planning early. what to do in London during May 2008

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:09:09 -0800, wrote:

Going to London during the month of May.

Bringing a girl friend, who has never been to London (from
California), before. So far we have plans to see Globe Theatre, V&A,
London Eye, Dickens' House, Science Museum, Theatre Museum, Herb
Garette & Surgery, Southwark Church, Harrods, Fortum &, several West
End Shows using TimeOut, Covent Garden, London Walks, Sherlock Holmes
Museum, Greenwich.

Would anyone like to make suggestions of what to see? We have 3 weeks
and are planning on remaining inside Greater London.

Botanical Gardens at Kew - especially the exotic stuff in the
hothouses.

http://www.kew.org/

Try some riverside walks:

http://www.thames-path.org.uk/

Or give the Regent's Canal a visit:

http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/boat-trip.htm

I note that you don't intend to go outside the Greater London area,
but should you find yourself with Big-City overkill, day trips to (for
example) Oxford and Cambridge - maybe even Bath are to be recommended.



Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:45:40 +0100, Martin wrote:


It's only 2 hours to York by train.

True enough - and it's a terrific place to visit too - "Minster"
(cathedral), a walk along the city walls, national Railway Museum, the
Castle Museum was one of the first museums to recontsruct old streets
and shops, mediaeval streets in the Shambles area; Roman and Viking
remains as well.

The "Shambles" was the mediaeval butchers quarter - meat was cut up on
"sceammel" (wooden blocks) [may have my ancient Anglo-Saxon spelling
wrong as well but never mind] and sold - place was filthy and must
have stunk to high Heaven - derivation of shambles meaning "a mess."
(OK now though!!!)

Note that many streets are called "gates" - and you might wonder where
the gate is - comes from Scandinavian "gade" meaning "street" - so
Coneygate would have been Koninggade = King Street.

City was Latin Eboracum, Anglo-Saxon Eorforwic, Scandinavian Jorvik -
now York.

Excellent idea for a day out.



Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008, wrote:

Would anyone like to make suggestions of what to see?

Just an Italian who lived in West Sussex for a couple of years some 20
years ago, and used to come to London approximately every other weekend.

So far we have plans to see Globe Theatre, V&A, London Eye, Dickens'
House, Theatre Museum, Herb Garette & Surgery, Fortum &, several West
End Shows using TimeOut, London Walks, Sherlock Holmes Museum,

Your selection sounds rather odd to me, I've never cared about the
things above (I do not even know what some of those are) while I note
there are a lot of things missing (at the time I used the Italian
Touring Club Green Guidebook and saw almost everything marked with a
star there ... the list below is done by heart so I'm likely to miss
things).

Science Museum,

and Natural History, Geological and Victoria and Albert museums all in
Kensington. Spent *several* afternoons in each. Also nearby have a look
from the outside at Royal Albert Hall, Kensington palace and parks and
gardens.

Add more afternoons at the British Museum, the National Gallery, the
Tate (should be doubled now) and the London Museum at Barbican. Add more
minor places like Sir John Soames' house, the Wellcome museum (is that
the name ? a painting gallery somewhere near Bloomsbury, somehow
related to UCL ... the warden there kept insisting that I should have
been allowed to some reduction on the entrance fee although I wasn't)
and the little press museum near St.Bride.


Southwark Church,

Why just that church (incidentally a cathedral) ? why are Westminster
Abbey and St.Paul's cathedral missing ? and S.Bartholomew the Great ?
and Temple Church (and all the Temple bar area) ... and all the nice
Wren churches all the way from Trafalgar Square to the Tower ?

Harrods,

done it once, and Selfridges too, and it sufficed.

Covent Garden,

what there ? Spent a couple of afternoons at the London Transport museum
(still there ?). And if you are a public transport fan like me,
extensive trips with the Tube in various junction underground station,
and visited most railway stations in central London !

Greenwich.

the park, the Maritime Museum and the old Observatory at Flamsteed House

You also forget classical sights like Tower, Guildhall, Whitehall and
Buckingham palace area, a walk in the City during peak workdays and
compare with the desert on Sundays etc. etc.

Within easy reach places like Kew Gardens, Hampton Court, Windsor,
St.Albans.

If you really have 3 weeks, you'd have time for lots of day trips or
one-night trips elsewhere too, at least from Kent (Canterbury) to
Norfolk (Norwich, Ely), Cambridge, Oxford, Salisbury and Stonehenge,
Bath (these were the other weekends, except for the month when I had a
Britrail pass and went further north).

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On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:09:09 -0800, mangled
uncounted electrons thus:

Going to London during the month of May.

Bringing a girl friend, who has never been to London (from
California), before. So far we have plans to see Globe Theatre, V&A,
London Eye, Dickens' House, Science Museum, Theatre Museum, Herb
Garette & Surgery, Southwark Church, Harrods, Fortum &, several West
End Shows using TimeOut, Covent Garden, London Walks, Sherlock Holmes
Museum, Greenwich.

Would anyone like to make suggestions of what to see? We have 3 weeks
and are planning on remaining inside Greater London.

I see many worthy suggestions in other replies...

I would recommend Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn
Fields. Very eccentric, very British, only takes a couple of
hours to walk round. Website at:

www.soane.org

Martin D. Pay
I guarantee your GF will never have seen anything like it...

In article
engr.vans.vg,
Giovanni Drogo writes

a painting gallery somewhere near Bloomsbury, somehow related to UCL

Sounds like the Courtauld Gallery, which was near UCL in Woburn Square
until 1989 but is now housed in Somerset House on the Strand.

http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

"Sarah Banick" wrote in message
. ..

wrote in message
...
Going to London during the month of May.

Bringing a girl friend, who has never been to London (from
California), before. So far we have plans to see Globe Theatre, V&A,
London Eye, Dickens' House, Science Museum, Theatre Museum, Herb
Garette & Surgery, Southwark Church, Harrods, Fortum &, several West
End Shows using TimeOut, Covent Garden, London Walks, Sherlock Holmes
Museum, Greenwich.

Would anyone like to make suggestions of what to see? We have 3 weeks
and are planning on remaining inside Greater London.

Check out London Walks (www.walks.com). They do oodles and oodles of
walking tours, most led by historians and actors. Very informative and
lots of fun. I've probably done 10 of them by now, and I'm never
disappointed. Especially if you want to explore a particular subject --
Dicken's London, the Beatles London, Christopher Wren's architecture, etc.
etc.

No affilation, just a happy customer :-)

Agree.
And there is also a good series of non-guided walks, marked quite well with
free maps available.
See http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modalpages/2694.aspx
I liked the Wimbledon-Richmond sector of the Capital Ring.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaro...ails.asp?id=16
These walks will show you some nice areas (and maybe a few not so nice ones)
off the usual tourist circuit.

Also the Thames Path has some interesting sections, and some nice pubs on
the way.




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On Tue, 29 Jan 2008, congokid wrote:

a painting gallery somewhere near Bloomsbury, somehow related to UCL

Sounds like the Courtauld Gallery, [...]now housed in Somerset House
on the Strand.

Yes, that's it !


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wrote in message
...
Going to London during the month of May.

Bringing a girl friend, who has never been to London (from
California), before. So far we have plans to see Globe Theatre, V&A,
London Eye, Dickens' House, Science Museum, Theatre Museum, Herb
Garette & Surgery, Southwark Church, Harrods, Fortum &, several West
End Shows using TimeOut, Covent Garden, London Walks, Sherlock Holmes
Museum, Greenwich.

Would anyone like to make suggestions of what to see? We have 3 weeks
and are planning on remaining inside Greater London.

Well, as you can see by the responses, there's lots to do in London. But in
May, I'd try to get outside the city to see something of the beautiful,
blooming countryside. London Walks (www.walks.com) has Explorer tours,
daytrips outside the city to places like the Cotswolds and rural Kent. We
took a memorable one to Richmond and Hampton Court Palace. (Loved the boat
trip on the Thames.)

Marianne

"Iceman" wrote in message
...
On Jan 29, 1:09 am, "William Black"
wrote:
wrote in message

...

Take a ride out to Stratford (in the day time, Stratford after dark
isn't
that safe) and see the real multicultural London with take-aways where
you
don't even recognise the script over the door, never mind read the
language.

Which Stratford? I lived in Stratford on Avon for many years -- it was
safer after dark than most towns in the day.
rjf

In article ,
wrote:

Going to London during the month of May.

Bringing a girl friend, who has never been to London (from
California), before. So far we have plans to see Globe Theatre, V&A,
London Eye, Dickens' House, Science Museum, Theatre Museum, Herb
Garette & Surgery, Southwark Church, Harrods, Fortum &, several West
End Shows using TimeOut, Covent Garden, London Walks, Sherlock Holmes
Museum, Greenwich.

Would anyone like to make suggestions of what to see? We have 3 weeks
and are planning on remaining inside Greater London.

After many years of visiting and even living in London, last trip I
visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Roomsand really enjoyed
it.

It is very close to some of the other things you may be seeing, so give
their web site a look-

http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00f002

jay
Wed Jan 30, 2008