"London" London by AVSENT

London is nothing more than a big city similar to New York city, USA. Certainly, their cultures are different as well as their views on things-but once you get past their "english/slang" (their version of English as it is spoken differently in MANY places in the world) there isn't much difference. A building is a building-a crowded rush hour filled street, it's all the same. The downtown is very congested with traffic and thus there is a congestion fee (5.00 GBP-2003) you must pay to receive a permit to drive in central London.

My last trip to London was in November, 2003. The London Eye and congestion tax were new things on this trip. I arrived at the airport (LGW-London Gatwick Airport) on the 14th and rented a car (Thrifty) and made the rather long drive to Stratford, a suburb of London. I was not amused by the fact that I was given a large van like vehicle (Much like a Honda Element) when I had reserved a small car (gas mileage). It was bad enough I had to learn to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, but I also had to keep the large vehicle between the lines as well. To make matters worse, I could only turn on the stereo with a remote control that I spent 20 minutes trying to find; that was hidden in a glove box I found by accident. However, it was kind of cool to use a "card" to start the van and to open the doors (Remote). The only problem was to NOT sit on the thing when I put it into my back pocket. How different it was to put the card in a slot and hit a button to start and turn off the van.
Nonetheless, after travelling for 45 to 60 minutes over differerent motorways and 1 toll stop, I arrived at the hotel (Holliday Inn Express-Stratford). cont....later

• Pros:Rich culture with historic buildings. Excellent Metro transportation (The tube)
• Cons:Big city, expensive, weather.
• In a nutshell:If you like big cities like New York, Chicago, and LA- you will like London.