"London revisited" a London Travel Page by grandmaR

The last time I was in London was 1950 and I was 12 years old. In 2002. I wanted to revisit some of the places I'd seen then, and see some of the ones I'd missed.

My goals were to:

- An over all orientation tour on the Big Bus
-The British Museum
-The Gilbert and Sullivan at the Savoy
- London Eye
-Evensong at St. Pauls
-To do a brass rubbing
-To see pictures of London and Salisbury by Constable and Turner
-Shop at Harrods
-Have afternoon tea with clotted cream

We had 4 days (Thursday to Sunday), counting the day of arrival when I expected to be somewhat jet lagged.

Send Photo to a Friend

London street from top of the bus

I managed to get to see the following things:

- I rode all three routes of The Big Red Bus route including the boat trip on the Thames. I also used that sightseeing bus to get from Victoria Station to our hotel near the British Museum during the underground strike which was the day we arrived.

- We spent a half day in the British Museum seeing the Roman Britain exhibits, the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.

- We saw "The Mikado" at the Savoy
- We rode the London Eye

- We went to St. Martin in the Fields, and I did a brass rubbing as a gift for one of my daughters.

- Went to the National Gallery and saw the target paintings, plus a good many others including a huge horse painted by Stubbs.

- We had tea at Liberty's of London (would not have been my top choice and there wasn't any clotted cream. We had the clotted cream later.)

We also saw an exhibit of portraits of children's authors at the National Portrait Gallery.

We did not get to shop at Harrods or see anything except the outside of St. Pauls.

With hindsight, I would have traded the London Eye for Harrods and St. Pauls. Because of the crowds, we had to wait 3 hours to get on and that was way more time than it was worth.

Send Photo to a Friend

British Lion - Westminister

On my latest trip to London (2007), I was with my 13 year old grandson. We were coming from a week in Ireland. We had 3.5 days (arriving Friday, Saturday, Sunday,and Monday). We left Tuesday morning.

My goals this time were:

Use the hop-on-hop-off bus to get an overview of London. (but the Original Bus was far inferior to the Big Bus that my husband and I did in 2002)
Attend a variety of live performances (saw a rock musical, a play and Shakespeare)
See the Tower of London (yes) and such other places as I though he might enjoy. I would have liked to take him to do some brass rubbings, and to an exhibit of musical instruments at the Victoria and Albert. (next time)

He wanted to see the London Eye (but we didn't have time to ride on it) and Buckingham Palace (a disappointment)

His aunt recommended Madame Tussauds and Tower Bridge. (did both but Tower Bridge was much better than the waxworks)

In addition in finally got to see Harrods (although not to shop), and ride in a cab.