Just got home from a 12 day trip to England. Spent a week in London and 5 days in the Cotswolds.
First day back to work so thought I’d share the experience while still basking in the glow:
I’m compelled to agree with Samuel Johnson: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
For our stay, we carefully chose a central location, in the heart of Soho.
We walked or took the tube to everything we wanted to see, which included the obvious tourist attractions and museums. Took a quick cruise on the Thames from Westminster to London Bridge. Even spent a few hours walking around and eating at the Borough Market - must experience.
My wife had the brilliant foresight to book some theater tickets and we saw “No Man’s Land” sitting ten rows from the stage where Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. Brilliant!
Enjoyed some fantastic dining and drinks at various places. The more memorable were: Artisan - voted “best bar in the world”, followed by dinner at Picture, behind All Saints and the new BBC building (impressive sights at night). Also, worth the mention are Ottelenghi’s NOPI, and Sketch for afternoon tea. Finally, drinks and dinner atHutong in The Shard, mostly for the stunning views of London at night.
Found London to be incredibly hospitable overall. Took a couple of days to adjust to the level of crowds and overwhelming architecture everywhere you look. But once we got into the groove of the place, it was much more exciting than overwhelming.
Londoners seem to take a particular pride in their appearance and it was great to see such a significant number of people so well dressed and fashion forward. We visited some of the major stores and could easily get carried away with the great selection of clothes and shoes. Fortunately, we resisted due to lack of luggage space.
After a week in London, we rented a car and headed to the Cotswolds.
The Cotswolds are indescribably beautiful. Every town is picture perfect. Every country lane we drove down was scenic. You have to experience it to believe it. Pictures almost don’t do it justice.
We stayed at a beautiful estate/farm resort that proved every bit as comfortable as it was luxurious. The food served at their restaurant was excellent and largely sourced from their own farm, which we had the opportunity to walk around and explore.
We had dinner at a nearby town pub and it was equally delicious and absolutely as quaint as you’d imagine an old English pub to look and feel.
I’d finally ate my fill of scotch eggs on this trip but could have done with more sausage rolls.
Driving was a fantastic experience. First time driving a right hand drive car. Picked it up in London so it was trial by fire from the first moment behind the wheel.
Even the car itself was a special experience. I reserved a 2017 MB C250D coupe with AMG package. Fully loaded. Turned out, it was freshly delivered the day before with just 17 miles on the odometer. What a great car. Doing 90-100 on the M4 and the engine never exceeded 2000 rpm. It was a bit large navigating the single track country lanes but I managed to keep it between the hedges.
The weather was fantastic. Single digits in the evening and mid teens in the days. It would shower briefly from time to time but not for long and then the sun would come out again. Being fall people, we appreciated every bit of it.
Finally, the one negative experience, coming and going, was Heathrow Airport. What a fucking pain in the ass that was. Almost enough to put me off of visiting London again.
Isn’t it a great city? I’ve been there quite a few times over the last year on business, and I love the vibe of the city.
I too stay in the heart of the city, a block away from Trafalgar Square. I concur with your comments on the energy of the city, and the overall nature of Londoners. Have not had a single unpleasant experience there.
Anyway, great post. Reminded me of many of the things I like about the city.
We took the family on a London trip several years ago and agree that getting into the mood of the city was hard, but we eventually got comfortable. Took the tube and enjoyed it. We did several Walking Tours, attended some theater, ate some forgettable food. (I heard the food has gotten better since then.)
We did a day-trip to York (railroad museum). Instead of renting a car, we took the train. We also took the Eurostar through the tunnel and spent two days in Paris.
Thanks for bringing back the memories! It was a great trip for us too.
That’s kph, right? Because the speed limit on motorways is 70 mph (~110 kph), and there are speed cameras so those exceeding the limits get fines through the post.
Another concurrence with London being a great city to visit. The nicest thing is that no matter where you stay in the city, you are usually no more than a block or two from some sort of public transit and can get damn near anywhere you want (Oyster cards are cool).
Only other two foreign (I’m American) cities I enjoyed as much were Amsterdam and Singapore.
I spent a week in London back in 2003, then took the Chunnel for a week in Paris. I arrived on May 1, right after the beginning of the Gulf War. My hotel was right near Trafalgar Square, and the entire area was absolutely packed with war protesters. Took forever to get through the crowds to my hotel.
I especially loved the British Museum and Covent Garden. The only thing I saw outside London was Stonehenge.
I haven’t been there since 1976, and I doubt that I’d like it very much now. My first visit there was in 1968, though, and I was quite surprised by how simple a pleasure it was, easy to get around, and very cheap (dollar-wise) in those days. Staying in a B&B in Edgeware Road for 15sh, about two bucks.
I was there in 1993 and enjoyed it immensely. The people I met were unfailingly courteous and helpful–even a pair of drunk street people we encountered on our “Haunted London” tour.
I was asked if I found London an expensive city. Sure, but I’m from Los Angeles, and living here isn’t cheap. Some things were more expensive in London than in LA; some cheaper. I felt it was pretty much a wash.
The only disappointment was the fact that the transport museum was closed for renovation, but I did visit the RAF museum at Hendon and the city of London museum in the Barbican.
Plus, we (My wife and I ) rented a car and drove to Stonehenge and the auto museum at Beaulieu (or however the hell it is spelled).
We spent a week there, staying at a hotel near Covent Garden.
I’d say that London was expensive only for accommodation. Once you’ve got your hotel sorted out, transport, food and entertainment are very reasonable. You could easily fill a full week with purely free things to do. Heck, the free museums and galleries would fill up a week. And as an example I ate in a very tasty thai restaurant in the centre that gave me an excellent set meal with lemon grass tea and honey for £9.95. ($12 at current prices and no tip required) That’s pretty representative.
We live just an hour and half away by train and we often travel up for a few days break. We solve the accommodation issue by staying slightly out of the centre near Canary wharf. We are up there for a couple of days next with the kids and our family room in a budget chain hotel is costing us the grand total of £45 a night. It is a 20 minute tube ride from there to Westminster or Green Park.
Got behind some faster moving traffic and just went. Did 90mph+ in some spurts but rarely did under 80mph. Traffic in the slower lanes was rarely moving slower than 75mph+.
It’s possible the rental car company is going to forward me a speeding fine. So be it.
One other thing I found irritating and definitely in the negative column. I was surprised by how many Londoners smoke. And mostly the younger demographic - 20’s and 30’s. Just walking down the street we’d invariably be in a cloud of smoke from someone just a few steps ahead. It was impossible to get away from it when outside.
Some more after-thoughts:
We find ourselves wishing we’d given the Tate Modern a miss. It wasn’t that interesting.
British Museum was well worth it, however.
We did some shopping (browsing, mostly) in Harrods, Liberty, Covent Garden and Selfridges. In retrospect, we didn’t see many things we can’t find at home and would have been better off spending the day visiting the National Art Museum.
Got a great selection of teas for us and to give to family and friends from Fortnum-Mason and Laduree, only to find we can find those locally as well. Oh, well. The stores themselves were a great experience with their white glove service.
I think we spent and ate about 25BP worth of macarons from Laduree and Pierre Herme. Laduree won in a photo finish.
We sat down to have afternoon tea almost every day of the visit. That was very civilized.
Hang on, you had very little rain AND a clear motorway? Are you SURE you were in England? You probably won’t get a ticket, I’ve found that the spots on the motorways that have cameras are the spots that are too congested for speeding in the first place.
I didn’t go to Tate Modern but I did see Tate Britain and it was well worth my time. Lots of 19th century and early-20th stuff that I like, plus enough modern and pre-19th stuff that it stayed interesting.
Thanks for a great post and discussion. I’ll be there in February - probably not the best time for outdoor stuff, but I have to go then for a book promotion. I adore the British Museum, the art galleries, theatre and other such indulgences.
I was taken to the Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens by a cousin. It is one of the most stunning and interesting art galleries I have seen, yet few people seem to know about it. I mentioned it to my brother who lives there but had never heard of it and he has been madly taking Brits there ever since, and they are all astounded by it.
Have any other Dopers been to the Marianne North Gallery?
When some American friends of mine visited, they enjoyed the boat trip with commentary from Westminster Pier to the Tower of London, then the guided tour around the Tower itself. (N.B. No nicking the crown Jewels! :eek: )
They also liked one of the several top deck bus tours of London, again with commentary.
I apologise for Heathrow Airport. It is rather crowded and needs an extra runway (or for another airport to increase capacity.) Unfortunately the expansion has been bogged down for years trying not to upset voters who live near the airport…
I love London - it’s probably my very favourite city in the world - but it’s not cheap to visit as an Australian; basically GBP£1 = AUD$2.
I found that when I was last there that a lot of stuff was basically twice as expensive as Australia (or still comparatively more expensive), while food and drink from supermarkets were ridiculously cheap; I think I got 1.5L of cola from Tesco for something like 30p.
But there’s a mind-boggling amount of free stuff you can do; after going to outstanding free museums like The British Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Science Museum and The Museum of London it was a bit of a shock to re-discover exactly how much it costs to get into St Paul’s Cathedral for non-worship purposes (£18).
Wonderful city, indeed, one of my absolute favourites, along with Helsinki (yes, Helsinki). Fascinating and vibrant.
I’m thinking of visting London again and the Cotswolds are on my to-see list. I understand that you drove there but is it doable by train ? Last I checked, about three years ago, it looked rather convoluted.
You probably won’t get a ticket, I’ve found that the spots on the motorways that have cameras are the spots that are too congested for speeding in the first place.