What to do in London?

So i'm going to be in London from this coming Thursday (8/08) until the next Thursday. This trip was basically thrown in my lap 45 minutes ago so i havn't had much time to do research.

I'm going to be staying w/ some family there and i guess they live right by Piccadilly Sqaure (or is it a circle, i don't know, some damn shape).

Anyhow, i was hoping some of you guys could throw out some possible things to do and/or places to see on a budget.

thanks.

Hmm, some ideas on what you like would be useful as London, being a capital city has one or two places to visit

well i like the Empeg. I was thinking about going to the big museum, which i'm sure sounds hokey, but i'm really into that crap. I don't drink, at all, but i'll smoke like a damn chimney.


the main thing is, i don't have too much money for this trip as it wasn't really planned, but i'd still like to make the most of it.

I saw a story on CNN saying that the phone booths have stickers all over them detailing the local hot spots and companions.

ha ha... companions...

Take a look around http://www.londontown.com/

London has some great museums. Definately check out the British Museum. It was re done awhile back and is very impresive. I was briefly at the Design Museum around Tower Bridge. they had some cool stuff in there. it is basicly a salute to all things designed well. is the empeg in there?

typical stuff that i've taken visitors to: the london eye is a good experience, but costs c. £10. if you go on a nice day its worth it. The Churches, Westminster Abbey and St Paul's, are not very expensive, if they cost anything. Tower Hill, is also c. £10, but is interesting esp if you like history.

hope that provides a good start

excellent... thanks

Museums - take your pick, Most of them probably have admission charges, but they'll be worth it.
British Museum (basically stuff we pillaged in our Empire days)
Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum. (art)
Maritime Museum (Greenwich)

Places to see:
Buckingham Palace
Downing Street
Westminster
etc, etc, etc, etc...

Best advice here is to save your legs and start with the London Eye. See it all from the air and then spend more time at whichever one or two interest you most, rather than running around like a madman.

Shopping...or just browsing:
Forget Harrods unless you want to laugh at the prices. Visit Camden Market instead and see all the punks, mods, hippies, etc. It's a great place to pick up bargains too, and a melting pot of English style.

Excellent. Thanks Genexia. I'm definitely going to check out the London Eye and the British Museum. Yeah, i didn't even want to think about Harrods, except for maybe to check out their electronics department. I want to see what they have compared to like, say, a Good Guys.

thanks guys.

One word of advice. THE BIG RED BUS COMPANY!!!!! You can buy a day pass and get on and off all day long at different locations through out London. I saw an awful lot of sights in London in one day by using this service. they run all over th city and the tour guides on the buses are quite amusing. westminster abbey and Tower of London are my two favorites. have fun!!!

"Look kids, there's Big Ben...
Look kids, there's Big Ben...
Look kids, there's Big Ben...
Look kids, there's Big Ben..."

Last time i went to london, I stopped at the Tate Modern Art Gallery, it didn't look like anyone else mentioned it so i thought i would, I'm not one for art gallerys that much, but this one was pretty nice, it had enough stuff to keep me busy looking for hours. Another gallery i went to was the dali museum, i think it might have only been there for a short time, but if not, it was right next to the eye, which is a must. That thing is huge, i think the tallest thing in london, you can see everything including the country outside of london. But plan on getting thier early, or have you family pick you up some tickets in advance. I think there is a few day que/wait for tickets. You also need to get there an hour or so before your time to ride. Its well worth the wait, you will have fun. Nothing like being trapped in a glass bubble with 15 or so strangers

EDIT: yes, the big red bus is the best bang for your buck. you can get to everything else for a very low fee.

Piccadilly Circus has some awesome (albiet crowded) pubs...I was there a few years ago and had a real hoot....

Forget Harrods unless you want to laugh at the prices. Visit Camden Market instead and see all the punks, mods, hippies, etc. It's a great place to pick up bargains too, and a melting pot of English style.

Although I would agree that Camden Market is a great place to go (visit the Psychadelic Dream Temple!), I have to disagree about your Harrods comment. Although shopping there is annoying due to the vast volume of tourists, the prices are actually really good - although the products stocked tend to be at the higher end of the range. I've seen kitchen products in there cheaper than Asda (Wal-Mart)!

Rob

alls i wanna know is where do i get KinderSurprise. I've been getting those brought back to me since i was 5. Those have got to be the neatest candy/toy things ever. I used to collect the surprises. Will they have them at Camden Market?
I was going to order them online, but i'd rather get the genuine ones there and pig out.

You'll find them in almost every newsagent and supermarket in the country.

Cor blimey guv'nor. You've got to go to the Science museum, I used to work in London and I think in the 6 months I lived down there it was the only place I could be bothered to visit. The computer exibition is great! It hasn't changed in 15 years!! . They did have a good section on the best of 20th century technology though.

Hope you enjoy your trip to London.

My parents have just been on the London Eye and said it was great. Apart from that, the Science Museum is good too (you can't see it all in a day) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (the V&A). Go to Trafalgar Square and watch the crowds watching Nelson's Column as if it were a TV soap. Then go and look at the north side of the square where you can see the British Standard Inch, in brass, set into the wall. Greenwich Observatory is good too if you like that sort of thing (stand astride the Line).

Will the beer festival at Olympia still be on on Thursday? if so, might be worth a look.

There's lots to see in the V&A (the woman at the front desk said to me "We've got both sorts here, decorative and fine arts", which reminded me of the Blues Brothers) but you must without question see the plastercasts room. I went there without really knowing what to expect (plastercasts of statuettes?) and was stunned literally speechless by the gigantic plastercast of the entire of Trajan's Column from Rome. (For those not in the know, Trajan's Column is the sanctum sanctorum of typography; the inscription over its entrance is meant to be the finest rendition of capital lettering ever cut, and it has basically inspired every serif typeface for the 1600 years since it was made.)

Peter

If you talk to the empeg boys they might let you come on a pilgrimage and visit jack etc (the empeg prototypes)

National Lampoon's European Vacation

I loved that movie!

...well maybe Harrods prices have come down relative to other places since I last visited (years ago), or maybe my perceptions were biased by my preconceptions at the time!

Another thing to do if you feel the urge - something I've aways 'wanted' to do but never had the guts...

Obtain some different colored flags and take them to Buckingham Palace. There you will find many tourist groups, including a fair few Japanese groups. Because the average Japanese is somewhat shorter than the average Caucasian, the tour guides use these little flags when leading their groups so that they can be seen above all the Gaijin...Use the appropiate flag to take a group for a random walk.

Buy some absinth...

I don't think the real makes-you-mad Absinth is available anymore. It tastes tastes horrible in my opinion anyway. And it's coloured like fairy liquid!

- Trevor

Beer festival or no beer festival, the important thing is to be drinking loads of beer in those pubs.

Seek out Young's and Fuller's they are the local beers, don't be put off by them being served warm and flat, it's an acquired taste, but worth persevering.

If you can find a pint of Shepherd Neames, so much the better, to me that's the beer of beers.

Nope. It is available again: http://www.eabsinthe.com/

I once took an American to the pub, and was told he was suprised how cool the beer was.

Turns out that when he'd been warned that we like our beer "warm", he had in mind something the temperature of tea.

I can't wait to get back to the UK and enjoy the cask ales. Next time I will do less touristy stuff and more beer enjoyment. Pubs closing at 11 wasn't working for me... I had to drink too fast! The coolest thing was the Internet portals in some pubs, I was emailing friends in the US while drinking in a British pub...

A place near me is one of the few off licenses that is legally allowed to sell the stuff. Not sure if it's the one that makes you mad

More proof that you can buy anything on the internet if you look long enough

- Trevor

A bit off the wall, but If you like gaming then It might be worth a trip to the GAME ON exhibition at the barbican.

It's a celebration of all things computer gamery, from PONG (and SpaceWar for those that remember) to GTA3 and some future type stuff - amazing exhibition, but you only get a couple of hours..

.. oh .. and you get to PLAY all the games on original hardware!!

Well, it amused me.

http://www.gameonweb.co.uk (book online, you need to book unless going during the week)

Only on until the 15th Sep though, so might be too late.

Paul

Oooh, london aquarium is nice too...;)

Right by the eye too.

Paul.

Quite a few of the studenty bars in Edinburgh (okay, most of them) sell Absinthe cocktails. Most notably, a great bar called Bar Kohl has a Red Bull, Absinthe and Aftershock cocktail. Can't remember what it's called. In fact I can't remember much of that night at all!!!

I've always found that when I can't remember what happens then it's usually a good night It does bring up questions the next day though, what was I doing? How did I get here...

Edinburgh is a very nice place to go out in. I went to visit a friend last year and had a great time. Friendly people as well

- Trevor

Well, i'm here.

man o man economy class sucks, and so does this keyboard for having no shift key on the left and having the return key to far to the right. It's just me i guess, a little ansy after my flight.

London is a beautiful city, as are its surroundings. I love the fact that everyone drives pretty well considering the road is one big metal gauntlet of death.

I took the bus from heathrow and the driver was just going crazy, i swear i thought we were gonna kill people on 3 different occasions. Plus, i thought we were getting attacked by goblins from the trees because the branches were hitting the top of the double decker -- it was terribly amusing.

yeah so, i'm off to explore tommorow, and the museums will come later this week. That gaming show actually sounds interesting, so i might try that out. Not sure about the London Eye, as i'm sure its going to be very busy.

i think it'll be a pleasant week -- if i can get used to the water situation.







i hate ALL that is duty free.

No offense to the British here, but I have to warn you about the British Museum.

I have to say, whoever designed that place had a horrible sense of traffic flow. I was actually excited about seeing the Egypt exhibit, but my friend and I simply couldn't find it. It was horrible. There were no maps and about two signs in the entire place. We barely found our ways back out!

On the bright side, no barriers means we could get our grubby American hands all over all the artifacts

...Egyption artefacts are supposed to be difficult to find, and once found. virtually impossible to excape from. Did you see The Mummy?

Water situation?

Just turn the tap and out it comes!

Nope, I didn't see anything Egyptian when my friend and I were there. We went there specifically to see that exhibit, but could not find it. didn't help much that there weren't any museum people walking around.

Again, no offense to the Brits here, but I guess I'm just spoiled having lived outside of Washington DC all my life, with the Smithsonians within a 20 minute drive.

Water situation?

I realized that when you ask for water, you are served bottled water you must pay for, unless you specifically ask for tap water. Maybe that's what he meant...

Perhaps he was referring to the amount of water that refuses to stay where it belongs, up in the sky.

ha ha, no i like the rain.

by water situation i'm referring to the fact that hot and cold water don't mix here. in the flat that i'm staying in, you can actually that one side of the flow of water is hot and the other is cold. in the other sinks here, there are two different faucets. But mostly, i'm referring to the fact that there is no shower. man, i havn't bathed since i was like 5. its cool though.

...off to explore...

Smithsonian, don't talk to me about the Smithsonian, the only time I went, we were chased by a drug crazed guy with a hefty stick within 300 yds, we stayed in the hotel and slunk out of DC the next morning, I've not been back.

It was only when I got to Tennessee that we were told that it was the murder capital of the US. In London, you would be unlucky to walk into trouble most of the time.

Smithsonian Folkways is a very cool CD label should you value eclecticism, however