Well as is my custom, I find myself planning 11 days in advance for a two week (or longer) business trip to London. I’ll be working, and probably quite a lot, during the week, but I’ll have weekends free to do some sightseeing. So what can you tell me about London nightlife, and good things to do on the weekends?
Woo hoo! I can’t wait.
Take the Globe Theater tour, and, if possible, see a play there.
I second the Globe. Very nifty. Also:
DO:
2)See everything you can! Experience the culture! Try new foods! Have fun!
DON’T:
Don’t eat at crappy wanna-be-American restaurants! Avoid Hard Rock at all costs!
Don’t buy crappy tourist-y souvenirs! If you find something nice, most places can ship it home for you.
The British Museum is a damn cool place. “Hey, what’s that… oh, it’s the Rosetta Stone.”
Touristy as they are, the double-decker tour busses are actually fun. I have never been on a Thames boat tour, though.
Come out drinking with the LonDopers?
OK, the British Museum is definitely a must then. The Rosetta Stone? How cool!
OK, adding Romeo & Juliet at the Globe to my list of “would really like to do”
And of course, a night of carousing with LonDopers is something I’m definitely up for!
And I’m quite sure that we’ll be able to sort something out. I’ll sling various Londopers a link to this thread.
The two times I’ve been in London, I’ve found it difficult to drag myself out of the Victoria & Albert museum to see other stuff. I did make a very, ummm, interesting exception for the LonDopers the last time. though. Do it! You won’t regret it.
British Museum is my top choice too, but also consider
The Victoria and Albert museum,
The Tate Modern (if you like modern art),
The Imperial war Museum (if military history is your thing).
Apparently the Royal Albert Hall has a new (or refurbished) organ just installed, if you like organ music that may be a good one.
There are lots of small specialised museums that are non the less world class (in their speciality) so if you like stamps, or Dickens, or dungeons, or …, there is probably a good place to see what you want.
If you want to see a castle, then a trip out of London is needed, I might recomend Leeds castle (not in Leeds, actually quite close to London), and Windsor castle for their beauty. Realy utilitarian castles though are further away.
The Tate itself is quite nice as well. And, if its a clear day, one of the best things I’ve been told you can do, is climb to the top of St Paul’s Cathedreal. You can go between the two domes, which I’m told is a rather strange experience.
Depending on your feelings towards modern art, I strongly recommend the Tate Modern. First of all the space is amazing. Secondly they arrange the art differently than about any other modern art museum I’ve been, sort of around broad themes. The Tate-to-Tate ferry is also fun on a nice day (it goes between the Tate Modern and the Tate Gallery, and the cost is reduced if you are already carrying a daypass for the Tube). You’ll pass the Houses of Parliament on your way upriver.
From the Tate Modern you can walk across the Millenium footbridge to St. Paul’s on the other side. (and pick up ther tube there too)
The Saatchi Gallery is even more edgy/contemporary/more paintings made from pooop and is not for every taste. I’d say the art was about 40% interesting, 60% “tried too hard to shock; ended up boring.” Saatchi is also more expensive – at something like 8 GBP ($16) its a little steep for someone with a passing interest.
Some people really like the Eye. Its a gigantic ferris wheel right on the river offering tremendous views on a clear day. (Right out front of the Saatchi Gallery – the Tate-to-Tate ferry makes a stop there, actually).
For museums I also like the National Portrait Gallery. Very interesting, and you can do the whole museum without dropping from exhaustion.
Enjoy!!
Oh, and for fantastic art, in a smallish museum, try the Courtauld Institute, on the Strand near Waterloo Bridge. http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_galleries/courtauld_institute1.htm
Blimey Bippy - thats just round the corner from me and i didn’t even know it existed. Cheers!
And when do we want to do beer? My sidekick flatcapboy and i need time to prepare…
Careful what you say, minion. if we do this week on saturday, I got peeps coming down from up north, so it may not be a goer. we’ll see
A week Saturday is bad for me as well. Going to visit parents. However, I suppose it all depends, ultimately on TellMeI’mNotCrazy’s plans.
You could go see the Gilbert collection at Somerset House. It’s probably the best collection of micromosaics, pietre dure, and metalwork on the planet. There are pietre dure “mosaics”, in which differently colored, large slabs of stone are fitted together to make a picture in which the color variations on the stones contribute to the shading and realism of the scene. There’s a 4000 y.o. Anatolian ewer, and a solid gold teaset that was made for the last Czar. And hundreds of other pieces, each fascinating in its own way.
All this used to be in the L.A. County Museum Of Art, to which Arthur Gilbert, an expatriate real estate developer, had lent it, and promised to give outright eventually. However, due to a squabble over display space, he reneged on his promise and took it all, lock, stock, and barrel, to England where it now is.
It’s been six years, and I still haven’t gotten over my favorite exhibit in my local museum being shipped 8000 miles away.
Get in the chunnel and take it all the way to Paris.
Well a week from Saturday wouldn’t be much good for me either, seeing as that is the day I’ll be arriving. But I should be there the two weekends beyond that at the very least, so either of those two would work well.
Also, what about zoos in London? I loves me a good zoo.
The ORIGINAL Zoo is in London. Strangely enough it’s called London Zoo 