i'm gonna be over there for all of next week freeloading off my working girlfriend. anyone live there? or know of any especially cool places to go outside of the obvious tourist spots?
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i'm gonna be over there for all of next week freeloading off my working girlfriend. anyone live there? or know of any especially cool places to go outside of the obvious tourist spots?
Just listen to everyone talk with a sense of whimsy!
Ummm... Eat Cheerios with Governors?Quote:
Things To Do in London
In that vein:Quote:
Originally Posted by icarusfall
Look around and wonder if Canada is similar.
For an awesome museum that no one ever really goes to and isn't very well known, I recommend the Wallace Collection in Manchster Square off of Baker St. It's got an awesome collection, 2-3 full rooms, of weaponry from the past decade.
http://www.wallacecollection.org/
If you like museums, I can list you off a crapload of the good ones. How about theatre?
Also, if you like texmex, I thought it was really cool that you could eat (some pretty good texmex, at that) at the old Texan Embassy (also the name of the restaraunt, now) off of Trafalgar Square. And if you like Indian, don't forget Brick Lane.
Everyone that makes it to London should see Abbey Rd., but it's an absolute pain to get to without using the stupid buses. David Bowie's Ziggy stairs (Heddon St.) are also right by Piccadilly Circus.
I'd tell you to go spend time doing nothing/going to the zoo in Regents Park instead of Hyde Park, but it'll be freezing. Not worth it.
The Royal Observatory and Greenwich are pretty cool and can be gotten to pretty easily/quickly from London. (they're in greater london)
Also, I seriously recommend a trip to Bath. It's only 90 mins-2 hours away, but it's awesome and perfect for a single day. You can also see stonehedge on the way back.
Also might want to look into a trip to Brighton.
i don't go to theatres when i trip over them on my way to work, but i'll go to museums.
also: i'm staying in vauxhall, is it super gay over there?
I didn't even know vauxhall was gay.Quote:
Originally Posted by burgundy
If you're in Vauxhall, you're actually fairly close to everything. If you're a Pink Floyd fan, definitely go walk over the Vauxhall bridge, from it, you can see:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ls-Frontal.jpg
You're also right by the Tate Britain, which is a very cool (and again, free) museum for British Art from 1500.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
If you like Modern Art, also hit up the Tate Modern, which I enjoyed even though I generally despise modern art. It's also a very, very cool area; it's right next to Shakespeare's globe, the Millennium Bridge is right outside it, and while walking across the Millennium Bridge, you're staring at the front of St. Paul's Cathedral.
looking to the st. paul's side:
http://www.earth-photography.com/pho...niumBridge.jpg
Besides the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square (with Nelson's Column), the #1 museum everyone has to see in London is the British Museum. It's sort of on the UCL campus so a 5-10 min walk from the nearest Tube, but it's one of the biggest non-natural history museums i've ever been in. And it has the Rosetta Stone.
Word of warning: Tower of London is pretty lame. The only part of the Tower of London that didn't suck was the crown jewels and the beefeaters. Big Ben is also fairly lame, but Westminster is awesome.
Finally, if you manage a warm day, I recommend walking from Regents Park/Baker St. to Bond St., to Oxford Circus, through Piccadilly Circus, along the Embankment towards Westminster and St. Jame's Park.
It's a rather long walk (3-5 miles) but it's so incredibly packed with sights to see. (you also skip bond st./oxford if you'd like since alot of it is just crazy 5th avenuey shopping)
One last thing: don't bother waiting in the cold to see the changing of the guard. It's dumb. And it's touristy as shit, but Piccadilly Circus is loads of fun.
Go check out the London Metal Exchange too. You can walk in and watch from a window, and it's one of the few places where they still use the system of people just yelling shit on the market floor. It's cool and the girls are bangin'. And you'll be right in the city of London (the one square mile borough) which is a nice place to just walk around.
Same thing with Canary Wharf, the other financial district. Canary Wharf is the complete opposite of the city though in that it reminds me of a weird futuristic city.
I worked in Vauxhall when I was over there, it's both super gay and full of hobos. I would go to work in the morning and see people stumbling out of the gay clubs at like... 9 in the morning on Monday. There's not much to do where you're staying, there's an okay pub called the Vauxhall Griffin that does good food but other than that....Quote:
Originally Posted by burgundy
Rich jumped in and covered most of the big stuff, museum wise the Tate Modern, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Sq and Tate Britain are all great and easy to get to. The Natural History museum is pretty neat and looks like Hogwarts, and the Victoria and Albert Museum is really underrated I think, all sorts of stuff in there. Kind of unorganized though.
Most of the big sights are all around walking distance of each other. Piccadilly/Trafalgar/Big Ben and Parliament/Buckingham Palace are all centrally located and on a nice day you can walk to see all of them. The London Eye is just on the other side of the river, but it is very, very expensive and of questionable worth.
There are some small restaurants and stores that are all pretty cool. For the nerds I always recommend Forbidden Planet--it's bigger than the New York store and has more ridiculous nerd shit there. It's right outside of Covent Garden between the Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square tube stops. That area has lots of neat shops and places to see as well.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/210/4...419d85.jpg?v=0
For good Fish and Chips there's The Golden Hind in Marylebone that is awwwwesome. Pricey and regularly full, but very good.
There are lots of cool pubs in London but not too many stand out above the other.
Camden Market in Northish London is fun to visit, lots of shops of crap that you don't really want with lots of ethnic food and people with massive, stupid mohawks. It's a bit of a spectacle and there are lots of bars around there. It's fun to count how many times sketchy people offer you drugs in the street.
I lived in Notting Hill when I was there which was down the street from Portobello Road market. It's kind of stupid crowded on Saturdays, but they have a lot of flea markets, fresh vegetables, and cool shops to go through (books for cooks, travel bookshop). There's a bakery there called the Hummingbird that has *awesome* cupcakes. The line is typically long, but they are really good.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photos/23...8_3ed932bc.jpg
One thing that I liked doing on an off weekend there was do a guided walk. (Liiink). They last about three hours and cost about 10 pounds. The Jack the Ripper walk is the most popular, and the guide wrote a book on the subject (that he will peddle after the walk). The Beatles walk goes through Marylebone and up to Abbey Road studio (eh). They're fun and pretty interesting. You see parts of the city you wouldn't have otherwise.
Going out to Windsor Castle is fun. It's a train ride out of Paddington and takes about an hour to get there. Very large estate with a cool cathedral where the famous kings not buried in Westminster are buried.
Don't bother with the changing of the guard at Buckingham, it's stupid overall.
Harrod's is a giant spectacle that's pretty decked out for Christmas. If you go before the new year Oxford Street/Regent Street and that whole area are decked out with pretty silly decorations.
I could probably ramble for a while, but I'll let you weed through that.
*Edit* And don't listen to Rich, Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens are better than Regent's Park. It also has the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial in them which are both pretty
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3068/...20b7dafba0.jpg
Here's my girlfriend's picture blog from London: http://theflyingquiche-dailyphoto.blogspot.com/ She took a lot of pictures of the interesting places to see in town
just fyi burg, I hate you. I want to go to London so bad. :(
You should bring your good friend Satsuki along.
thanks for the tips guys - i spent yesterday in portobello market (our friend did get some hummingbird), then searching for a travel adapter, then pubbing, then watching the jets blow - but today i'm on my own and i'm gonna start doing some of this stuff
sats - i'll run that by her next time
LOL - i didn't recall you mentioning this, but we walked in here yesterday looking for the jets game, unknowinglyQuote:
Originally Posted by Rich
they were showing hockey! in the texas embassy!
Damn straight.
you search the forum for every time someone types "hockey" right?
Wish I knew you were looking for hockey; would've told you to hit up Sports Cafe in Piccadilly.. it's where I went to get my baseball fixesQuote:
Originally Posted by burgundy
England Scavenger Hunt:
[ ] Vehicle larger than a Civic (buses, vans, and "lorries" don't count)
[ ] The word "soccer"
[ ] A cheap meal
[ ] Anyone with a tan
[ ] Non-alcoholic beverage
[ ] A virgin
[ ] English phrase that isn't gay
[ ] Woman with large breasts but not a hideous face
[ ] The sun
nah, i was pissed they weren't showing football, which i then watched at the sports cafeQuote:
Originally Posted by Rich
sports cafe is a pretty cool place.
I met a bunch of english people who liked baseball
My favorite part of London was flying in from Rome on Ryan Air for $10, and arriving at the Stansted airport only to find that the Train from the airport to London was out of service. So we and everyone else had to stand around and wait to clamor onto some asshole bus company's bus, or take a $100 taxi.
So we get on the bus, and ride for far too long and eventually make it into london, when somewhere around Paddington or something, our bus stops and the driver yells for everyone to get out. Upon exiting my friend & I realize there is smoke coming out of the dashboard. We continue to watch from outside as the Driver quickly exits and closes the door, and suddenly the entire front of the bus is burning from the inside.
the rest of the story, well... you can just see for yourself.
... but in all seriousness, I think my favorite part of London (aside from seeing Electric Wizard) was my last day there, walking through (i think it was) Regent's Park, just me and my ipod. It really doesn't get much better than that.