September 2, 2010

Great 1 Week London Itinerary from Rick Steves

Rick Steves recently posted the ideal 1 week London itinerary on his blog – and I can’t find anything to disagree with.

It’s pretty packed but you can see everything in London worth seeing in a carefully scheduled week.

Here’s his take on the perfect 1 week London Itinerary:

Day 1: 9:00 — Tower of London (crown jewels first to beat the crowds, then Beefeater tour, then White Tower); 13:00 — Munch a sandwich on the Thames while cruising from Tower to Westminster Bridge; 15:00 — Tour Westminster Abbey (consider Evensong service at 17:00); 17:00 — Follow the self-guided Westminster Walk. When you’re finished, you could return to the Houses of Parliament and pop in to see the House of Commons in action.

Day 2: 8:30 — Take a double-decker hop-on, hop-off London sightseeing bus tour (from Green Park or Victoria) and hop off for the Changing of the Guard; 11:00 — Buckingham Palace (guards change most days, but worth confirming); 12:00 — Walk through St. James’s Park to enjoy London’s delightful park scene; 13:00 — After lunch, tour Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum; 16:00 — Tour National Gallery. Have a pub dinner before a play, concert, or evening walking tour (for ideas, see the Entertainment chapter).

Day 3: 9:00 — Follow the self-guided City Walk from Trafalgar Square to London Bridge, inserting the full St. Paul’s Tour in the middle; 15:00 — Follow the self-guided Bankside Walk along the South Bank of the Thames, then walk the Jubilee Promenade from the Millennium Bridge to the London Eye. Cap the day with South Bank sights or experiences open in the evening: a ride on the London Eye, a Shakespearean play at Shakespeare’s Globe (19:30 in summer), or the Tate Modern (open Fri and Sat until 22:00).

Day 4: 10:00 — Tour the British Museum; 14:00 — Take the self-guided West End Walk to see Covent Garden, Soho, and the Regent Street shops; 17:30 — Enjoy an afternoon tea (at Fortnum & Mason or at The Wolseley).

Day 5: Spend the morning at an antique market. Spend the rest of your day at your choice of major sights. Depending on your interests, choose from the British Library, Tate Britain, Museum of London, Imperial War Museum, or Kew Gardens (cruise to Kew, return to London by Tube).

Day 6: 10:00 — Cruise from Westminster to Greenwich; 11:00 — Tour salty sights of Greenwich; 14:30 — Ride the DLR train to Pudding Hill Lane to see the Olympics 2012 site; 16:00 — Ride the DLR to the Docklands for a look at London’s emerging “Manhattan”; 18:00 — Tube back to London.

Day 7: 10:00 — Tour the Victoria & Albert Museum; after lunch (or a picnic in the park), stroll through Hyde Park. Spend the afternoon at Harrods or other shopping.

Be sure to check out Rick Steves’ Blog Gone Europe here – he’s in London right now and writing all about it.

Also, check out all the great Rick Steves London and Britain related videos we wrote about a couple months ago.

From Metrotwin: All Creatures Great and Stuffed – London Underground

Did you know that the peak hour for suicides on London Underground is 11am? Or that Pimlico is the only tube station on the entire network that doesn’t include any of the letters in the word ‘badger’? Or that the best place to see a mouse (should you so wish) is Oxford Circus or Waterloo on the Bakerloo line? We interviewed the fantastic Annie Mole, creator of the London Underground Blog on our site this week and frankly, it was too good not to share.

Speaking of animals (as we very tenuously were) I’ve also created a list of bars in London with cool taxidermy. Certainly, the prospect of supping a pint under the glassy gaze of  a pair of boxing squirrels is not everyone’s cup of tea, but, as I argued on the blog, the presence of a cigar smoking cat or a non-plussed ram, while a little  freaky, actually indicates a bar of merit.  I mean, for a start, it won’t be a budget pub with sticky floors and a large student population, as no one would risk a beautiful rabbit with horns in an establishment where it would be at peril from cider ‘n’ black splashes. It probably won’t be one of those places with prams blocking the doors and shrieking children running through legs either, as the prospect of seeing a storybook hero decapitated and hung on a wall is traumatic, and Fantastic Mr Fox this aint. Places with taxidermy are likely to be a little bit  quirky, a little bit cool, a little bit different, and the people that inhabit them are likely to possess these traits too. Now don’t get me wrong, these are just observations, not rules fixed as hard and fast as this shrugging owl, indeed they probably don’t apply outside London where people who really, y’know hunt and shoot things, but if you’re looking for a somewhere a bit ‘different’ to go, I would suggest these places.

Photo of balloon holding squirrel by bompopsaregood via Flickr used under a Creative Commons License.

Inside the Houses of Parliament

I had to go to the Houses of Parliament for a meeting today.  As you do.

I was early for my meeting, so I did a couple of things that a tourist probably wouldn’t.

Firstly, I went into St. Margaret’s Church.  Never heard of it?  Well, that’s probably because it stands right next door to Westminster Abbey.  So you’ve got the HUGE abbey saying “look at me!!!” and it’s really easy to miss  St. Margaret’s completely (even though it’s not small), but it’s worth going in.  Admission is free, although a donation would be welcome.  St. Margaret’s is commonly known as the “parish church of the House of Commons” and was originally built in the 11th century, so there’s history shouting out from every detail inside.

It was the church in which Samuel Pepys (the famous London diarist) and Winston Churchill married their brides and Beau Brummel was baptised.  But not all the interesting bits are about famous people.  I was most touched by a simple yet beautiful hand-engraved 17th century wooden and brass plaque dedicated by a loving father to his ten-year-old daughter who died, praising her good nature, dedication and piety and hoping she would be an example to others.

It also has beautiful stained glass windows, both old and new, and while I was there a simple prayer was said that made everyone stop for a moment and think of things more important than where to go for lunch, or whether it was still snowing outside.

Having visited St. Margaret’s, I went into the Houses of Parliament and headed for Central Lobby.  You may think that if you’re not a UK citizen, you can’t go in, but during August, September and October you can book a tour.

Central Lobby is a stunning area in a breathtakingly beautiful building, as you can see here.  Pugin certainly let his talent run wild and every detail of every floor, wall, pillar, arch and ceiling is extravagant, stunning and a piece of art in its own right. Incidentally, the people-watching there is first-class too; from famous politicians and celebrities to harassed-looking young clerks and tour guides in knee-breeches, all bustling through with purpose whilst I sat there at leisure.  I’ve rarely enjoyed a ten-minute wait so much anywhere in the world.

Charmingly, it also holds the venue for my second reason for being early.  A post office.

A post office?  Really?  Yes – because I couldn’t resist writing and posting a card to my daughter in a special souvenir envelope, with a drawing of the Houses of Parliament and luxuriously embossed with the portcullis logo in gold.  And I have to say, for the sake of £2.50 plus postage I highly recommend you do so, too.  As souvenirs go, it’s pretty cool and very, very few people realise that you can do this.  The lady at Central Lobby post office stamps it with the special “House of Commons” post mark and then they give you a clear plastic envelope so your lovely message doesn’t get marked whilst going through the postal system, but arrives in pristine condition.  Great fun.  I can’t wait to see my daughter’s face when it arrives and she sees where Mummy went!

So if you’re going to Westminster remember, whilst St. Paul’s Cathedral is a must, don’t forget St. Margaret’s is there too.  And YES you CAN go into the Houses of Parliament even if you’re not a UK citizen (in the summer).  Tickets go on sale this Monday, 1st March, so get online and get booked in for the experience of a lifetime.  And don’t forget your address book…

Guest Post: Graham Greenglass – London Taxi Driver and London Tour Guide

The following is a guest post from Graham Greenglass, a London Taxi Driver and London Tour Guide. Check out his cool London tours here.

London is a small village of eight million people.  You don’t believe me?  Here’s a story to illustrate my point. Firstly, I suppose you should know that I’m a London taxi driver and on any day I can drive my black cab to any and many parts of this urban sprawl of said eight million. There is not a part of London I have not seen or been to.

One chilly morning last week I was driving empty through Kensington High Street, approaching Wholefoods (yes, we have one) when I was hailed by a slim middle aged woman, who turned out to be American.

We drove to her destination – a small Mayfair side street – via Hyde Park, past the Wellington Barracks billet of the Household Cavalry on the right, and to the left the former site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, now just a giant rectangle of grass.  The metered fare came to £11.60 which she topped up to £12.00, paying with a £20 note.

The day drags on, job follows job – sometimes more quickly than at other times – and around mid afternoon I find myself driving empty through Kensington High Street, approaching Wholefoods, when I was hailed by a slim middle aged woman, who turned out to be American.  The same middle aged American woman as before.

We laughed and made light conversation about the coincidence and when I dropped her off, in Chelsea, the metered fare came to £11.60 which she topped up to £12.00, paying with a £20 note.

This tale of connectivety brings me rather neatly to a little game that I’ve invented called ‘Six Degrees of London Separation’. It’s a simple and quite obvious game which is topped and tailed by two London subjects (the subjects can be anything or anyone connected to London at anytime).

For the first game I have selected two random and seemingly incongruous subjects: Harrods and Johnny Rotten.

Harrods – Henry Harrod, a small time tea merchant from Eastcheap in the City, bought a grocery shop in the village of Knightsbridge in 1849.  The business expanded and grew until the famous terracotta brick department store was built in 1901-05.

Dodi Fayed – Son of present Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed, who bought the store in 1985.

Princess Diana – Died in a car crash with boyfriend Dodi Fayed in Paris in August 1997.

Paul Burrell – Butler and PA to Princess Diana, up to her untimely death.

‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - Reality TV show on which Paul Burrell was a contestant (Series4).

Johnny Rotten – Londoner Johnny Rotten was lead singer of London punk band the Sex Pistols.  Under real name of John Lydon was lead singer of Public Image Limited and was a contestant on reality TV show ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ (Series 3).

Perhaps for this game to be more fun it should really involve the Anglotopia reader.  Email your two ‘separated’ suggestions to me at: enquiries@londoncabtours.co.uk /Subject: Six Degrees.

London Taxi Drivers Slang (pt1)

London Taxi Drivers have always had their slang.  It tends to be a mixture of the trades’ own originated words and phrases, cockney rhyming slang (but particular to the taxi trade) and borrowed.  Here are three examples:

The Wedding Cake – The Queen Victoria Memorial (QVM) in front of Buckingham Palace.  Basically it’s a tiered, sculpted ‘top of the wedding cake’ white marble spectacular.  Created by Sir Thomas Brock in 1911.

Sherbert (Dab) – Cockney rhyming slang for Cab.  As in most rhyming slang, only the first word is spoken.  The original sherbert dab was a traditional and much loved British sweet.  Typical usage: “I was driving my sherbert around The Wedding Cake, on my way to The Dead Zoo, when the Billy in the back asks me to take him to The Pit instead”.

Droshky – Borrowed directly from the Polish for Cab.  Many Jewish immigrants progeny were/still are cabbies in London.  Read Isaac Beshevis Singer to find many a Warsaw droshky ridden.

Check out the London Taxi Driver and London Tour Guide website.

London Travel: Quick Guide to Christmas in London 2009

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London is a particularly magical place at Christmas time and I can’t wait to experience it myself for the first time this year. So, I’ve decided to put together a quick guide to Christmas in London for 2009.

London Christmas Lights

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Most of the major Shopping Streets in London now have their Christmas lights turned on. The most popular are the Oxford Street Christmas lights which were turned on to great fanfare by Jim Carrey last week.

You can also see Christmas lights on:

  • Carnaby Street
  • Jermyn Street
  • Regent Street
  • Bond Street
  • Marylebone
  • Covent Garden will also be lit up with Christmas lights as well.

London Christmas Ice Skating

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There are several romantic venues to take in ice skating in London:

  • Natural History Museum
  • Somerset House
  • Tower of London
  • Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park
  • Hampton Court Palace
  • Canary Wharf
  • Alexandra Palace

Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree turn on Date

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London’s most prominant Christmas tree is put on display in Trafalgar Square every year. It’s always a gift from Norway and it’s decorated in Norwegian style – it’s a thank you from Norway for the War. This year the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree Lights will be turned on December 3rd 2009 – which I think is rather late and I’m going to miss it. Also, during mid-December, Trafalgar Square has carol singers who spread the festive holiday cheer.

Christmas Church Services

If you happen to be in London during the Holidays be sure to stop by St. Paul’s Cathedral or Westminter Abbey and enjoy a Christmas midnight service. All the churches in London are free and open to worshippers who’d like to experience a true English Christmas.

London Christmas Shopping

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London is a shopping mecca and there are plenty of places to do your shopping for the holidays. There’s Oxford Street of course and Covent Garden, but also the Westfield Shoppingtown Mall in Shepard’s Bush. And of course – you must stop in to the Harrod’s Christmas shop! Sadly, chances are you won’t be able to see Santa in the flesh – there are only a couple Santa’s in London and they were pretty much booked solid back in August.


Do you have any top tips for Christmas in London?