I went to London Zoo 2 weeks ago. It’s excellent. £13 to get in, but worth it. Try also the London Aquarium, which is right by the London Eye in the old Town Hall. That also rocks.
Well if I get a chance to do the Cadbury’s thing (which, really, I think I will find a way to squeeze in - it’s CHOCOLATE), you’re welcome to come along, Anqua. 
I think it highly likely that I’ll do the zoo thing too. I’m crazy about animals - how was their primate section?
Another thing I have to figure out is getting around in London. I can get around NYC no problem, but I’ve had practice. I am a little overwhelmed by the idea of trying it in London… I should use that first Sunday to practice getting around (and getting to the office) before I actually have to do it on Monday.
Sounds like a plan.
Pick up a tube map and an A-Z. They’ll help. A lot. I’m finding it easier to navigate my way round London now, and even managed it whilst totally zonked, not having slept for about 36+ hours when I got back from New Mexico.
The Natural History Museum… head straight for the life-size mock-up of a blue whale, suspended from the ceiling. Man, that is BIG!
I second (third… whatever) the Eye.
Abba, The Musical.
The Aquarium, especially for the piranha and the rays in the shallow pool - you can actually touch them (the rays, not the piranha :eek: ) Woohoo!!
re: the nightlife, London is very expensive. Of course, I was there as a student, so that’s relative. However, that city is not cheap by any standards.
The Cutty Sark is still there, if you’re interested in maritime history. Not too far away from the ship is the Greenwich observatory and the National Maritime Museum… the Maritime Museum isn’t all that great though.
Also, take the ferry from Dover to Oostende. Go to Bruges. Drink beer. Eat chocolate. Drink beer. Eat chocolate.
The Museum of London is worth a half day. It’s a museum all about the city, from Stone Age to the modern age, from Roman artifacts to the Lord Mayor’s state carriage.
Go see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Find a guard schedule, and make sure they’re actually performing the ceremony that day. (The day I went, they were conducting a full-dress rehearsal for the Queen’s Birthday parade, so the changing of the guard wasn’t being held.)
The Tube is your friend. Ride the Tube. Mind the gap.
The LonDopers are excellent pub hosts. Hi Paul! Hi Gareth! ::waves::
To echo others, see the British Museum, take in a show at The Globe (ticket prices are surprisingly good!), and meet up with the LonDopers if you can. I really enjoyed taking the barge down to Hampton Court Palace, but my companion wasn’t a castle fan and got a bit bored.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to recommend a restaurant. I almost never recommend restaurants, but one of the few I do feel confident in recommending even to people I don’t know well happens to be in London. It also happens to be quite handy to the British Museum. It’s a little Greek place called “Konaki” at 5 Coptic Street. Friendly staff, reasonable prices, and delicious Greek food.
Oh, and don’t worry too much about finding your way – the Tube system is actually really easy. I got the “London A-Z” guide before I went, and it had the famous Tube map printed on the back. I’d pretty much worked out which lines I should take to get different places before I even reached England. But it did take a little experience to figure out that if you’re going to The Globe it’s really more convenient to go to St. Paul’s station and walk across the bridge rather than go to one of the stations on the south side of the Thames.
If you’re looking for a fun night out I can’t recommend “Jerry Springer the Opera” highly enough - especially with you being a yank and all that.
Also Hamsptead heath is worth a visit (or nearby Primrose Hill) for the view.
Why not take in a cricket game as well? The 20/20 games (or the limited overs stuff) are easily accesible if you’re not used to it.
Also; there is nothing wrong with touristy - with the exception of Mme Tussauds most stuff is popular for a reason.
Something that is running for a limited time is “D-Day duck tours” - a sightseeing trip in a day day amphibious craft. Its run by the Imperial War Museum. Deatails here:
http://london.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/4/dday/ducktours.htm
Enjoy your trip.
Echo what was said about the Tube and the A-Z, but I’ll also point out that most touristy places in Zone 1 are within walking distance of each other. Because the underground has so many lines and stations, the system looks deceptively large on paper. In reality, it’s very easy to walk above ground between stations in central London (in fact, often you’ll save time otherwise spent on endless escalators and corridors underground).
(On a side note, if you’re used to the grid system of streets in American cities, London’s twists and turns may be a shock!)
I must admit I’ve been here three months now but I still haven’t done any of the touristy things listed above (besides drinking with LonDopers!). :o
I don’t see anyone recommending the National Gallery, which was the highlight of my London trip. Great museum with great art, especially Renaissance art. Since I’m a bit biased against modern art, I much preferred it to the Tate Modern.
Another vote for the London Eye.
My favorite part of my London trip was the Cabinet War Rooms. The underground chambers from which Churchill directed the war- virtually untouched. You get an audio tour and everything. I was in awe.
And Ryanair flies ridiculously cheap flights a few times daily to Dublin. So you could even bounce over to Ireland for a bit and enjoy that as well.
Money will be tight. Damn, but it’s expensive over there. But the people are friendly and there’s something to see pretty much everywhere. I stayed at the Tudor Court Hotel right by Paddington Station, and it was convenient to everything. I highly recommend it.
I was very poor when I was there so I walked many a mile those few days.
I second owlstretchingtime with the Primrose Hill suggestion; great place to sit and read a book, and meet a person or two. Also, agree with Endemic’s advice to check out the Portobello Road.
cheers
If you’ve never seen Paris, the Eurostar does day trips for £50. You can get a feel for the place, but it’s a long old day.
You might want to try a few of the London Walks. These are good value and informative. There are several companies but I’ve always found these to be good (they do trips out of London too).
And if you’ve fallen for the myth that the English are reserved and repressed you could do worse than have your eyes opened at the singalonga Sound of Music or a School Disco at the Hammersmih Palais.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Yes - in Greenwich, some way downriver from London proper. You can get there via the Docklands light railway (Cutty Sark station, surprisingly 
), or by river cruise. It’s certainly worth the trip by itself - but you can also combine it with a trip to the Royal Observatory, and do the cheesy tourist photo straddling the Greenwich Meantime meridian 
There’s a fabulously useful modification of the Tube map here, which shows which stations are within walking distance of one another. (Warning, it’s a big image file)
Note to self: Do not plan trips one week in advance.
Air arrangements are worked out… Trying to find a hotel that isn’t going to give accounting a freaking heart attack, not so easy. Apparently there’s some air show in London next weekend, so hotel rates are higher than normal. Of course, maybe you in the know can tell me if 175 pounds (how DO I make the pound sign?) is standard for standard rooms in London. That’s the negotiated rate with Hyatt Regency, for my firm, which seems damn good for that hotel. I just would like to be able to assure my accounting department at my agency (since they have to pay and then bill the firm that I’m working at) that it’s not an astronomically high amount. Hell if I can find anything cheaper.
Very nice concierge there, though. He worked out where I’m working, how far the hotel is from there, and the subway routes I’ll need to take (only one transfer, woo hoo!). He says he’ll take me down to the station when I arrive to help me make sense of it all.
OK, so, 175 pounds on 1 week notice at a very nice hotel. Reasonable or no? Cast your votes now!
(Really, you guys are an incredible help. I won’t have a dull moment when I get there, from the sounds of it.)
OK, all is set. I’m flying out 8:01 Friday night, arriving 8:04 Saturday a.m., staying at the Club Quarters Gracechurch on (surprisingly enough, it’s on Gracechurch Street). Anyone know anything about this hotel? It appears to be fairly nice, but a far sight cheaper than the Regency. And it’s close to a lot of the suggestions here, and should be walking distance from the office.
<Joey>
I’m going to London, baby!
</Joey>
It’s undecided as to how long I’ll be there, so the best definitive plans for me would be the weekend of the 17, because I will definitely be in town then.
I have a little travelogue around here somewhere that I wrote after my trip in November.
It’s ultimately destined for my web page, but I’ve been slacking off on that, so all it is is text - no pics yet.
If I can find it, I’ll post it.
Found it! Here are days 1-6 (7-12 to follow).
I’ve listed approximate prices we paid in USD. Prices will be a bit higher for you, because the US dollar has fallen against the pound. You’re also going in July vs. November, so that may affect admissions prices too (?).
We did far less than half the stuff we wanted to do, but Motorboy & I decided beforehand that we were going to do everything at a relaxed pace, and the things we did do we were going to do thoroughly. We’ve saved many many many things for our future trips. Because we WILL be going back!
Day 1: Sunday November 2
Flew Boston to London via Dulles (stupid flight path, but it was using Frequent Flyer miles, so we didn’t complain too loudly).
**Day 2: Monday November 3 **
Arrived in London (Heathrow). Before the trip we had researched the best way to get from the airport to the hotel (near the Marble Arch tube stop). There’s an Airbus that takes you from Heathrow around to various central hotels, and which stopped at Marble Arch. That was about $10 per person, I think, and took an hour. Subway (tube) would have been around $5 per person, and also took an hour. Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station was last choice cost-wise (it costs about $25 per person), but when we arrived we really liked the idea of getting to Paddington (a 10-minute walk from our hotel) in 15 minutes, so we took Heathrow Express. We landed around 9am and were checked into the hotel by 10:30.
Showered & changed & set off for our first day in London.
Notes on the hotel: Bryanston Court/Hotel Concorde, on Great Cumberland Place, 2 short blocks from Marble Arch tube stop, Hyde Park, many major bus routes on Oxford Street. I highly recommend the neighborhood. It’s relatively quiet on the side streets, but close to tons of restaurants, and public transporation to the major sights. I recommend the hotel less, especially if you can afford a nicer place. We paid 70GBP per night (about 100USD), and while the hotel was perfectly OK, it was slightly shabby and worn. It was clean, dry & warm & acceptable, though far from luxurious. We couldn’t have asked for a better location, though.
We walked to the corner of Great Cumberland Place and Oxford Street, right on Hyde Park Corner. We ducked into the Pret a Manger ( http://www.pret.com ) there to grab coffee & a snack. We ate sandwiches from Pret many many many times, and coffee every morning. They make great sandwiches. Fresh, tasty, high quality ingredients. Their croissants and coffees are great, too. Try the black pepper & sea salt potato chips. Yum.
Then we went on one of the hop-on-hop-ff tour around the city buses. 3 or 4 of the tour companies stop at Marble Arch, so it’s easy to get a tour bus there. We were planning to go with either BigBus or Original, and ended up using Big Bus http://www.bigbus.co.uk/ because that’s the kiosk we ran across first. Their tickets are good for 24 hours. Since we bought them just before noon, ours were good until noon the next day. We hopped on the bus and went upstairs to the upper open deck. It was a sunny day, around 55 degrees. We wore sweaters & windbreakers & gloves and hats and were warm enough. We drank our coffee & ate our snacks and let the tour company show us around London for a couple of hours. It was a great way to get a feel for how London is laid out and where the major sights are. Snapped lots of photos. You’re not allowed to stand up while the bus is moving (they don’t care to lose any more tourists from Kansas over the side, I suppose) but the bus stops frequently in traffic, so you can stand up then to get good photos with unobstructed views. At first Motorboy didn’t realize he was allowed to stand up while the bus was stopped, so we have several photos that include the bus railing. D’oh!
We got off the bus at Westminster Pier, which is right next to Big Ben, Parliament & Westminster Abbey.
We found public restroom in the tube station and used it.
Important Note on public restrooms in London: They’re everywhere, they are generally nice & clean, and for the most part they are free. Almost every tube stop has a public restroom that is outside the turnstiles, so you don’t have to pay to get on the tube in order to use their bathrooms. There are also free-standing public toilets that you have to pay to get into, though we didn’t use any of those.
We gazed reverently at Big Ben & Parliament. Didn’t tour either, but they’re really nice to look at from the outside. Then we crossed the street and went into Westminster Abbey. Admission was around 6GBP. Lovely building, worth the price of admission. Lots of graves of kings and queens and famous poets and things. Really enjoyed it a lot. ( [Joey] Hands down, best abbey I ever seen [/Joey] ) Then we stopped at the Abbey cafe for a hot drink (coffee again) and we split a sausage, bacon & egg sandwich. Not as good as a Pret sandwich, but still tasty. They were serving some very good-smelling soups, but we’d already bought the sandwich by the time we discovered the soup. So no soup for us!
We wandered around a bit more, admiring the art & architecture, then decided to get back on the tour bus & do more touring. We couldn’t find the bus stop at first, but finally did, and got on the bus & let it drive us around some more. We hopped off at Marble Arch & went in search of dinner. We were jetlagged so our internal clocks were way off. It was 5pm but we were ready for supper so we could go to sleep. Only restaurants generally don’t serve dinner 'til after 6. We walked a few blocks to the Victoria pub, but it wasn’t serving dinner 'til 6, nor were the two pubs we passed on our way back to the hotel, so we decided to grab sandwiches at Pret and eat them at the hotel. We did, and then we ate, and went to sleep around 7pm.
**Day 3: Tuesday November 4 **
Next day we woke up, ate the free breakfast at the hotel, grabbed coffees from Pret, and hopped back on the Big Bus (tickets were still good 'til noon) and rode it to the British Museum.
At the British Museum we toured the Egypt, Greek, Roman stuff (the British museum has the biggest collection of Egyptian stuff outside Egypt. A Century of imperial pilfering will accomplish that!). We had lunch at the museum cafe, and looked at the Rosetta Stone a bit, some mummies & the Sutton Hoo exhibit. British Museum is more than worth the price of admission (ha ha, very funny - it’s FREE!) if you’re interested in antiquities & archaeology.
After the museum we walked around the neighborhood a bit, bought some strange chewing gum & candy, then headed towards Oxford street and went to some shops. I bought a book of pub walks in London. We took a bus back to Marble Arch and walked around in Hyde Park a bit & ate our new candy.
Then we went to the Royal Exchange (one of the pubs in our new pub book) which was between our hotel and the Victoria (pub we tried to eat at last night). The Royal Exchange is a Free House, meaning it is not tied to a brewery so it can serve any beers it wants to serve. It’s historic, quite old, and a little worn, but it was a nice place to have a relaxing drink. We each had a pint of Boddingtons & looked through our tour books to decide what to do the next day. After our pint we headed for the Victoria ( http://www.pubs.com/victw2.htm ), since it was now 6 and they should be serving food. The place is really nice, though pretty small. (not as small as the Royal Exchange, though). We ordered pints of Fullers ESB and Fullers London Pride (the Victoria is a Fullers house) and Motorboy had the sausages & mash and I the Guinness & Steak Pie. Both really really good, as long as you like gravy.
After dinner we lingered over our pints for a little, then walking back to the hotel we popped into the Masons Arms, which is right around the corner from the hotel. A pint each of Sussex bitter finished up our evening, then back to the hotel and to sleep.
**Day 4: Wednesday November 5 **
Grabbed Pret coffees & took a (long) walk across Hyde Park to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and/or the Natural History Museum. We saw some strange birds that we later learned were cormorants, and some regular duck & swan type birds. Also people riding horses.
The first of our target museums that we ran across after the park was the Science Museum, which happened to be putting on a special Lord of the Rings exhibit. We had to go, of course, so we coughed up 10GBP each (the Science Museum itself is free) and saw the exhibit. It was just OK. Then we looked through the other exhibits, which IMO were OK for a free museum. Some of the exhibits were very dated-looking. Motorboy really got into some of them, though… moreso than I did. I’d say it’s worth a visit if you’re a hard-core science person or a kid young enough to play with the hands-on stuff.
After the science museum we took the tube to Knightsbridge (in retrospect it would have been way shorter to walk) and visited the Nag’s Head, another historic pub. ( http://www.pubs.com/nagssw1.htm ) This is where I finally remembered that the English serve half pints in addition to pints (halves are a bit more my speed, since that way I can try more than one beer & not get sloshed AND you can have one with lunch and not feel sleepy or tipsy and can continue with your afternoon). We bought halfs of Adnam’s Bitter & Broadside (a recent winner of some award) and shared them. The Broadside was really tasty. The Nag’s Head was a great little place. Very cozy & relaxing, with a fireplace. Also very small.
After our halfs we took the tube to Holborn & wandered around looking for a likely place to eat dinner. We tried the Princess Louise pub ( http://www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=ShowDoc&DocID=678 and http://www.pubs.com/louiwc2.htm ) reputed to have a fabulous men’s room, but it was closed for a private party. We found an Indian restaurant - Spice of London on Drury Lane - and ordered the fixed price menu for two. The appetizers & main dish were not things I’d had before, and I don’t know what they were called, but they were really good. Yum.
After dinner we wandered around that neighborhood for a bit, went into a Sainsbury’s supermarket to check out what kind of weird British foods we could find. We bought some candy & also a can of chicken & rabbit cat food (a souvenir for our cats who were waiting patiently for us back in Boston).
**Day 5: Thursday November 6 **
Pret coffee again. Then we took the tube to Waterloo Station to check out train schedules for day trips out to Hampton Court Palace and Stonehenge. We decided we’d go to Hampton Court Palace the next day, and bought some kind of super-saver tickets that only cost 4.50GBP each.
After buying the tickets we crossed the river to Westminster Pier and took a riverboat cruise to Greenwich. The 7-day Travel Cards we had bought for the tube & buses got us a discount of a few pounds on the boat tickets (Red Rover was the tour name, I think). So if you take a boat cruise, make sure you ask if you get any kind of discount if you have a travel card or tube pass. After the discount, our boat tix were 5.50GBP each.
The boat took us downriver past the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, lots of sights. The captain acted as an informal tour guide & told us lots of interesting & amusing things about the sights we passed. It was a nice ride. In Greenwich we walked up to the Royal Observatory, saw the Prime Meridian, walked through the (free) museum and the gift shop. Though it is free to get into the Royal Observatory/museum, you do have to get a (free) ticket from the person at the (free) ticket booth. Strange but true (and free).
After the observatory we stopped for lunch at the Kings Arms. We had halfs of Hobgoblin & Courage Director’s Bitter, and split an appetizer platter of fried sausage-type thingies. Tasty but heavy. The beers were OK.
Then we eyeballed the Cutty Sark a bit, but didn’t tour it (free, I think) because the boat was about to leave. (our boat, not the Cutty Sark) We rode the boat back from Greenwich to London in the sunset, very beautiful. Big Ben & Parliament were all lit up after dark. Very pretty.
After disembarking we walked over to the Red Lion on Parliament street ( http://www.pubs.com/redl3sw1.htm ) and had halfs of Tetley’s. This is the Red Lion that members of Parliament hang out in during the day. They reputedly have a bell that rings when something is coming up for a vote, so the MPs can go back across the street to vote. There are a couple of other Red Lions in the city that we didn’t visit. It was pretty crowded, so we went outside to sit on a bench with our beers.
Important Note on Drinking on the Street in England: It’s quite legal. If a pub gets crowded, the clientele will hang out on the sidewalk. Some pubs have picnic tables or benches outside for the outside customers, but some don’t so you just kind of hang out on the sidewalk sipping your drink and shooting the breeze. Many pubs will have little ledges hanging off the windows where you can rest your glass. Always take your glass back in when you’re done, or sometimes you’ll see a nook where the regulars are leaving their empty glasses & you can leave yours there. No table service in pubs, except to bring you food you’ve ordered, so go right up to the bar to order & pay for your drinks, and usually also to order food.
You can also apparently wander around with cans & bottles of beer, and picnic on the park with wine & beer and not get in trouble. They’re very relaxed about it.
After the Red Lion we went to the Albert on Victoria street ( http://www.pubs.com/albesw1.htm ) and had a couple more halfs of John Courage Best Bitter & John Smith’s Extra Smooth. We then headed back towards the hotel to find a place for dinner. We went to some Italian place off Great Cumberland Place that was strange. Food not terribly good, it was really noisy even though there were only about 10 people in there (horrible acoustics, I guess) and the service was bad. I don’t recommend it.
**Day 6: Friday November 7 **
We picked up Pret coffee & croissants and took the train from Waterloo station to Hampton Court Palace. About a 45 minute trip. Great day trip!! In the morning we toured the grounds and the formal gardens, then had lunch at a pub called the Prince of Wales. I had a Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding Wrap, and Motorboy had a Bacon Cheese Burger. Portions were huge, food was OK but nothing to write home about. We split a half of Greene King IPA and a half of Old Speckled Hen. Both were cask ales, and neither tasted like they took great care of their kegs & lines.
After lunch we toured the royal apartments & the kitchens at the palace, then train back to city.
I totally recommend Hampton Court Palace if you like palaces & things like that.
We went to see The Matrix Reloaded at the Odeon Theatre on Edgeware Road. Horribly uncomfortable seats, but I really like the English system of assigned seating for movies. Your ticket price depends on what seat you buy, I think, like going to a play.
After the movie we weren’t very hungry, due to the popcorn & soda (oh, they also have GREAT concessions at the movies in London. Maybe everywhere in Europe, but I’ve only been to the movies in London so far. The concession stand is basically a convenience store. You can buy so much stuff! Great selection!) so we went to the Masons Arms & had pints of Sussex Bitter and some kind of cider. After hanging out there for a bit we were hungry. Their kitchen was closed, so we went to a convenience store (Pret closes at 6) and got some sandwiches & chips & candy. Not bad for convenience store sandwiches. A bit fresher than their American counterparts. The roast beef & mustard flavored potato chips were icky.
During dinner in the hotel room we watched The Osbournes on TV, with none of the swearwords bleeped out. You can say anything on TV, apparently, even the F-word and the C-word.
Days 7-12
Day 7: Saturday November 8
Saturday morning we got our Pret coffee and then went to the Portobello Road market. What a zoo! Unbelievably crowded. So crowded you couldn’t see most of the merchandise without being really aggressive, which neither I nor Motorboy was inclined to be. So we browsed from afar, then walked over to Hyde Park and investigated Kensington Gardens (the “fancy” side of Hyde Park, which adjoins Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived). It was a lot nicer than the side our hotel was on. More trees, more benches, more inviting. We ate some Pret sandwiches on a bench in the sun and had a good time. Then we walked around a lot, visited the Albert memorial (big, shiny, gold & gaudy) and some other statues.
After lunch we walked to the Archery Tavern ( pubs.com - pubs Resources and Information. ) and had halfs of Badger Best Bitter and Tanglefoot. While we were relaxing over our halfs, we kept hearing clippity-cloppety noises which sounded a lot like horses, but we didn’t know what it was. As we were leaving we noticed that an alley that ran right next to the wall we were sitting against led to a stable, so the clippity-cloppety noises were from actual horses.
After our drinks we went to Oxford Street & Tottenham Court Road & browsed in stores looking at stuff, tacky souvenirs & the like. Then we went to Leicester Square to see what plays we could get half-price tickets to. None of them appealed to us so we wandered around a little, looked at shops, and went to the Lamb & Flag for a drink. It was down a narrow, curved alley, and was totally crowded, but we stood in the alley to drink our halfs of Young’s Bitter & Winter Warmer. We had a corner of the window ledge, and we were happy just to soak up the atmosphere. ( pubs.com - pubs Resources and Information. ) In the photo at the website, picture me & Motorboy at the rightmost window, next to the door. After dark by lamplight. Pretty cool!
After that we went to the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden. Lots of great stuff in their giftshop, and the exhibits were really fun, too. They had simulators where you could drive a double-decker bus and a tube train. It’s really hard! Also the videos of the driving tests for the drivers of double-decker buses were cool. Highly recommended museum.
We looked for a pub to get dinner in, but because it was Saturday night in the Theatre District they were all too crowded, so we went back to the Victoria for Fullers ESB, sausages & mash and a great chicken Caesar salad.
Day 8: Sunday November 9
Sunday morning we did laundry at the laundromat around the corner from our hotel (we only brought one carry-on bag each - packed very light!). During the wash & dry we drank Pret coffee, filled out postcards, and played gin.
Then we took the bus to the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum. The V&A is a very eclectic collection of things. The clothing & costumes were very cool, and the armory, and the silver room. In the Natural History Museum we visited the taxidermy collections of mammals & birds of the world, and the dinosaur stuff. The dinosaur exhibit was pretty good, IMO. I would recommend both of these museums.
After the museums we walked along Brompton Road in Knightsbridge towards Harrods. On the way we ran across the Bunch of Grapes ( pubs.com - pubs Resources and Information. ) and had halfs of Fullers. The beers tasted “off” and I don’t think they take good care of their casks & lines. Nice place atmospherically but I can’t recommend their cask ales. Maybe their non-cask beers are better taken care of.
After the Bunch of Grapes we wandered through Harrods looking for cushy socks for Motorboy whose feet were killing him. Didn’t find any, but the store is nice, though expensive & a little overwhelming. I almost bought some very expensive chocolates in the food halls.
For dinner we went to Wagamama (a local chain of noodle shops) near Bond St tube station. I had a bowl of chili chicken ramen, Motorboy had shichimi spiced duck ramen, and we started with gyoza & edamame. Yummy, and relatively inexpensive. A good place for a quick lunch or dinner.
On the way home from dinner we stopped into Boots (a drugstore) to get new cushy insoles for Motorboy’s shoes, and also bought a 6-pack of FCUK condoms as a souvenir for our friend Chuck. (since November, the FCUK brand has really taken off in Boston, but before then we had seen very ittle of it)
Then we stopped off at the Masons Arms for a Guinness and a Sussex Bitter. It was a quiet night at the Masons Arms, so we were able to snag the enclosed private drinking booth. It had a little window that opened to the bar, I assume so you could order without leaving your private booth, but they’d sealed it shut. 
**Day 9: Monday November 10 **
We got our Pret coffees then went straight to the Tower of London. It was November, and a weekday, so the line to get tickets wasn’t terribly long (maybe 100 people) and it moved quickly. We weren’t so much waiting for them to let us in as we were waiting for them to sell everyone tickets. They shuttled everyone through as fast as they could process credit cards.
Admission for two plus a guide book was 30GBP, the most expensive thing we’d done so far, but in my opinion totally worth it. You can walk through almost the whole thing, at your own pace or with a Yeoman Warder guide. There is a lot to see, lots of history. The crown jewels were huge!
The guide book I bought because it had some history of each building & the people involved, and I needed a refresher. 6GBP for the guide.
After the Tower we went to the Hoop & Grapes for lunch. Possibly the oldest pub in London. It survived the great fire of 1666 which wiped out almost the entire city. ( pubs.com - pubs Resources and Information. )
It was in a neighborhood I probably wouldn’t go to alone at night, but in the daytime it was a good enough neighborhood.
Then on to St. Paul’s Cathedral. A must-see, IMO. Not only is it a beautiful building with great art & dead people in it, but if you’re not afraid of heights, you should walk up the stairs to the Whispering Gallery and the other two observation galleries above that. However, if you are afraid of heights, I should warn you that you will not enjoy it. Great panoramic view of the city from the Stone Gallery and the Golden Gallery, and dizzying views of the body of the cathedral from the Whispering Gallery. You have to climb 530 steps to get all the way to the Golden Gallery. Only about 250 to the Whispering Gallery.
We had a snack of caramel shortbread in the crypt cafe, visited the giftshop, and then went back to the hotel to rest a bit.
For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant near Bond Street tube stop called Amjadia. The food was good, but not as good as at Spice of London.
Day 10: Tuesday November 11
On Tuesday we picked up our Pret coffees then took the tube to Waterloo Station and the train out to Salisbury to visit Stonehenge. The train ride was about 2 hours. At the station in Salisbury we found info for the bus out to Stonehenge. We picked up sandwiches, fruit & beer at the little cafe at the station then hopped the bus to Stonehenge. It was about 30 minutes by bus. We paid our admission and picked up the audio guides. Don’t recall if we had to pay extra - I don’t think so. Then we wandered around Stonehenge. The day was foggy & cold, perfectly spooky for visiting Stonehenge. We spent about an hour and a half getting thoroughly cold & damp in the fog, but having a great time, then visited the gift shop and made a picnic lunch of our sandwiches & beer while waiting for the bus back to Salisbury.
Back in Salisbury we visited Salisbury Cathedral, which was very cool. Definitely my favorite of all the cathedrals & abbeys & churches we saw in England. We eyeballed an original Magna Carta and then looked for a place to get dinner. Came up empty on that front, strangely enough, so we took the train back to London and went to the Masons Arms for fish & chips, steak & ale pie and 2 pints of Tanglefoot. The food was good, but not as good as the Victoria. We were warming up by the fire after our long day in the damp, though, so it was a great meal nonetheless.
**Day 11: Wednesday November 12 **
We slept late and missed the free breakfast at the hotel and so had cappuccino & chocolate croissants at Pret. Mmm, warm croissants filled with chocolate.
We took the tube to the Museum of London. Great museum, one of the museum highlights of the trip. Great background on the history of London from prehistoric times 'til the present. I bought several small books about English culinary history.
We had some cake & coffee at the museum cafe, then afterwards walked a few blocks to the Viaduct Tavern (its basement used to be part of the notorious Newgate Prison). We had halfs of Tetley’s and watched the media set up outside. They were waiting for a high-profile murder trial to let out at the Old Bailey across the street.
We went back to the Victoria for dinner (can you tell we’re creatures of habit?) and parked ourselves in one of the two upstairs rooms (very small, but nice) and got kicked out because they were closing for a private function. Well, kicked out is a bit harsh. The staff were very nice when they let us know we couldn’t stay up there. So we found a table by the fire downstairs and had more Steak & Guinness Pie and Sausages & Mash, and pints of Fullers ESB.
**Day 12: Thursday November 13 **
In the morning we went souvenir shopping on Oxford street, lingered over coffee at Pret, wandered around the neighborhood and discovered lots of restaurants & pubs we hadn’t known were there. We had a final pair of halfs at the Carpenters Arms (next to the Masons Arms), then picked up our luggage, walked back to Paddington Station & took the Heathrow Express to the airport. How sad. We had to go home.
I have never been in the hotel but have walked past it many time (I used to work in the city). THe area is very commercial, being mainly banks and financial offices. It’s very well served for pubs and restaurants. However these will be very busy with city boys (one huge difference between the City and Wall St is that in the City people drink an AWFUL lot). Corney and Barrow is food as is the big pub on Cornhill (forget the name - it used to be a bank).
But beware: Everything (literally everything, even some of the tubes) closes at the weekend.