Careful Bitt, my wife comes from Hull, oh, but she doesn't lurk here.
Oh, and now I come to think of it one of her favourite jokes is that she comes from a town so far from civilization that in-breeding is rife.

Well, we have Tom (drakino) to thank for infecting us with the gc bug, back at the first Cincinnati meet.

Jane & I enjoyed a wonderful few days of blitzing City caches in London, including the superb Sherlock Holmes cache, and the rather quirky Pet Cemetery. Lots of cool and offbeat things to see in that great city with a GPS led tour like that!

Cheers

If you're at all interested in plants you MUST go to Kew Gardens, preferably by river boat from Westminster. There's a really cool catamaran service from Westminster to Greenwich, Greenwich is oozing with history and there's a nice little market to mooch around.

I took the kids to the science museum last year, found it disappointing, felt it needed a bit of investment. The V&A is now ace. The design museum's nice if you're into that kind of thing and is on the river just by several Conran restaurants, as well as it's own Blueprint Cafe:

http://www.danddlondon.com/londonrestaurants/explore

I like the London Underground museum, it's in Covent Garden so nice for a pretheatre visit or diversion from shopping. If you like the underground then I'd travel from Westminster to Canary Wharf on the Jubilee line to look at all the terrific new stations. You can get a boat from Canary Wharf to various other places.

Hamleys is too busy and crap nowadays, and most of London's main shopping streets are full of the same international retailers as every other capital city. There are still a few quirky independents in the triangle between Regent St and Oxford St, including:

http://www.reckless.co.uk/shop.aspx

If you're after cheap Indian food then the most authentic you're likely to find will be in Whitechapel:

http://tayyabs.co.uk/
http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/
http://www.mirchmasalarestaurant.co.uk/

Although the ones in Brick Lane are more famous. Speaking of which there's a lot of interesting stuff going in Brick Lane and Spitalfields nowadays.

Give us some pointers on your interests and I can add more.

If it weren't February, we'd be willing (we're in West London), but child 2.0 is due in March, so we'll be redecorating the spare room as Charlie's bedroom around then.

That said: give us a shout when you're around, and I'd like to try to meet up.

Meh. It's a notch above Toys R Us, but I'd give this one a pass. Definitely not as exciting as it sounded; we were disappointed.

These are all great suggestions, thanks very much!

We'll try to meet up, Roger. PM me with you phone number.

I think for Brits a recommendation comes from a combination of it being better in the past, and nostalgia from being taken there as child.

Didn't go to Hamley's in the past, when I was a child; went there recently, and: It's quite impressive around Christmas time, when they've got the displays up, but otherwise: meh; leave it.

Right, agreed. Hamleys is a good toy-shop if what you want is a toy-shop, but I don't think it's a tourist destination in its own right. (For me the childhood toy-shop memories that bring back the warm-and-fuzzies are of Lewis's department store in Hanley, despite the forbidding and frankly scary sculpture on the outside.)

Kew's definitely worth doing, though -- even in February as there's a lot to see just in the huge glasshouses. And even outdoors one of the splendours of Kew is the conifer collection, most of which is evergreen. Though in fairness that is the advice of somewhat of a tree anorak.

Peter

That's the beauty of Kew, always something worth looking at.

If I've got a few hours to kill in London I always go looks around Harrods. I recommend eating in the foodhall, it's expensive but great. They sell some really nice take out sandwiches which are reasonable and you can go find a park somewhere and have a little picnic. The whole of the store is pretty good and I have always found the toy department to be much better than Hamleys.

I follow this up with a tube ride over to Covent Garden (if you feel energetic try taking the stairs instead of the lift from the tube station!) watch what is going on there for a while, then take a walk over to Leicester Square and onto Piccadilly Circus for a burger in the window of the Burger King under all the signs at night.

I am not a fan of London, I have been lucky to have visited many times for both business and pleasure and the novelty has worn off. But I would say approach the city assuming you will come back some day and don't cram too much into your day. I think popping into the odd little pub you see is also a good idea, take your time enjoy the beer and the city don't do the normal tourist thing of trying to fit the whole city in, it's just not going to happen so you may as well enjoy fully what you can see.

Cheers

Cris.

Only take the stairs if you're extremely fit or suicidal.

The best bit is when your whole body is telling you that the top is just around the corner and you get to that halfway sign, magic

Taking the stairs was a joke, don't do it!

Cheers

Cris.

Always take the stairs - I am definitely not fit, but I always take them, just because then I get some peace and quiet for a couple of minutes, and it seems slightly faster than the lift...especially if you jog up. The calf muscles feel great at the end of it:-)

SWMBO & I took the stairs. They did seem rather long at the time.

*bump*

We leave in 1 week. We'll be at a concert for the acoustic group "Show of Hands" (nothing to do with the Rush album of the same name) on Tuesday night, and we'll have Tuesday afternoon, plus Wednesday and Thursday to do whatever we like in London.

Adding to my original request here of touristy things to do, what about cool places to *eat*?

Eat in pubs! And wander around Soho for eats as well.

That ancient pub I linked to above is one possibility.
Note that pub-food hours may seem strange at first..

It's changed a lot in recent years, partly because of the, IMO, misguided licensing for longer, up to 24 hour, drinking hours and partly to recoup the lost trade from having smokers banished.
Pubs are also closing at an alarming rate and publicans will do anything to keep viable.
So you'll find all day food in many places: The old 12 - 2 and 7 - 10 was always a bind.

A curry in Brick Lane always is recommended, apparently some of the best in the world, although I have yet to try there yet. If there is somebody outside touting for business then the price is negotiable, although make sure the waiter inside knows this.

I was there just recently to see the Dieter Rams exhibition (on until 9th March) which I thought was great, in a very geeky sort of way. If you admire Ipod-like simplicity in industrial design, Dieter Rams is the high priest of it; much of the stuff he designed in the 1950s still looks contemporary today.

Peter

I forgot to mention that my companion is a vegetarian. :-)

She likes Indian food a lot, though.

No worries, nowadays that's not in itself considered grounds for deportation...

While Indian restaurants are unquestionably a sure thing for finding vegetarian meals, all joking aside, I think it's pretty rare these days to find an eating place (even a pub) with no vegetarian option. (Though it's nearly as rare to find one where there are as many vegetarian as carnivorous options.)

Edit:I meant to add, tonight being Burns Night, Sainsburys earlier today were selling vegetarian haggis.

Peter

It must be 25 years since I went, but I remember thinking that I could happily eat Indian without meat here

You just reminded me to check on our local Burns Night and it seems I've missed it.
Shucks.

Where? They're supposed to be great live. There are lots of good veggie Indian options (I don't think Brick Lane has any though), depending on whereabouts in London you are.

The 100 Club.

The 100 club is great too, you should enjoy. There's a good veggie Indian in Charlotte St, don't really know Soho that well but I'm sure there'll be some round there too.

Go back 43 years and you'd find me on that stage!

While I was at breakfast, one of the TVs in the restaurant had The Haunting tuned in. I couldn't watch with any intent, but caught some glimpses of the pretty house that was used for exterior shots.

What do you know- it's in Grantham!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlaxton_Manor
http://www.harlaxton.ac.uk/harlaxton/visitors/index.cfm

Might be worth a look.

Jazz, blues? I could imagine you being either I think. Must have been an awesome venue back then, I never really went till way after it's punk revival.