Taking a week to go to London for the hell of it. Looking for suggestions on what to do while I am there?

Have you been there? Ideas on what to do?

Been there twice, last in June of this year. I really like the place.

Lots of 'old' history kind of stuff. The Tower castle was pretty cool.

Madam Trusuads (sp?) was neat, but there was a fairly long line to get in.

You should probably see the changing of the gaurd at least once in your life. It was canceled the second time we were there, Ozzy and a bunch of other artists were having a concert on the castle grounds because the olympic flame was there.

Lots of gardens and parks to relax or run a few miles in. Regents was kinda grungy. Hyde park (next to it) was better, had places to ride horses if you can find one. (yup a place to ride your horse downtown).

Harrads (again with the spelling, but its still early in the day). Was a cool department store that's worth seeing. They sell anything from Smart cars to Krispy Kreme donuts in there (at $7.50 a dozen the last time I checked). Saw Capitian Picard (Patrick Stewart) there buying pillows when we were there. Its located in the '5th avenue' like area of london.

Covent garden was a cool section of the city with little shops.


I wouldn't worry about getting a car (unless you need to drive on the wrong side of the road, I enjoyed it). There is a high speed train that takes you right from the airport to paddinton station in the upper east side of the city. That train station must be a half mile underground (take the escalator down if you want to see what I mean). Then its the bright white waiting area for the train. I kept thinking I was going to see Keanu lying there on the ground and the last Matrix startup.

That was a nice area to stay in. Lots of food/pubs. The best western in that area was a dump though, I stay away from that. Can't remember the exact name of the hotel, but the online description of the 4 star place forgets about the complete lack of hot water and leaking plumbing, not to mention the closet sized rooms.

Though more expensive, the Hilton that's just outside of the paddington station was nice and very convienient to the underground (subway). We also stayed in a novotel on the lower west side once, it was a nice place and not terribly expensive also not far from and underground terminal.

Ahh, the underground. Get familiar with it, it makes getting around the city real easy.

Make sure to get some guiness and murphy's when you are on that side of the pond. Much better there, though it was harder to find in London than in Dublin.

Jason

when are you going Cole?
If you haven't booked yet, I would recommend going there in May June, especially since the gardens and everything will be in full bloom and more than likely the weather won't be as ****ty .... but what's England without rain
Here's some compact general info to read:
http://www.sallys-place.com/travel/europe/england_instyle.htm
click on the 'A few Days of play in London-Town' link to the left of the page (under: related)

And despite the fact that Picadilly Circus is gonna be a zoo, visit it and have a nice beer England style

Depends on what part you are going. If staying in London. Don't miss the Natural History Museum. The Zoo is good. For a bit on the wild side visit the clubs in the Soho district. If you get out of the city Bath (old Roman city)is an awesome place to visit. Warick Castle is great especially if it is a Seige weekend reenactment. Stonehenge is unbelievable. If you are there during horse racing season go to Newmarket. It is England's version of Kentucky. I lived there for three years. And for something really wild go to Westrow near Mildenhall and watch the banger racing. Circle track racing but with Demolition derby style driving. I can go on and on like I said living there for 3 years really helped. Also if you have the chance visit Longleat Castle they have the largest Hedge maze in Europe or at least at the time they did. One more thing there is an ORV park in Red Lodge just up the A12 from Newmarket you can ride anything from dirt bikes to drive Tanks.

Going in about 3 weeks. Not overly concerned about weather. It will be cold there or cold here. Rather go there and play for a week.

Drop by Stephen Sedgwick's and make a donation toward my new guitar. Heck...it's only gonna run a bit over Pound 1600!