now taking your suggestions
So, I am going to London in about a weeks time. London as in England.
Any suggestions?
Here’s my list of Must-Dos (most of them involve food and booze):
- Harrod’s food court
- High tea – the works (clotted cream and scones and cucumber sandwiches)
- Bangers and mash
- Pint in a pub
- Fish and chips (will substitute with anything else deep fried that probably shouldn’t be).
- Curry
- Pim’s Punch
- Ride Tube
- Savile Row, High Street, Portobello… Shopping! (Even just of the window variety.)
- Tate modern, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, etcetera, etcetera, blah blah blah, yeah we’ll see if we have time after the eating…
I hope you’re there for a good while, ’cause this is a lot of stuff.
The bus tours are not only informative, but serve as decent transportation (walking from a tube station to a destination is a solid hike). Get the one that gives you a free ride on the Damien Hirst boat outside the Tate Modern, Regarding the Tate Modern: get their via Millennium bridge, which is by St Paul’s.
Roasted chestnuts. Soho, for the bookstores. The London Eye, for the view (and for being a HUGE TERRORIST TARGET).
Pee in the Thames. Buckingham Palace is a piece of shit. Big Ben is a big clock.
Oh yeah, and don’t just ride the Tube once or twice for the sake of doing. Check out all the big stations: King’s Cross, Piccadilly, South Kensington, Victoria, blah blah, all the ones with lots of connections. They all have different architecture, flavour, smells and novelties.
Shoot for a Zones 1 and 2 pass. I don’t imagine your hotel is in Zone 1, because you’d likely be paying through the brain, and buying one for a week or so will save you waiting in line.
Oh, and at one point you should also take a London cab. Give the guy somewhere obscure to go, because (I think) the London cabbies need to know every street. (There are about 12 Abbey Roads).
Buy an London A-Z (I have one you can borrow, but I live in St. Catharines).
Oh, and The Burger Shack. Get a milkshake. And it’s right in Carnaby, which is by Soho, which means GOOD shopping.
I can taste the burger now, and it was the best 23 quid I ever spent. (Maybe.)
(It was bought by a medium-to-big managing company, but it still seems to be the same place.)
Before I begin, I have to say that Travis is unbelievably cultured.
Now, my suggestions:
1) Fill a van with tanks of gasoline and nails, and leave it in Piccadilly Square.
2) Set a truck on fire, point it at an airport, and put a big rock on the gas pedal.
…too soon?
Oh man. Now I’m totally gonna be on some No-Fly list, and I won’t get to go, and it’ll all be your fault for making a inapropriate joke on my blog. Thank you, very much, for turning me into a terrorist via the internet.
The truck on fire at the airport thing freaked me out, because I was at that airport about a dozen times last year. I recognized it right away. That said, Gottli is totally the one on the list.
And yeah, I may be cultured, but only in regards to places that have good beer and frequent fireworks displays.
23 pounds for a burger???
That’s … carry the 5, over 14 … about a billion dollars! For a burger?
Seriously though, I really want to enjoy this trip, and not scrimp and worry about money too much, but $50 for a burger? There was a £10 note inside it, right? Was it made of gold?
Is it very wrong that I now want to hunt down and consume this hamburger, just to know its secrets and taste of its heart?
Yes, but my family has the worst luck when vacationing. Like, freaky bad luck. Like my parents go to a resort in Mexico, and a week later a Canadian couple is murdered there. They go to London, and the tube explodes. My sister goes to New Orleans, and a couple months later it ceases to exist.
DON’T JINX ME BEFORE I EVEN GET THERE JOE.
But THANK YOU TRAVIS for the actual helpful advice. I’m not sure about the burgers, as it will cut down on my busy itinerary of eating British cliches, but I will keep it in mind. And Damien Hirst kinda scares me, but I will look into it, because I am DEFINITELY going to the Tate.
By the way, I am watching the BBC right now, in preparation.
I”m leaving for London September 22nd,
My first trip, I’m super excited