and other London, United Kingdom General Tips

Fondest Memory: I have taken dozens of pictures of Trafalger Square but this is my favorite. If you enlarge it and look closely, you can see the Big Ben clocktower looking down Whitehall to Millbank. OYE!

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Favorite Thing: Use the TUBE. Learn it, embrace it, love it. The TUBE is your best friend in London. Study the tube map and integrate it into your daily itinerary...in no time youll be a pro. The London tube is not the best in the world, nor the prettiest, nor the most efficient. It was , however the largest and first of any large city. It will save you time , money and comfort. Its as much a tourist attraction as Big Ben ..how many trains have you seen that has its own poster and is considered artwork?

Fondest Memory: Staying in Hampstead Heath and being so far underground at the tube stop that you had to take a rather long elevator to street level.The Sherlock Holmes silouettes on the tiles at the Baker Street stop..many good memories.

But the best was the time in 1985 when a blatantly American girl noticed the Westminster stop and blurted out accross the train car...'Ohhhh is this..like the stop for like Big Ben and like everythinggg?' in a squeal of orgasmic proportions. I looked at her and said..'Yes...better hurry before the doors close.' At which she leaped out of the car and dashed up the stairs with an alacrity and squeal factor of 10.
As she dissappeared up the stairs and astonished/reserved riders exchanged smiles, I sighed said calmly..'In NY,,she would have been mugged by now...'...to which everybody laughed soundly.
Fun stuff that tube;-)

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Favorite Thing: See the Parliament. So much history, bad and good, has passed through these halls. At one time 'the sun never set on the British Empire.' To my mind the countries that were included, Australia. New Zealand, India, Canada and even my own USA..benefitted immensely from the British Colonial era. To this day the main ideas regarding government, law, equality, transportation, education, etc are the basis that make the above countries some of the most peacefull, prosperous and interesting to visit. From India's immense railroad system to democratic government to sheer propriety....its all a British sphere thing..to me. Hey, then again Im an Anglophile at heart. But so revered was the British Parliamentry system that Budapest built their mirror-version buliding on the banks of the Danube...not to mention several dozen countries copied the system itself..must be something to it?

Fondest Memory: I have too many to list as I have spent voluminous amounts of time there. I would have to say it was a subtle memory in 1885 when I spent one of many Christmas' there...twas midnight Christmas Eve and I couldnt sleep , so I went for a walk from my place at Warwick Way toward Hyde Park. There was a light snow falling that dusted the streets and made a slight scrunch underfoot, but it wasnt actually too cold or windy...just frozen in time against an intermittant swirl of snow against glow of streetlights...it all colluded to create a Dickensian hue...the streets all but deserted and I swear I saw Oliver Twist being chased down a deserted ally by the Ghost of Christmas past....but then again, Im thinking it could have been the eggnog.;-)

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Favorite Thing: SEE PICCADILLY CIRCUS...Piccadilly Circus awash in tourists as usual. I always like the dueling adverts..each one fighting for attention. I am American after all and can eat burgers 3x a day and I am also always hungry...so McDonalds usually wins;-)


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Favorite Thing: TAKE LONG WALKS WITH ONLY A VAGUE ITINERARY. I always like street scenes of London, because the sheer energy of present day meets the echos of yesterday resounding off its walls. Thousands of tourists scurry about admiring the 'neat architecture' or the 'cool double-decker busses' , oblivious that history fairly oozes from the walls they almost casually notice..I like the juxtaposition.
To me Regent Street is a manmade canyon one traverses to get from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus..on the way to Trafalger Square...


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Favorite Thing: VISIT THAT TIME HONORED BRIDGE....LONDON BRIDGE? NOPE...but thats what most foreigners mistakenly call it. This is TOWER BRIDGE. London Bridge is west on the Thames.(ACTUALLY the REAL LONDON BRIDGE is far west indeed...reassembled on Lake Havasu in good ol US of A) There are so many 'must see's' in London it would take 200 pages to cover them all. I will try to cover many of the 'usual suspects' and cover more unusual stuff if possible.


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Favorite Thing: STUDY/STUDY/STUDY~!As with all major cities my biggest tip will be to study the city via a map and a written guide long before you jump on a plane to visit. Even trying to read during your 7 hour flight from New York to Gatewick doesnt cut it.(cramming before finals,,did it REALLY work?) There are simply too many things to see and without a plan. When you get home youll come accross names of places and look them up, realising you were just a few blocks away from it.
How do I know? My first several trips I MISSED more than I saw...I missed the Kremlin by bad luck and the entire city of Florence because I thought..'Hey I already saw Rome...it cant be any better.' UH-HUH.;-(


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