Spontaneous London Trip--the plans so far... About This Page:

[September]

Yesterday DH & I decided to splurge and spend a week in London this July (celebrating 5th anniversary). Plans so far...

Dates: July 2-9, 2002

Hotel: Montcalm Nikko...chosen for location and the website looked okay. Any thoughts for those Londoners out there??

Restaurants: So far the following are on our must do list:
* Rules -- kind of kitch, but great roast beef and sticky toffee pudding.
* The Ivy -- favorite new restaurant from last trip in March, & I can't wait to go again.
* Wodka -- the one "new" restaurant on my list. I read a review that looked interesting, plus I'm a big vodka conisseur and they're supposed to have an impressive selection. DH had a bad experience with vodka once and is not looking forward to this restaurant (it must be true love!!).

Itinerary: Nothing specific so far. Since the weather should be nice we'll probably spend a day or two meandering around London enjoying the parks (St. James is my favorite) as well as shopping (Portobello Rd. on Saturday and Regent St. are must-dos). To be honest, one of my favorite ways to spend a beautiful afternoon in London is gathering an impromptu picnic from a local market and spending the afternoon in a park reading a book and people watching. A few other options we're kicking around:
* Leeds...have never been and were considering.
* Hampton Court -- visited a few years ago; but, they have a flower festival running through July 6th.

So, any other suggestions or comments on our plans??

[Chrissi]

[img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] Umm, a little confused here (scratching my head) [img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] .

How can you make plans for a spontaneous trip? [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Mel & Richard]

One of my favorite things to do in London is The British Museum. If you haven't seen this try to make time for it. It is wonderful! Also check out
www.lastminute.com for some incredible deals on theatre tickets. We saw three great shows when we last went.

Hope you have a lovely time! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Mel

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/

[September]

Sorry, Chrissi...it's spontaneous in the sense that we were planning to go away somewhere close for two or three days and ended up taking a week-long trip overseas during high (read: expensive) season on three weeks notice. We decided that we're only gonna live once.

Mel--it's funny that you suggest the British Museum. This will be our fifth trip to London within the last three years, and on every trip we put the BM on our list and promise to go there if it rains. Unfortunately (or, fortunately, depending on how you view it) we have't had any rainy days yet (I'm knocking on wood furiously as I type that!!). Thanks for the link to the theater tickets website; it's funny, we live less than an hour from NYC and we have seen four times as many plays in London during the past few years. We were thinking of doing a day trip outside of the city and possibly renting a car to see more of the countryside. Any suggestions??

Thanks again.

[Bert & Sully]

What about the Tate Gallery? Isn't that travelling collection [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] back by now that Rudy had a cow about being at the Brooklyn Museum and threatened to cut $$$? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Hey there's also a London to DLP train you could take too!! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[ 06-10-2002, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: Bert & Sully ]

[HiddenMickey]

Have you seen The Museum of London? I found it fascinating. It's just North of St Pauls. Free. -HiddenMickey

[Mel & Richard]

Hi. When you say Leeds, do you meen Leeds Castle in Kent which is fabulous? Or do you mean the city Leeds? If you mean Leeds the city, that would be like say visiting NYC and then driving 4-5 hours to see Newark! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

Now if you want a nice trip north the city of York is one of my favorite places here in the UK. I would suggest checking out train fare though instead of renting a car to York. The trains are so much faster! And you still get to see a lot of countryside.

http://www.york-tourism.co.uk/
http://www.york-united-kingdom.co.uk/

http://www.thetrainline.com/

If I can be of any more help let me know.

Mel

P.S. I did a quick check for round trip on the 5th. It was about £30-£40 person, and travel time to 2hours 15 min instead of the 5 hours to drive it.