London Suggestions?
As I mentioned in my last post I am thinking about spending a few days in London on my way back to the U.S. It occurs to me that some of you out there may have spent time in London so I thought I would ask for your advice. If you have any suggestions of things I should do, places I should see, or a hotel I should stay at, please either post a comment to this post or email me. Your input is much appreciated … thanks!
#1 – British Museum: It’s the most amazing collection of history in oe single place. Basically, it’s a shrine to 4oo years of British plundering the far ends of the earth. Don’t miss the rosetta stone, the frieze from the parthanon, and the reading room (where Marx and Englals essentially invented communism). Greatest 4 hours you’ll ever spend.
#2: Wagamama. Probably played out by now, but it was a nice, clean, simple noodle bar for reasonable rates 6 years ago. Probably the British version of starbucks by now.
#3: A west end production, any west end production. TKTS isn’t a joke in london, and you can get a last minute ticket to an actual, good show there, not a third run production like in NYC. Bonus points if you can see a Royal Theatre company production of a musuem.
#4: Camden Markets or Portobello Road markets. Both are a total trip. Camden tends to be more about clothing, Portobello about sounviners. Both are awesome.
#5: Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. Feeling good about your government? Listen to any old wacko tell you about how aweful capitalism is. Come for the crazy, stay for the insane.
X, I’ve never been to London but I would recommend some hooliganism.
I will second the TKTS and Camden Market recommendations. There’s lots of good places to chill out around Leicester Square where the TKTS booth is.
I would also add Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral to the list. I was amazed by the architecture in these places, and the hike up into the dome of St. Paul’s is quite the trek (especially for a guy like me, who’s as tall and wide as some of the back corridors).
I never had an appreciation for Shakespeare in high school, but seeing a production at The Globe (in the Groundling section) was awesome.
I stayed at the Astor Museum Inn (hostel) in London, which is right next door to the British Museum. The rooms are small, as most places in London are, but all you need is some place to crash. It was clean and cheap, and that was all that mattered to me. The 7 other beds in my room changed people a couple of times while I was there, so I met quite a few people.
In addition to the British Musueum, the Tate Modern is also an quite good.
Make a call from one of those iconic phonebooths?
Also, the British Library has a really neat collection of stuff you can see, like napkins the Beetles wrote lyrics on, and a copy of the Magna Carta.