From: bocmunro@bnr.co.uk (Bruce Munro)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: London Travel
Date: 21 Jan 1993 19:32:26 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe, New Southgate, London.
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: bnsgs179.bnr.co.uk

In article <1jlav8INNcce@uwm.edu> ddean@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Dorothy Dean) writes:
>
> Have fun in London!  I did.  Much as I love museums, the British Museum
>is not on my list of top 5 things to see.  I would list theater first.  And
>you can get good prices on tickets the day of the performance at Leicester
>Square.  Just ignore the Pizza Hut, Burger King, MacDonald's place ringing
>the square.  Once you get a block or so away it stops looking like "Little US".  I
>found a nice vegetarian restaurant just 2 blocks from the square.  It a tube
>stop so it's easy to get to.

Just north of Leicester Square is the Soho area which has masses of
restaurants, including the Chinatown area based around Gerard Street.
There's also a plethora of restaurants to the east around Covent Garden.
Prices and quality vary greatly, but one place I can recommend is the
African restaurant in the Africa Centre near to Covent Garden tube. Don't
be put off by the grotty surroundings when you go down the steps to the
restaurant. It gets better in the restaurant itself, the food is priced
well and the staff are really friendly.

>Getting around London is easiest on the tube.  Traffic is awful and cabs are
>much slower during the day than the tube.  I wish I had taken buses a little
>bit more because even though it is not as efficient as the tube, there is so
>much to see.  The architecture is amazing to one like me who comes from the
>midwest where buildings are not older than 180 years -- at the most.  Even
>small buildings, houses, etc are wonderful to view.

Buses can be OK for short hops, at weekend especially.

>When you get to London, pick up the weekly papers that list what's
>happening.  I cannot remember the titles.  but there are 2 good ones I found
>that do theater reviews (there is a LOT of theater to choose from, if you
>like theater at all you will never be satisfied with I play).  If you arrive
>by train from Gatwick, you can find the papers in the information center at
>Victoria Station.  Train is the cheapest, quickest, most scenic way to get
>from Gatwick.

The listings magazines to look out for are Time Out and What's on and
Where In London. I'd recommend the former if you're into pub gigs or
slightly more esoteric entertainment. Time Out also do a good restaurant
guide, which might not be worth buying for a tourist, but you can always
have a glance at one in a bookshop. Victoria Station now has a large
new bookshop on the concourse.

>The papers I picked up were not written for tourists.  So they were useful
>for me especially in avoiding the high cost, tourist junk.
>I made a trip to Greenwich to see (and stand on) the prime meridian.  They
>have a very nice gift shop with inexpensive astronomy-related stuff.  They
>also have the observatory set up as a museum and it is well worth the trip
>to see how the observers worked.  On the way to the observatory if you come
>by tube, you get to cross the river by tunnel!  It is worth going to ride on
>the wonderful old elevator (very large elevator) to get to the tunnel.  It's
>been 3 years since I was there and I think you have to purchase a special
>ticket for Greenwich which means maybe it is by train rather than
>tube--still inexpensive.  There is an interesting street market at
>Greenwich.

I presume this refers to the old pedestrian tunnel. The train to get to
it isn't part of the Underground system, but is called the Docklands
Light Railway. I'm pretty certain the Travelcards cover this as well
though. The stop for the foot tunnel is Island Gardens.

>  Actually, I found the street markets really fun.  In a country
>where the temperature extremes are not as extreme as here in Wisconsin,
>street markets are a realistic way to do business while keeping overhead
>costs down.  The Hackney street market was the best.  It is not littered
>with tourists so the vendors sell normal, everday stuff.  Lace, lace, lace
>at good prices for curtains.  Chickens, fish, produce--all out in the open.
>I got a couple good used books at a book stall.  On one side of the market
>area there is a row of shops.  I noticed that the shops are built like the
>ones I have seen in the old parts of New Orleans and San Francisco.  They
>can be completely open to the outside with no screens.  One place in
>particular worth seeing is a little shop that sells eel in dozens of
>different forms.  The entire shop floor and walls are lined with pretty
>tiles.  I don't know how old it was but it looked old.  There were eels
>hanging in the window (which wans't a window because there was no glass).

Other markets worth seeing are at Portobello Road, Brick Lane and
Petticoat Lane. The pie and eel shops, with their tiled walls, are a
feature of East London. The menu is usually restricted to either meat pie
or eels, with mashed potato and liquor (parsley gravy). Not to everyones
taste, but I love it! Cheap too.

>  I was there in June during a drought.  For the two weeks that I was there,
>there was no rain.  It was hot (27-28 C everyday) and uncomfortable for the
>people there.  They aren't used to so much sun.  I had dinner with friends
>of a friend in Minnesota.  One of them had what looked to me like 2nd degree
>burns on his leg.  It was from sunburn.  A rather rare malady, I gather.  It
>was the kind of severe burn that I have never seen here because we know when
>to get out of the sun and to use sun block.  I would have gone to a doctor
>immmediately.  You can expect much more realistic temperatures.

Remember, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Actually,
people are starting to get a little more sensible about the sun these days
although lots of people seem to think it will only be bad abroad, and get
terribly blase when they're back in England. It can get hot, especially
in London, though it's usually only a couple of weeks in the year. The last
few years the hottest periods have been late May/June. The traditional
hot months of July and August have been bloody miserable recently.

>I searched out women's bookstores and used bookstores.  In fact, I never got
>to Harrod's (still don't know what it looks like) but I brought back a
>suitcase full of books.

For secondhand bookshops try Charing Cross Road, leading north from
Leicester Square, there's loads of them. Also Foyles as well, which
must qualify as the worst organised shop in the world. They've probably
got the book you want, finding it's the hard part.

>One other thing I would recommend is to see what the Londoners call "the
>City".  It is the oldest part of London and there you can see remnants of the
>Roman walls.  There is a museum there that a friend recommends highly.  I
>did not get a chance to see it because I arrived too late.  The museum
>traces the history of London from pre-Roman times.
>I guess I would recommend seeing one of the old churches--maybe St. Paul's
>to see the tombs inside the church and get a feel for the way the times were
>when the place was built.  
>
>Notice that I haven't mentioned the crown jewels, Buckingham Palace, Tower
>of London, etc.  I am bored by those because they really do cater to the
>lowest common denominator of tourist.  If you want an interesting look at
>the Tower Bridge, you can take an inexpensive ride on one of the boats that
>carries passengers on the Thames.  In fact, when I went to Greenwich I took
>the boat one way.  The bartender on the boat recommended a shandy for
>something refreshing to drink in the heat.  It really was quite good.
>The book I found most useful is too old to be much good now.  It was old
>when I went to London.  But a second best and very good guide I found was
>the Fodor's "Great Travel Value Series" book on London.  It cost $6.95 and
>really had good advice.  

You can also go up onto the overhead walkway of Tower Bridge, which gives
some spectacular views of the River and the surrounding city. Probably gets
pretty crowded in summer though. Some of the main tourist sites can be
worth a visit if you go in the winter, as you can avoid the worst of the
queues and so on. Mind you even then things like the Tower of London
can get pretty bad.

>I ate breakfast at the hotel (cheap student housing near Hyde Park) and
>usually caught lunch on the streets from vendors.  Evenings I ate at greasy
>fish and chips places sometimes and sometimes went for Indian or Chinese
>food.  The pubs are good too for lunches.  Except you have to ask for
>"snacks".  The snacks can be quite substantial and still very modestly
>priced.  I suppose the safest would be to ask for food.  The licensing laws
>have changed so pubs no longer keep the crazy patchwork of hours they used
>to.

When asking for food in a pub there are often two sorts available; bar snacks
and full meals, it depends on the pub though. Some pubs will have what
is virtually a restaurant attached and do full meals, but these will often
do the bar snacks which are simple and cheap. Look out for blackboards on
the wall detailing the specials of the day. Licensing hours have improved
in the last few years, with pubs open all day if they wish. Some still
close during the afternoon, but these will mostly be well away from the
centre where trade isn't enough to make it worth while staying open. Pubs
still close at 11pm though, except on certain special occasions, so for
late night drinking you need to find a club or restaurant. Bloody annoying
for an alky like me! :-)

-- 
Bruce Munro.  <B.O.C.Munro@bnr.co.uk> (Note new address)
BNR Europe Ltd, Oakleigh Rd South, London N11 1HB. 
Phone : +44 81 945 2174 or +44 81 945 4000 x2174
"There are no strangers, only friends we don't recognise" - Hank Wangford