London Off the Beaten Path Tips by jacob_m

If you're leaving London by plane (and do it for example in the evening) you are familiar with the baggage problem, you can either leave your baggage at the hotel, which means you have to return in the afternoon and your hotel may not be very centrally located, or you can find a left luggage office which will charge you a not very small fee for keeping an eye of your baggage.
Then you have to carry your baggage through a number of endless tunnels in order to get to the right tube-line
However if you're flying from Heathrow you can now check-in your baggage at Paddington station in central London.
The check-in facilities are open from 5.00 a.m and they take care of your baggage and issue your boarding card. When it's time to leave London you go to Heathrow and proceed directly to your departure gate without any baggage to carry or worry about.
The check-in desks are used by most larger airlines like British Airways, British Midland, Singapore Airlines, SAS, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Austrian Airlines, Finnair and Qantas (+ some others).

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Other Contact: Tube: Paddington

I really enjoy watching the skyline of London especially by night.
Take the tube to S:t Paul's and cross the Thames by the Millennium bridge which was especially built for the millennium celebrations. Then take a walk along the Thames what is called the Thamespath. It allows you to walk from Blackfriars all the way to Tower Bridge in the east and to House or parliament and Big Ben in the west (might be even longer), very nice experience and personally I appreciate not having to cope with the traffic.

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Other Contact: Tube: St Paul's (Central line)

If you stay in London for a couple of days there are plenty of opportunities to leave the city and make one-day excursions.
Two suggestions are to visit the very famous university cities Oxford and Cambridge, they are both just one hour trainride from London.
Oxford is located northwest of London and trains leave at least once an hour from Paddington station. Oxford is slightly larger than Cambridge with many old buildings , churches, bridges and libraries.
Cambridge is located northeast of London and trains leave at least once an hour from King's cross station (some trains also leave from Liverpool street station).
The name Cambridge derives from the bridge over river Cam, Cam flows through the heart of Cambridge and I suggest you take a boatride on this narrow river.
This is called "punting" and is something similar to the gondols in Venice, Italy.
Cambridge has just like Oxford many old nice buidlings.
I like both of them but I think I prefer Cambridge (if I have to choose), but that is of course my personal opinion.

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