The Goat Pen

I made a list of like 60 things to do so far I think that needs to be pared down.

I was thinking we might go up to view deck of the Shard rather than London Eye, but one or the other in any case.

Good call. The London Eye is "meh" imo.

Yeah, you could spend all day at the British Museum. Really, you could spend all week there. Everything in London takes longer than you think and closes earlier than you would expect.

AlabamAlum wrote:Good call. The London Eye is "meh" imo.

Yeah, you could spend all day at the British Museum. Really, you could spend all week there. Everything in London takes longer than you think and closes earlier than you would expect.

second on skipping the London Eye

Here's the list of possibilities I kinda quickly sketched out so far

Westminster/St. James’s
Buckingham Palace - Changing of the Guard
Victoria Memorial
Queens Gallery
St. James Park/The Mall/Horse Guard’s Parade
Westminster Abbey
Houses of Parliament
Big Ben
Churchill War Rooms
Tate Britain

Soho/Regent’s Park
Leicester Square/Chinatown
Oxford Street
Regent Street
British Museum
Wallace Collection
Trafalgar Square
National Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Sherlock Holmes Museum
London Zoo
Abbey Road
Royal Academy Exhibitions

Kensington/Hyde Park/Chelsea
Hyde Park
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Palace
Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Victoria & Albert Museum
Saatchi Gallery
Serpentine Galleries
Harrods

City of London/Near East End
St. Paul’s
Tower Bridge
Museum of London
Tower of London
Guildhall Art Gallery
London Wall
Whitechapel Art Gallery
Jack the Ripper Tour
Spitalfields Market
Leadenhall Market

South Bank
HMS Belfast
Imperial War Museum
Tate Modern
London Aquarium
London Eye
London Eye River Cruise
London Dungeon
Gabriel’s Wharf
Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition
The Shard Viewing Platform

Docklands/Greenwich
Old Royal Naval College
Queens House Greenwich
Museum of London Docklands
Royal Observatory Greenwich and Cutty Sark
Thames Clippers River Cruise
Cable Car over the Thames
Canary Wharf
National Maritime Museum
Greenwich Park
Greenwich Market

Possible Day/Half Day Trips out of town
Windsor/Windsor Castle
Stonehenge
Bath
Oxford
Hampton Court
Warner Bros. Studio London (Harry Potter)
Kew Gardens

aTm wrote:This trip will be at the beginning of January 2018, so it's a long ways off and yes it will be my first trip there.

Your excitement is palpable.

That would take 2 months to do.

I like Horse Guards over Buckingham

Cant say enough, Ceremony of the Keys

Don't care for any of the river cruises. Too crowded.

Stonehenge is not great anymore. I think Dover/Canterbury is a better day trip.

The Globe is olay. It's not original.

AlabamAlum wrote:
Stonehenge is not great anymore. I think Dover/Canterbury is a better day trip.

[youtube]mbyzgeee2mg[/youtube]

Eat Indian food.

Agreed. London's Indian food is great, plentiful, cheap.

Stay home.

Cletus wrote:
Airbnb - London hotels are either kind of shitty or very expensive. Or in a lot of cases, both.

I'm curious how expensive is "very expensive" and how shitty is "kind of shitty" in Cletus world.

Go to Priceline and look at their retail prices for hotels. It will give you a good idea. Rooms in Europe are generally smaller and not as updated if you get anything other than what would be on a PL 4-star list. London still has economy rooms without a private bathroom and there are properties without elevators, etc.

A large, premium chain (again, PL 4-star or better) will be fine from a cleanliness, niceness standpoint.

I'll probably have to wait a few months to get the full picture from the travel sites since it's more than a year from now. I could probably go much cheaper, but the only hotel so far that I for sure want to check out prices before I book is Sloane Square Hotel

Just to get a ball park, check the prices in 2017. Fluctuation shouldn't be that great because hotel prices have been fairly flat the last few years.

aTm wrote:

Cletus wrote:
Airbnb - London hotels are either kind of shitty or very expensive. Or in a lot of cases, both.

I'm curious how expensive is "very expensive" and how shitty is "kind of shitty" in Cletus world.

The rooms over there are kind of shitty in that they tend to be very small and barely comfortable. They are fine if you are alone but add people (wife and kids) and they are a problem. I travel a lot for work so I spend an unfortunate amount of time in Hyatt hotels. The two Hyatts in London are a great example of the kind of shitty or very expensive issue. The Hyatt Regency is a very basic place well located and you get a small but ok room and, as of right now, have to pay 350 GBP per night which is a pretty good rate in London but would be robbery for the same product in most US cities. I view this as a kind of shitty property and definitely shitty when you consider the price. On the other side is the Andaz which is in a great location and has much nicer rooms. This is the kind of place I stay in all the time in the US and don't pay all that much (well within an increasingly tight corporate America budget). But, in London, this will cost you 739 GBP which I consider very expensive. Now, I'm sure you can do better if you shop around, use Priceline, etc. but, since I stay in Haytts so often, I have some incentive to stay there because of the upgrades I can get and the various perks. But, for my next London trip with my family, we are using Airbnb and getting way more for less. This is a no brainer with the kids but I'm thinking I'll be using Airbnb even for work travel over there. Its just a way better deal all the way around.

damn, Gatlinburg is on fire right now.

We have a place rented where they have evacuated in 3 weeks.

Out of control. You could smell it up here last night.

Man, it totally smells like fire outside.

I wish you would go outside...

good one