Vixy and I are planning to be in your gorgeous green country on the weekend of February 5th through the 7th. We will be performing at a convention located here on the Fri/Sat/Sun of that weekend, but are trying to squeeze a day or two of general sightseeing and recreation into either the prior or the following week.

The exact dates and travel details are being hashed out now, and we're at the point of deciding what we want to do, and we'd like suggestions. We don't have any specific goals yet, other than "it would be a shame to go to England and only get to see the convention."

We might be able to arrange some time in or around London, but if there's anything you folks would like to suggest that's closer to the con, we're all ears.

Ideas?

Go see a steeplechase race!

Seriously? That would be awesome. Do they do that sort of thing in February?

Having lived approx. 25 miles from there for the first 18 years of my life I can tell you that Grantham is a complete fucking shithole inhabited predominately by inbred retards. I'd try and spend as little time there as possible.

If you're looking for places to go nearby I'd give my home town Lincoln a try. The Cathedral and castle are pretty impressive. It's about 30 minutes on the train if memory serves, although the city is built on a hill, all the good stuff is at the top and the train station is at the bottom.

Well that's answered a few things I have been wondering for a while

Sorry Tony I can't say that part of England has ever tempted me to visit as I have always assumed it was a bit of a crap hole as Andy suggests.

What sort of things are you looking for? What sort of things do you enjoy to do on Holiday? There are lots of things worth a look in London of course, but it's not really England anymore so maybe a trip away from the well beaten American Tourist Track could be a good thing???

Cheers

Cris.

It really is dire, as is Boston, Sleaford, Louth, Spalding, Newark, Peterborough, Scunthorpe, Skegness and Mablethorpe.

To be honest Tony, if I were you, I'd arrive in Grantham the night before the Con and leave the morning after it finishes. There really is 'nothing' to see round there.

Doh ! I'd have loved to see you guys play, I love the album.

Unfortunately that weekend is our 10th wedding anniversary and we'll be hosting a party in a big country house at the other end of the country

Hahahahaha. Best response, ever.

My wife's uncle and aunt teach at an American university that has a large estate there, which gets used as a small campus. We went over to visit last year in March, I think it was. Spend your two minutes visiting Nottingham to do the Robin Hood thing (if that's what you like), and then be on your way. If you'd rather visit a smaller town than London, my wife and I enjoyed York -- it's a nice day trip from Grantham. The trouble with visiting London on such a short schedule is that, unless you've been there before, or know you'll be back soon, you end up rushing around trying to fit it all in, which is damn-near impossible, and quite exhausting. (Of course, if you and Vixy like theatre, you shouldn't miss the chance to see something on the West End.)

You can pretty much write off all of the east and west midlands!

One of the only good things about Grantham is that it has a main line railway station, meaning that a direct train to London takes only just over an hour and they're quite frequent.

I don't know how much time you've got or what your transportation arrangements are like but York is well worth a visit. Yet again, the train looks doable with only one change at Wakefield (you can probably safely avoid that as well!) and a travel time of just under 2 hours.

Manchester and Leeds aren't too bad, but I'd say to see as much as you can without expending too much effort, a car would come in handy.

Thanks so much, Andy. Sorry you can't come, but enjoy the anniversary party!

And to everyone else: This is great information, keep it coming!

Oh, c'mon, Mrs. Thatcher was born there, there's a plaque above the corner store....gotta be worth a visit!!!

Seriously, I'm totally with Andy on this one: Grantham, and in February - Two wrongs don't make a right.

At that time of year, outdoors isn't much use to you, head for the railway station and go to the big city.

As for Andy's description of the locals, I thought that was Hull, or possibly Stoke, or maybe Workington would pip all three at the post, as places I dreaded going back to in my business career!

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Our current approximate plan is to try to arrive in London the week prior to the convention, perhaps Tuesday Feb 2nd, spend a couple of days in London, then head up to Grantham for the convention on Friday morning Feb 5th. Then head home immediately after the con.

We've got a few connections via the convention, and we're asking them if they know anyone we could crash with during that week. I'm also wondering if anyone here on this BBS would be willing to put us up for a few days in or near London? Don't know how many folk here are in that area.

Also: Anything particularly awesome in London we shouldn't miss? Touristy or not touristy, both kinds of suggestions are welcome.

A trip on the London eye is a must I think.

I've never tried to go myself, but I'm sure somebody told me it's best to book ahead.

I really liked the Tower of London and the cabinet war rooms. Then again...I like pretty much anything historical. The replica of the Globe theater is interesting as well.

The Tate Gallery is one of the best art museums in the world. It was about the only thing I managed to see while I was there, and I wasn't disappointed, other than getting run out, and failing to use the one-way glass public toilet outside. Oh, and there's a boat that will take you between the two London branches of the Tate on the Thames, which I also didn't get a chance to use.

I'm sorry to hear that. Hull is Raleigh's sister city.

Never understood the "sister city" thing...

... and Wikipedia isn't a huge amount of help.

Me, either. But I'd rather not be associated with scum, regardless of the source of the association.

Yes, Hull (otherwise known as Hell if you're a Spaced fan) is probably crappier than Grantham. Although it is home to the Humber Bridge which is pretty impressive.

Having visited London many times (including the 6 months I lived there) I never visited the cabinet war rooms, but I'd really like to go. I visited the Science Museum a number of times as a kid and really enjoyed it too.

Yeah, I remember liking the science museum the last time I was in London. Part of me wants to go again, another part of me wants to see things that I can't see anywhere else. (Every big city has a great science museum.)

What sorts of things in London are unique? A couple have been mentioned already. Anything else?

The London Transport Museum is also really good, if you care for technology and the tube and such.

It's probably worth it to sit for a couple hours on one of those city tour buses, just so you can snap photos of things as you drive by.

Yup, that's a good way to see London. Good suggestion. Did that with my wife and daughter on my last visit because I only had one day. Might do it again.

Also looking for one or two things we can focus more attention on, rather than just passing by on a bus tour.

Share a pint or two at one of Henry the VIII's watering holes.

(in the courtyard to the right of that link)

(description here)

Hamleys toy store could be worth a look. Admittedly I was about 12 when I last visited but it still gives me that 'warm fuzzy' feeling just thinking about it!

Edit: There's also Windsor Castle to go and see; "the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world". Personally, I've never been to the castle but it's a very picturesque town with some nice olde worlde shops. It's also not far from Heathrow airport and has a railway station for ease of access.

Speaking of rails and such -- getting around medium/long distances in London is dead easy on the tube.

SWMBO and I hardly ever bother with surface transport (buses, cabs) when we're in town, prefering to use our feet. And we do favour walking, as everything downtown is just so fascinating to us new-worlders.

A hike up the dome at St.Paul's is definitely cool, with great bonus views of The City in good weather.

Cheers

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Mark for inspiring us to use geocaching as a way to explore bits of London we didn't know very well. Eryl and I followed his lead and meandered round the inns of courts area by looking for a series of geocaches, it was a great way of seeing things would never have found my ourselves.

When it was first built, I had a letter published in the Times suggesting that, if they dismantled it bolt by bolt, it would just fit neatly between The Needles and The Isle Of Wight, where it might serve some purpose.

The completion of motorways on both sides of the Humber, and the scrapping of an eastern motorway scheme to bring Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire into the western world denied it any real purpose. Add to that the dissolution of Humberside and you've just about denied it its last use: Shuffling council files to and fro across the river!

It was built as Barbara Castle's election promise and will never pay for itself.

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.

I'll only say that standards are incrementally higher now, even for a modest blues harp player!
When I caught up last year after 30 years with Charlie Harper, the singer with the UK Subs, he swore that He, I, Rod Stewart and a guy called Ray Sone auditioned to be the harp player with the Downliners Sect, but I don't think I ever did*.
Or to put it another way, I realised it wasn't my career choice and gave up, the day I saw Paul Butterfield live.

*Or to put it another way, I know that I didn't!

At least they didn't have sodding X Factor, and Pop Idol and all that other shite going on back then (mind you there was always Opportunity Knocks )

Hey, that's where we stayed! My wife's aunt and uncle were teaching there for a semester, so we went for a visit. In fact, you can see the window of our room in the wiki picture -- third floor, immediately to the right of the big square chimney on the far left. Definitely a nice place to wander through. The cafeteria food can't really be recommended, though.