Seeing all these reviews about London I couldn’t help adding my own :-))
I had been to London recently which, ahem, was an official trip but there was actually ’nothing official about it’ :-). Anyways as chiku2 so rightly pointed out it is an expensive place. Again Chiku’s advice is amazingly on the mark when he says the cabs are expensive. Too bad I did not read this review before leaving for London. It would have saved me a lot of money.
Overall I must say it is an amazing place with one of the best cosmopolitan culture I have seen. The different types of people you can meet in London is unbelievable.
Ok folks this was what I did and learnt in London. Lets hope it proves useful to the people who read this. The first mistake as I mentioned when I landed in Heathrow was taking a cab to my guest house. Boy was it expensive or what? Since it was an official visit (well the company promised my expense and I like a wise guy did not bring enough money!)
The guest house was in a place called Tooting and the trip from heathrow to tooting costed me 60 pounds :-( Before I go further maybe I should also give a geographical layout. London is divided into this six concentric circles of zone1...zone6, the rim towards the exterior being zone 6 and the one inside zone 1. Tooting is in zone 3 and my office which was in Victoria is zone 1 which is Central London.
As Chiku2 mentioned, the best mode of travel is the tube or bus. There are different ways u can buy the pass. there are different rates for different zones. while buying the travel pass called the Oyster Card, you would have to mention between what zone u would like to travel. E.g I was in zone 3 and I had to travel to zone 1 so I bought a travel pass between zone 1 and zone 3 for a month that entitled me to make unlimited travel between zone 1 and zone 3 for a month for 91.3 pounds. This pass not only allows you to travel by tube but also by bus between the mentioned zones. In case you have to travel further up like zone 4 or 5 extensions can be taken by showing your card paying a little extra. Dont miss the bus ride it is fun and they take u through some real quaint places. Plus most of the places of interest is in zone 1
The places of interest I visited was Leicester square, Picadilly Circus, china Town that is all walkable from Leicester square. These places have an amazing night life and the street performers there are a treat to the senses. The place day would be a friday night for those who enjoy being in a crowd. The array of pizzas are sllurrp out of the world and the best part u get single slices which u can grab and eat on the way.
Sherlock Holmes Museum and Madame Tussauds in Baker street again was an experience by itself. The sherlock holmes museum has an amazing array of displays for all ye Sherlock Holmes fans. Madame Tussauds as usual is awesome with their live wax statues. For all who enjoy a good drink there is also a Sherlock Holmes restaurant in trafalgar square which is worthwhile. Again like the museum Sherlock’s room has been replicated in the first floor of the restaurant. The food is quite expensive though.
London is a treat to all those health conscious people since it is a place that can be enjoyed by walking. It rally is a walkers’ paradise. There is a Jubilee walkaway made for the walkers that takes them to all the places of interest. The map can be downloaded from the internet. I just used the one and only google and searched for Jubilee walk and there came the map. its a 14 mile walk which is a TRRREEAAAT.
Every Saturday outside St. Pauls cathedral at around 19:00 pm starts the haunted london walk ’. It ends at 21:00. I wouldn’t personally call it haunted or scary but the guide was very nice in a veil that gave her an eerie look and the walk was interesting that took us through all the quaint alleys and neighbourhood.
For the intellectual kind the Imperial War Museum, Cabinet War Museum, British Museum is a ’’dont miss it’’ experience. British Museum was humongous. I spent 5 hours in it and managed to cover 25%. Have kept the rest to my next trip to UK. Imperial war museum is one of its kind. Make sure u dont miss it.
London Dungeons was was also an interesting trip but not for the faint of heart. Some of the displays there were gross. The boat ride to hell was very enjoyable though with large axes over your heads that gives you the creeps.
Greenwich and Cutty sark is again one of the prominent places on the planet. There is a line which shows the time division and it is possible to take snaps putting your legs on either side!! The walk to the observatory is a complete pleasure. Cutty sark national maritime museum was simply superb. The ride their in the docklands railways was very nice. Before going there we had gone to Canary wharf which is the ultra modern part of London. Simply amazing. The buildings it seemed were made of just steel and glass. This is where all the banks have their offices.
My personal favourite though was the guided trip around Lords Museum and the media center in it. Just about awesome (do u readers notice I am running out of vocabulary here) Saturday they have a tour at 10:00 and 12:00 .
The other places of interest are Trafalgar square, Kings cross where the platform 9 3/4 (Harry potter fans would know that) is.
Thats all 4 now folks. Will come back soon with other experiences from other places :-)