England info.

[mrv3000]

So say I was going to England. Not that I have any definite plans to, but I'd really like to sometime in the next year.

1. What's a good time of the year to go? What's a bad time?
   
   
2. Since it's not like I can spend a month (probably more like a week), I'd probably be limited to the London area. What are some OMGMUSTSEE/DO things? I'm thinking some of you guys would know better things than a tour book. (One day I really do need to spend at the British Museum otherwise I will most likely 'splode.) Recommend anything - attractions, restaurants, pubs, events...
   
   
3. Although time would probably be limited, I wouldn't mind hearing about things that would be worth a train ride/overnight trip to other parts of the country.
   
   
4. Any other helpful hints? Like...OMG. What if I run into the Queen at a McDonald's?? Do I curtsy? Offer a fry? Ask her to sign my right boob? No, wait. England. Left boob.

ETA: I really want to make a crop circle while I'm there.

Comments

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

ENGLAND BABY! June/July/August tend to be the hottest months, although that's no guarantee it won't rain. It's freezing at the moment, and will be for a while.

The London Eye is a must, British Museum definitely, Me ;D, the 'spooky' pub I love going to...hmm, we should ask tourists who've come here, not people who live here *g*

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking there will probably have to be *some* sort of drunken LJ meetup... :D

Spooky pub? I totally want to go to a haunted pub!!

Me being a nerd..?

[aj.livejournal.com]

OMG. GO TO THE BRITISH LIBRARY. Yes, it's kind of lame outside the gallery thing, but in the gallery! TONS of original manuscripts out on display! Magna Cartas! Shakesperean folios! Hand written Beethoven and Mozart sheet music! Original Beatles notes!

Plus, y'know, a huge philately collection.

(And, y'know, running around and searching for Dr. Who shooting areas. No I TOTALLY DIDN'T search for the London Eye spots and squee about the bridges when I was there. SHUT UP.

Re: Me being a nerd..?

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

OMG. GO TO THE BRITISH LIBRARY.

Ooooooh! That sounds kewl. I have a feeling I will totally geek out on that kind of thing. Museums, libraries, anything slightly historic...which means pretty much everything. :D

And, y'know, running around and searching for Dr. Who shooting areas.

Isn't that pretty much all in Cardiff? Although I might have to get a picture of me standing with my head in the Eye... (And not that I've ever done that before *cough*hunteddownx-filessitesinbc*cough*)

[icepixie]

May and June are nice months. May is almost warm, usually, and the tourists haven't completely invaded yet.

GO THE VICTORIAN & ALBERT MUSEUM, OMG. Way better than the British Museum, IMO. You can try on a corset and hoop skirt! And there's lots of nifty and weird stuff, like a recreation of an 18th century bedchamber, William Morris wallpaper, a strange gothic sink with spitting gargoyles, etc. etc. etc. Very cool. I spent about three days total in it over the course of several trips to London last year. Right next to it is the Museum of Natural History, which is also well worth your time, if only for the incredible architecture.

Tower of London is not to be missed. It's relatively expensive, but well worth it. Spend the day there.

I enjoyed going up in the London Eye, but again, expensive. Hyde Park is not expensive, and is also worth your time. (All the parks are, really; I like Green Park just as well.)

If you're into castles, there's a day trip from London to Leeds Castle offered by one of the bus companies. It's a gorgeous castle in Kent; it's got towers and arched windows and a big moat around everything, plus some nice gardens. Might be overrun with kids, depending on when you go.

If you want to go further afield, go to Bath. Bath is my very favorite city in England (of the ones I saw last year, anyway). It's got gorgeous, gorgeous architecture all over, a beautiful park that's so nice to walk in on a spring day, the River Avon looking particularly nice, and of course the Roman Baths, which are very cool to see. There's also a lot of Jane Austen stuff, if you're into that. Bath is probably about a 2, 2.5-hour train ride from London.

Oxford and Stratford are also nice, although very touristy. But that general part of the country (the Cotswolds) has some lovely scenery, right out of The Wind in the Willows or parts of Thomas Hardy (Oxford/"Christminster" is the northernmost part of Hardy's Wessex, if I remember correctly.) Oxford isn't too far, but Stratford is further away.

Oh, when you're in London, get a pasty from the Cornish Pasty Company (they have a stand in King's Cross train station and a little shop in Paddington). Better than the pasties I had when I was actually in Cornwall. (Pasties are essentially a handheld pot pie, only A MILLION TIMES BETTER.) And a muffin from the AMT stands littering the city. Mmmm, AMT. I still miss their hot chocolate.

And see a play! Or two, or six. :)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've just put this post into Memories because all this is GREAT.

(And OMG, "pasties" have a slightly different meaning over here. Don't think I'll be able to order one without giggling. :D)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Oh, how's the fall? Any good months in there? Or is May/June really the way to go?

[elaminen.livejournal.com]

You so didn't eat the right pasties. The Cornish 'hidden' pasty shops are the best, rather than the high street shops.

But where in Cornwall did you go? And where did you buy your pasty from, that's the important thing!

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

The London Eye has an omg pretty view, though it's kind of expensive. (15GBP for half an hour).

Kew Gardens, the London Botanical Gardens, are huge and gorgeous with many greenhouses of tropical goodies if that kind of thing is your kind of thing.

Madame Tussauds (waxworks) is very popular, but personally I think it's over-rated (and again omg expensive).

I'm a huge cathedral/church junkie and would recommend both St. Paul's Catherdral and Westminster Abbey, but that might not be your cup of tea.

Museum-wise, you might also want to check out the Science Museum and the V&A, which is quite English in flavour (I don't remember exactly what's on offer but there are displays on 50s/60s England, dresses from old ballgowny days onwards, collections of old musical instruments... You might want to check out its website for more details.

If you do go in summer I'd recommend a daytrip to Cambridge (a 1 hr train journey from London) for beautiful old colleges and punting (my one true love), but I'm hugely biased there. Maybe a day trip to Windsor? It's very pretty, there's the castle and it has a nice medium-sized city feel to it, and it's fairly close by.

This is a total info-dump and I am sorry. *pulls a face*

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

Or there's Hampton Court which I think you can get a bus to, which is closeish. And if you go in summer (July - September) and don't hate classical music, go to a prom at the Royal Albert Hall. They're really reasonably priced and it's a gorgeous concert hall - gets really hot though.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

WAH. I totally need more than a week! Uh huh, I wanna go there and there and there and there... Although I think I can skip Madame Tussauds.

Science Museum!! WHEEEE!

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

You're not s'posed to curtsey unless you're a British subject. I vote for the boob-signing.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Oh really? I didn't know that.

Boob it is! :D

[elismor.livejournal.com]

No, wait. England. Left boob.

OMG.

BWAH!

also: Forget London. Rent a car and do the southwest.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

You actually expect me to DRIVE? OMG.

[professor_mirror]

I would check out the British Museum, which is like unto CRACK for history geeks, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street. (Actually I think it's really at like 236 Baker Street and the webpage is lying.)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I actually think I could spend the whole week at the British Museum but I'll restrain myself. :D And a Sherlock Holmes museum! Very cool!

[jacksrubberduck.livejournal.com]

Erm weather wise? Put it this way I carry an umbrella and sunglasses with me everywhere all year round.

My brain has abandoned me right now (I spelt it 'brian' the first time) so I'll get back to you on the rest.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Put it this way I carry an umbrella and sunglasses with me everywhere all year round.

Heh heh heh.

My brain has abandoned me right now (I spelt it 'brian' the first time) so I'll get back to you on the rest.

Awww. *pat* Yeah, anything you think is great! Doesn't need to be the typical tourist stuff.

[debs7.livejournal.com]

gah! You've made me really really want to go back and visit the UK!!!!

and I totally wouldn't go and see Doctor Who sites and I most definitely would not go to Cardiff for the sole purpose of seeing it being filmed!!

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

gah! You've made me really really want to go back and visit the UK!!!!

Mwahahahaha!

and I totally wouldn't go and see Doctor Who sites and I most definitely would not go to Cardiff for the sole purpose of seeing it being filmed!!

Oh, I wouldn't either. Nope. Not at all. *FLAILS*

[vicki595.livejournal.com]

If you head out of London to the South East, Kent has castles. Lots and lots of castles.

Canterbury's a pretty cool little touristy town though, with the cathedral and can be done in a day trip from London easily enough.

In London, I like the Science Museum (and their gift shop!). I don't like the Tate Modern (but then again, I don't like modern art!)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I totally need to see castles!

I love Science Museums (and modern art) - I have the feeling there's going to be WAY more to see than I'm ever going to have time for.

[shutthef-up.livejournal.com]

Here via surrealphantast

I visited London & Edinburgh quite a while ago (and in January, no less), but had a wonderful time while I was there.

I wholeheartedly agree with whoever recommended the Tower of London. Really excellent and tons of cool history there.

And I really enjoyed the Royal Mews. Which is where they keep the ceremonial horses and carriages. You can probably do it in a couple of hours, max.

Try to do a 'Ghost Tour', which can be a bit like a pub crawl, too. It's a little pricey, but well worth it for the stories and it's done at night. I did one in Edinburgh and it was just about the highlight of my trip.

I didn't make it to Stirling Castle because of flooding that year, but the Royal Mile in Edinburgh was a lot of fun. A bit touristy, perhaps, but nice.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly agree with whoever recommended the Tower of London. Really excellent and tons of cool history there.

I think that's going to be on my *must* do list.

And I really enjoyed the Royal Mews. Which is where they keep the ceremonial horses and carriages. You can probably do it in a couple of hours, max.

Ooooh. That sounds interesting.

Try to do a 'Ghost Tour', which can be a bit like a pub crawl, too. It's a little pricey, but well worth it for the stories and it's done at night. I did one in Edinburgh and it was just about the highlight of my trip.

I would be totally interested in that. A bunch of us had thought about doing a ghost tour in Boston last year, but it never worked out while we were there.

Thanks!

[yamadara.livejournal.com]

I went in April and surprisingly thought the weather was pretty good.

London Eye is cool if you want to take some nice city shots. Tower of London was cool to hear about dead people and see the crown jewels. I liked St. Paul's because you get to hear about dead people.

And hey if you have the money, a day trip to Paris was also pretty cool, though you'll probably only get to explore one or two things.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

The London Eye may be too hard to pass up, even if it is pricey. I bet the view is amazing.

So you can do Paris in a day? I don't really have an overwhelming desire to visit Paris, except that it would be cool to be able to say "yeah, we popped over to Paris..." :D

[jenra.livejournal.com]

I was in England about a month ago - and loved it.
The things i most enjoyed were:

- Walking through Hyde Park after not sleeping for 36 hours.
- Doing a 'Jack the Ripper' walking tour at night. Whitechapel dude! At night!
- St Paul's Cathederal - oh my goodness so pretty!
- The Tower of London. Old stuff! yay!
- I didn't really rate the London Eye

Basically I found that the best way to figure out what you want to do is turn up and stock up on all the brochures you can find.
If you're staying in a Backpacker's - see if you can't get into the Central London YHA. I stayed in three different Backpackers in London, and it was the easiest to find, get to and it was also the nicest.

Have fun darl.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Walking through Hyde Park after not sleeping for 36 hours.

Oh man! :D I've never traveled far enough for serious jet-lag. I'm expecting drooling.

Doing a 'Jack the Ripper' walking tour at night. Whitechapel dude! At night!

EEP! Sounds fun!

Basically I found that the best way to figure out what you want to do is turn up and stock up on all the brochures you can find.

Yeah, I'm sure there will be many brochures. I figured my flist would be a good place to start since many of them can give me the insider's info.

If you're staying in a Backpacker's - see if you can't get into the Central London YHA. I stayed in three different Backpackers in London, and it was the easiest to find, get to and it was also the nicest.

I have the feeling it will be hotels for me. Especially if I can talk one or more of my travel buddies to go with. Certain demands are made that involve private bathrooms. :D