at a victim of Cholera," accompanied by a hacking cough. Now that's what I call entertainment.

Things that didn't quite make the top 5 but are worth checking out
Hyde Park

It's a nice little place for a pre-dinner stroll. Check it out.

St. James's Palace

The crowds are way smaller than Buckingham, and you can get pretty close to the guards with the huge hats. : ) I think they find the biggest guys in Britain to stand there. I swear, with those hats on, the guards were like 7 1/2 feet tall.

Do some shopping at Picadilly Circus and Harrods
If you're into that sort of thing it's pretty fun. Maybe also, hit the market at Portobello Road. If you're in Harrods, check out the monument to Princess Di (if that's your thing).

Abbey Road
For you Beatles Fans you can take a look at Apple Records and do the whole crosswalk thing. Just don't stand by the crosswalk while traffic is coming. They have to stop for you, and they get a little pissed when they watch you cross the street multiple times trying to take pictures, which of course my friends and I learned the hard way. (I'm such a dork) : )

Maybe I'll do another blog for Oxford sometime or England in general, if people would like. Let me know.

Brad