Did forget to say, we grabbed lunch at a local pub here. Beef Burger for me, Veggie Burger for the wife. She loved the Veggie Burger.

Jer, what does "headed to Kings Cross for platform 9 3/4 for the wife" mean?

I think he is referring to Harry potter!

Looking forward to more!

I am truly impressed with anyone with enough patience to type a trip report on a phone!

Sounds like a full fun day. Paul, check his wall for a picture of 9 3/4.

The rather dull part of the West End dominated by bars and restaurants is called (and spelled) Soho - and was for around 300 years before New York manufactured a similar name for a fashionableish area.

Keep em coming

Day 2:
We slept in a bit today after the long travel day and got going and into the city around 11. We headed right to Leicester Square and purchased two tickets to see Stomp on Saturday night.

We then headed to the National Gallery and spent a couple hours roaming around. We had the national portrait gallery on the list but decided to leave that for another day. I had seen enough art for a few hours.

We decided to go down to South Kensington and go to the Victoria and Albert and Natural History museums. We stopped for a quick lunch in that neighborhood between the two museums not spending too long in either. If you're particularly interested in design or natural history, you could spend a full day in each.

The next stop was a highlight as we went to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. This was great. The museum is inside the tour of the war rooms which are the bunkers where the cabinet ran London from for much of the war. Everything was extremely well done and interactive. We spent about two hours here leaving a few minutes before closing. In this area is access to the parade ground and St James Park. However, this is all fenced off as they are constructing the grounds for Beach Volleyball venues for the Olympics.

We ate a quick stack from a Tesco and then went on our first London Walk. We went on one of the Harry Potter walks they offer starting at the Westminster station and ending up at Charing Cross. Both the Potter fan (wife) and I enjoyed the walk. By the time that ended we were ready for a quick dinner at Bella Italia near Leicester Square and then we called it a day.

We're debating how to play the schedule for the next few days as the forecast is predicting pretty heavy rain for at least a few of the days.

Enjoying your report so far!

Yes, weather doesnt seem great this weekend. St Pauls paired with the Museum of London is a good day. It explains the history of London and how it has developed and even non-museum people I have sent there have loved it. You can also see the old Roman wall around the area.

Have fun!

Kind of hard to imagine beach volleyball there! Have you had any fish and chips yet?

hi jerLon,

thanks for your dedication to fodorland - all this and on an iPhone!

I love these sorts of TRs because I like to see us through others' eyes, so please keep it coming.

More things to do inside:
I'm betting if your wife likes Harry Potter, she (and you) will like Dennis Severs House
http://www.londonnet.co.uk/museums/dennissevershouse.html
This quirky museum is set up on different levels with "just like it was" rooms, designed as if the inhabitants of long ago had just stepped out of the room. The designer has even set up subtle sounds to evoke the mood. One goes through it with one's ears cocked and eyes feasting on the exquisite detail of the rooms. There is nothing quite like it.

Day 3 - Friday, July 6:

We got up and ate a quick breakfast in our flat (we had stopped at the local Sainsburys the first day we were here and grabbed some food) and headed toward Victoria Station from our local train station.

Once at Vicoria Station it was clear that the stations were far busier around that hour (9:45 or so) and that weekends are much busier. I'm curious to see how things go starting next week when they are testing their queuing systems for the Olympics. I believe you have to exit the rail station and walk somewhere along the exterior of the station before entering the underground station. Hopefully it won't be too much of a hassle.

We headed to the Green Park tube station to join the Royal London and Westminster London Walk. This walk took us through Green Park looking at some of the Royal Houses that border the park and arrived at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. However, with the rain in London, there was not a full changing of the guards. We did get to see a few regiments come out and head to their guard duty though. Fortunately, the light rain kept the crowds away. There couldn't have been more than ten thousand people in the entire area.

The set up for the Olympics in this area is just amazing. I've never realized how much goes into transforming a city for the Olympics. Impressive.

The walk then headed toward Westminster Abbey. We toured the abbey for about 1.5 hours with the tour guide. For those of you considering this tour, a few thoughts. First, it was closer to three hours than the advertised two. Second, of you have kids, it may be a bit much. A few of the families in our group with children struggled for the latter bit. The wife and I were struggling by the end. We can walk forever but this walk has a lot of time spent standing still inside Westminster and can be a bit, umm, dull? I enjoyed it and it was definitely worth it for the guided tour, reduced price entry to Westminster, and skipping the line using the back side group entrance. I believe normal entry to Westminster is £16 and we paid £20 for the walk as we purchased the £2 discount card which pays for itself as long as you take a total of 2 walks with London Walks.

Once this was done, we hopped on the underground and headed to Notting Hill to see Portobello Market. From the underground it was around a 30 minute walk to the market. We strolled the market and found a few stands at which we could grab a quick lunch. It was a nice market but we weren't planning on doing a ton of shopping so we didn't stay too long and we headed back toward the underground. As an FYI, the walk to the market and through it is downhill. The walk back? Well, clearly it is uphill.

We caught the underground and decided to go see Harrods. You have to, right? And, it is one impressive department store. So, of you like department stores or if you enjoy parting with your income, you'll enjoy Harrids. The wife got some Turkish delight and really enjoyed it. She wanted one piece but the sell a minimum of 4 pieces which cost £1.17. We roamed through a bit more of the store, rode on the Egyptian Escelator and then headed out.

We went back into Leicester Square to get some coffee and people watch while folks were heading to their pre-theater dinners. We decided to head back to our flat and eat dinner, watch the Queen (the film), and crashed around 11:30.

While it was raining throughout the day it really didn't hamper any of our plans. We bought some cheap umbrellas at a newspaper stand and used them a few times during the day but never in a downpour. Only what we Western New Yorkers would call a drizzle or sprinkle. Clearly, based on the news, the rain is worse North and West of London.

Today, we head to Greenwich (market and Maritime Museums...), ride the Thames Clipper back to London Bridge, Borough Market, maybe out to see the Olympic park, and then to see Stomp. We will see how the weather is in the afternoon and maybe ride the Eye. We're waiting on a clear day for that.

Glad you didn't get the deluge that we got in the East Midlands -- supposedly a month's worth of rain in 24 hrs. On top of the wettest Mar-Jun on record and already saturated fields has made for some flooding too.

Your stamina is commendable; some full days for sure.

We enjoyed the same walk but agree that the standing is the hardest. The kids put up with it.

A few other thoughts for those of you planning trips:

1. The 2 for 1 scheme is a great day. Do your research, bring passport sized photos, and make sure to buy them at a rail ticket station and you'll save tons. When we used it at Churchill's War Rooms, the face on the woman behind us in line said it all. It saved us around $25 at that one stop and will have saved around $150 by the end of the trip. Well worth the slight hassle.

2. Renting a flat (cheaper than a hotel by a long shot) while a bit of a hassle because we are staying a bit further out has saved us a ton as we have a kitchen and washer/dryer so we eat breakfast in each day. Also, staying in a suburb has a very different feel than downtown London. We have enjoyed it.

3. The rail and tube system is significantly easier to navigate than NYC or DC in the USA.

4. When I was here in 2005, I felt forced to donate at all of the free museums (or, maybe they weren't free at that time???). There is no pressure now. Just walk right in and donate in the glass bin if you want. You could easily spend a week or two visiting free museums. All the national museums and galleries are free.

A few other highlights:

1. Reading the Evening Standard on the train ride home each day. Free newspaper, can't beat it. It is no New York Times but it's free and I feel like I fit in.

2. On the train ride home yesterday, a gentleman on the train had the Murray match (Brit trying for the Wimbledon finals in Tennis) on his phone and the entire car was huddled around his phone for the end of the match. It was a fun thing to observe.

Finally, for the Londoners who are following. Any suggestions on where to watch the Murray match tomorrow? We will be doing London Tower in the morning and would like to catch at least a bit of it somewhere.

The hung drawn and quartered pub is right there and will be playing it. Across the road is Bodeans, our favourite rib place in London...you can get a huge plate of the best ribs for £10-15 each.

Have fun!

"I've never realized how much goes into transforming a city for the Olympics"

- Part of the London pitch was the range of settings. Obviously Lord's, Wembley and Wimbledon, but Horseguards and the Mall, all meant changing bits of London, far far away from the Olympic Park and Greenwich, in a way that's not really been tried anywhere else. Worse: by definition, no city the games have ever been held in before (except possibly Mexico City 68) has been as busy under normal circs anyway (Beijing and Moscow might have been, but the authorities saw no need to allow business to go as usual). The experiment of putting events slap bang in the middle of a hyper-busy place isn't one most Londoners would recommend to others.

- The whole thing's made tougher by the security crisis that - literally - blew up the day after London got the games.

- Then there's the fact that cars are virtually banned from the Olympic Park and surroundings area - partly for security and sustainability, but partly because there was never any question of adding new roads. And since London's long been discovered by the world travel industry (not even the looniest booster pretends this'll create a boom in visitors), there's no sense in building new hotels for a two week beano. So almost every single visiting spectator is staying in the centre - and all of them, together with all of us, have to be trucked out by a public transport system that's already strained beyond its users' tolerance (all that "huddled mass" heritage must just make New Yorkers put up with discomfort more)

- Worst of all there's the Soviet-style Zil lanes to make sure the taxpayers finding this lunacy are provoked into fury, both by being banned from their own roads and inconvenienced for weeks beforehand by the construction of these concessions to sponging foreign officials too up themselves to get on the tube like everyone else

Net: I'm not sure London's plans are much like the more usual arrangement where the games are almost entirely held in a purpose-built centre, away from the main city, with a ton of new transport infrastructure to support it and just a few banners in the city centre. But they're a pretty good incentive to New York, Paris, Amsterdam and similar cities to steer clear of this insanity for the rest of the century.

You don't really think Soho is dull,do you, flanner? To my mind, it's one of the few areas of character left in London - good book and food shops, fabric shops and even a record shop, also lots of good non-chain places to eat and drink.

On the train ride home yesterday, a gentleman on the train had the Murray match (Brit trying for the Wimbledon finals in Tennis) on his phone and the entire car was huddled around his phone for the end of the match>

lol, JL, I don't think you needed to tell us who Murray is!

now Marray - that's a different matter. [brit who has made the men's doubles final, along with his swedish partner].

I know, we don't have any male finalists for 70 years, then 2 come along together.

Really enjoying my London trip, vicariously of course!

I'm enjoying following along. Hope you're having lots of fun!

Saturday, July 7 -

We got up and navigated our way to a second local train station (on a different line) after a quick breakfast. We used a train and the Docklands Light Rail to get into Greenwich.

When we arrived in Greenwich (a bit after 10) it was an empty town. We walked down towards the water and saw the Cutty Sark. We didn't pay to go in but it was amazing to see from the outside. An impressive ship and an impressive tourist set up.

We then made our way to the Maritime Museum and walked through several of the exhibits. It was getting close to noon so we walked over to the Greenwich market and looked around for a while. We both enjoyed this market far more than Portobello Road. We could have eaten lunch here but decided to wait for a bit and go to a market famous for its food, this was a good decision.

In Greenwich, we could have gone up to the Royal Observatory and stood on the Prime Meridian but decided against it for the sake of time and money. The wife did take the extra minutes we gained to get some tea and a scone with clotted cream. She was impressed.

We hopped on a Thames Clipper (river boat transport system) and headed in to the London Bridge station. While riding under the Tower Bridge I was very impressed with the Olympic Rings hung from the Bridge. I can't imagine what it took to get those up.

Once at the London Bridge, we headed to the Borough Market and were amazed. I can't say how many samples we tried but it was a lot. After walking through the market, the wife decided on a frittata (sp?) egg omelet thing in the shape of a pizza. She said it was amazing. I should have had the duck sandwich (think Philly steak but with duck) but instead just grabbed some smoked sausage sticks. They were delicious. Definitely the best smoked sausage I have ever had. I had their spicy sausage and some venison.

We intended to head out toward the Olympic Park and go on the London Walk Olympic walk. I knew what line we had to get on and that we needed to get to the West Ham station. We were rushing and just made the train. I quickly looked and saw West Hamstead station and assumed it must be the same station. Well, this was my first navigation mistake. We went about 30 minutes in the wrong direction before going an hour back to get where we intended. We missed the walk but enjoyed walking around the area a bit and going to the store built with a platform to view the Olympic Park. Im glad we got to see something Olympic.

We needed a respite from the crowds as thought the National Portrait Gallery would be nice and quite so we headed back towards Leicester Square. Well, for a variety of reasons it was a lot more hectic than we intended. The portrait gallery was busy and far louder than the National Gallery had been. Maybe because it was a weekend? Maybe it's always this way? Or maybe it was the drunk and rude crowds from the events in Leicester square? I don't know.

We did find a quite place to sit in the Crypt of St. Martin in the Field. Reasonable prices and good atmosphere. Very quite and all of the profits they make go to charity. After tea, we headed up to the church and watched a bit of practice for a string group. Very nice.

Knowing that we had a show at 8 PM, we found a quick place to eat and quickly grabbed some food before finding our theatre. And, for those Americans following, by theatre I mean someplace smaller than your average high school auditorium. Seated around 450. Two levels. Everyone was very close to the stage. I don't know if everything on the West End is like this but it is quite different from broadway. I now understand what actors mean when they say they prefer the intimate atmosphere of the west end.

We had purchased two tickets for around £20 from the TKTS booth in Leicester Square. We were in the middle of the sixth row. The show was spectacular. Very interactive, laughing much of the time, and just insanely impressive. Maybe there are YouTube videos that do it some justice but I can't begin to explain how good it was. There was a family with five kids in front of us and the kids loved very second of it. Maybe more than the adults. I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seem it yet.

After the show we headed back home to crash. The tube was the busiest we've seen it yet. I believe there was a concert in the park plus the rally in the square all with large crowds heading home. Mix that on with weekend traffic and it was quite busy.

Today has the Tower of London and a walk along the south bank in store.

We had purchased two tickets for around £20 from the TKTS booth in Leicester Square. We were in the middle of the sixth row. The show was spectacular. Very interactive, laughing much of the time, and just insanely impressive.

This was Stomp, right? I believe you mentioned that earlier in the thread. We also enjoyed it as did our kids.

Enjoying following your journey

Yes, Stomp.

The whole Trafalgar Square/Leicester Square/Soho area would have been extra crowded yesterday - it was the World Gay Pride event. Presumably there'd have been an overspill of people into the NPG café as well.

Day 5, Sunday, July 8 -

Well, the weather made this day a bit more difficult than the others but we still got through a fair bit.

We were out of our apartment by 8:30 in order to get to the Tower of London by 9:45 in order to beat the crowds and see the crown jewels without a crowd. This plan worked fairly well, it was raining while we waited for the ticket booths to open but we managed. By 10, each ticket booth had 50-100 people waiting in line. Again, we used our 2 for 1 pass and asked them to remove the voluntary donation from the price of the ticket. This saved around £20 off the list price.

We walked right for the crown jewels and were able to linger and go by the jewels several times. There were less than 100 people in the building at the time. We went back down to wait for the 11am beefeater tour. After waiting (with several other people) for some time, the nearest Yeoman Warder walked over and announced that they would not be doing tours due to the rain.

So, we went back and bought two audio guides and went through several of the audio guide tours. They were fairly interesting and helped us navigate through the majority of the tower in a reasonable time. By around 1 PM we had seen enough and needed lunch so we decided to walk down to the Borough Market (down to the London Bridge and across it). Unfortunately, once we got there we found out that it was closed. Weather or Sunday???

So, we continued down the south bank knowing we wanted to get to the Imperial War Museum. On the way we found a burger restaurant that had vegetarian options right down the alley from Vinopolis. We both enjoyed the restaurant and we ate for under £15. We continued on and stopped in at the Globe to see if they had any tickets for Monday or Tuesday. I couldn't find any online in my planning but figured I would stop in. However, they don't have shows this Monday or Tuesday. We will go back for a tour but no show. Oh well.

We walked toward the Imperial War Museum. I'm sure we didn't take the best route but it took a while. There is a tube stop around .5 miles away, Elephant and Castle, and maybe we should have gone that route rather than walking there from the Tower of London. Once we got there, we sat down on a bench for a while to rest and then went through the museum. The weaponry, tanks, and planes are nice but the highlight is the holocaust exhibit. It was extremely well done and informative. I've always said I would like to do a study of foreign media coverage of Hitler and the Holocaust prior to the US entering the war. This exhibit did have a fair bit and did a fair job of covering why others didn't get involved.

By the time we were done in the museum, we were beat. We hopped on the tube and made our way home. For the first time, we picked up our train at a station other than Victoria. We were happy to figure it out and saved a lot of time doing so. At the end of the trip, I'll do a review of the apps I used and one of the has helped immensely with planning tube journeys. Tube Deluxe made by Malcolm Bradley is great.

Once home, we quickly stopped at Sainsburys to restock on some breakfast foods and thn ordered in Indian before crashing early. It had been a long five days without a break.

For my friends following, yes, I ate Indian. Chicken Madras (a spicier curry). And, Courtney ate Chicken Tikka. Yup, chicken. Needed protein . It was an adventure.

We were going to try to fit in a stadium tour on Monday morning but decided against it and slept in a bit. Really wanted to do Craven Cottage but the highlights on that your are shut down for construction. The only other stadium I would consider is Wembley. However, it is a bit of a trip out there and not enough history there to excite me much (a different story if it were the old Wembley). Skipping this just gives me a reason to get back again during the Premiership season to see a match at Craven Cottage.

British Museum and British Library today. Maybe the Eye if the weather breaks.

Sounds like you did very well considering the horrible weather yesterday!

Borough Market is only open Thurs - Sat unfortunately: http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/

Enjoy your day!

Sorry about the weather and closings, but glad you still had a good day! I'm most surprised by your food selections! Out of the box for both of you!

I have made a note of the Borough Market days/hours (thanks jamikins). I'm sorry you missed it, JerLon

Can't wait to read about today's touring.

RE. Borough Mkt, the site says

Open for Lunch
Mondays to Wednesdays: 10am-3pm

Full Market
Thursdays 11am-5pm
Fridays 12pm-6pm
Saturdays 8am-5pm

JerLon, I'm afraid you tried to go the one day they're not open at all

Lantana...interesting about the lunch hours, that must be new...will have to check it out!

Day 6, Monday, July 9 -

We headed out and managed to get to the British Museum by around 10:15. It was already quite busy and loud. I'm not sure if it is always this busy in the summer but the crowds were such that it was difficult to get a good site of many of the more popular objects.

It seems as if there are many your groups and many school field trips at the museums. The tour groups I expected. I assumed they would all be jammed into the time frame prior to the Olympics. The school aged children in uniforms... Do they not get a summer break???

One could easily spend a full day at the British Museum. We spent around 3.5 hours. I found their multimedia guide to be lacking and not worth the expense. Others may disagree. However, the tours it guides you on try to take you through missing exhibits and closed stairwells which became extremely confusing if trying to follow the tours.

We stopped for lunch on our way back to the tube (the wife has had a lot of success at the many Pret A Manger's that are on every corner in London) and headed to the British Library. We went through the exhibit where they have their most prized possessions. It was quite good. They have the Magna Carta, the Messiah, a Gutenberg Bible, a Wycliffe Bible, and much more. Definitely worth a stop and they have a decent, albeit overpriced, cafe for a quick rest.

The wife has been looking for a specific necklace so we headed to Camden to look through the various markets here. Even on a Monday, it was busy. There are three or four separate sections. Make sure you stop and look at the locks and stop and see the sitting benches which are the seats from various mopeds mounted along a bench to hold your food. Pretty cool.

Given how busy these next three days are for us, we called it a day and came back to our flat for dinner and a movie. A couple London walks today, and day trips coming each of the next two days before flying out to Rome.

Sounds like a good day!

School here ends this week I believe. They get shorter summer holidays than in north America but more breaks throughout the year.

Enjoy your walks!

How could you not have told us whether she found the necklace??

tarquin- I totally agree!

The school aged children in uniforms... Do they not get a summer break???>>

yes, but state school summers hols start round about the beginning of the last week in July and last until the 1st week of september ie 6 weeks or so. private/public schools [ie the sort you pay for] break up earlier and go back later.

School here ends this week I believe. They get shorter summer holidays than in north America but more breaks throughout the year.>>

not yet, Jamikins - 2 weeks to go!

FYI - as well as the 6 weeks in the summer, they get 2 at Christmas and 2 at easter. [give or take!] this gives us three terms.

there are also one week holidays in the middle of each terms, called half term holidays.

all in all, they get about 13 weeks.

Real update to come soon. But a few things;

1. This rain is annoying. (I'm sure I'll be complaining about the sun and heat in Rome later this week)

2. No necklace. You can find Pocketwatch Necklaces by the dozen but she wanted a specific design, style, and quality. No go.

3. If buying an umbrella in London, find a department store and buy a decent umbrella. We upgraded to Fulton umbrellas today. Could have saved £9 if we had gone this route in the first place.

4. If low pressure systems give you migraines, ibuprofen with codein is like magic here. Why is this not sold on the states?

JerLon - on behalf of the British Isles, i apologise about our climate.

to be fair, this summer is even worse than last year and the year before that. 5 years or so ago I remember that it was so dry that I didn't mow my lawn for 6 weeks - at the moment it needs mowing every 6 days, but it's too wet to get on it.

just be grateful you don't live here!

FYI - as well as the 6 weeks in the summer, they get 2 at Christmas and 2 at easter. [give or take!] this gives us three terms.


Off topic for poor JerLon, but I love the school calendar here. Lots of opportunities for taking week long holidays! (October, Christmas, Easter, June, + summer). February too, but that usually gets a pass. Lucky me.

Not off topic for me at all I work in education and am very curious about the education system. I frequently stop and look around the schools when we pass them and listen in on the school groups at the various sites.

Independent schools break up earlier for the summer because they can count half-day Saturday classes as part of the school year. As I recall, my daughter's school used to break up after the first week of July (very handy for getting a head start on summer holidays). February half-term is popular for ski trips to the Alps.

Sorry about the rain and the headaches! I guess I'm glad you found a drug of choice! How did you plan a trip to England and not pack umbrellas?

Independent schools break up earlier for the summer because they can

I think it stops there. My daughter's school has fewer days and there aren't any Saturday half days, etc.

Day 7, Tuesday, July 10 -

We headed out towards the St Paul's Tube stop to meet up with the London Walks tour of St. Paul's (the Secrets and Splendors of St Paul's). We arrived just on time as our train had been delayed getting into the city. The 9:28 train did not arrive until 9:38. This was the first delay for one of the trains we needed. So, I can't complain.

This walk costs £19 with the London Walks discount card and is well worth it. The tour goes first through the first floor of St Paul's and then through the crypt. Our guide was Judy and she did an excellent job. Her stories of the second World War and St Paul's were the highlight for me.

After finishing the tour, she took those of us who wanted to (about half of the group of 20) to climb the steps to the top of the dome. Most of our group was only climbing up to the whispering gallery however three of us went all the way to the top of the dome and had an amazing view of the city.

Once walking down the steps, we walked across the millennium bridge (in the rain) and headed down towards the Borough Market to see what it is like for a weekday lunch. About 20-25 shops are open of which all but 2-3 are prepared food stands. So, it is a good option for a quick lunch. I had Caribbean curry chicken and my wife had a wild boar sausage from a different stand. With drinks, it was around £10. Can't beat the price.

We walked back along the south bank and headed into Tate Modern quickly. Certainly not our cup of tea but a quick stop was worth it just to see the immense building. I found the building and architecture to be far more impressive than the artwork.

We then walked next door to Shakespeare's Globe and signed up for a tour. We had about 30 minutes until our tour and walked through the exhibits. The best part of the exhibit is the part that tells of how they planned and constructed the new globe. I spent most of my time there. We then sat and watched some sword fighting workshop being given to school children.

Our tour was a bit different than normal as they were in the midst of a full technical practice for Richard III which is beginning this weekend. I enjoyed this more than the show I saw here back in 2005. It was great seeing all of the costume based mistakes being discovered and hearing the director and costumers figure out how to fix these errors. They let us sit and watch for about 30 minutes before concluding our tour.

It was one of the clearest moments (weather) when we left and we decide it would be a perfect time to go ride on the London Eye. So we headed that way and arrived at the Westminster tube stop to a downpour. The weather changes quickly. We walked towards the Eye in the wind and rain. Our umbrellas were not holding up well and were not doing the job. Given the storm we decided not to ride on the Eye (I mean, we saw the city from the top of St Paul's, can it get better??) and set out to find some new umbrellas. I did some quick phone searching and we decided to go check the department stores on Oxford Street. Once there, we checked a Debenhams that only had a small selection of Totes branded umbrellas that didn't seem sturdy. The John Lewis down the street had a large supply of Fulton Umbrellas and we got two. Our two £5 umbrellas that we purchased from a newsstand were put to a quick burial in a garbage can.

With the hour and the weather we decided against the Old London Pub walk and headed home. Today, Oxford.

ah, you can't beat good old john Lewis.

no, really - you can't!

Your grandfather had been asking me if you had been to the Whispering Gallery. He will be happy to know about this portion of your trip!

I'm joining the crowd od vicarious fellow travelers! Thanks for the ride!

Great report, thanks. We were in London last year and this brings it all back.

Day 8, Wednesday, July 11 -

We headed out early to get to Paddington Station for our London Walk day trip to Oxford and the Cotswolds. Rail and Tubes are significantly busier around 8:45 than 9:45. Far more rail delays, way more people packed in... I now understand all of the complaining recently in the papers about on time trains and overcrowded trains.

Once at Paddington we joined the London Walks group. There was a £4 discount for us as we had purchased their discount card earlier (for £2) and the total cost was £47 per person. This included the tours, rail ticket, and the motor coach once we were in Oxford. I don't think I could have beat this price by much if planning it on my own.

The train trip to Oxford is about an hour through the countryside and once at Oxford we immediately boarded a coach to head to a village in the Cotswolds. The village we went to was Minster Lovell. After a brief walk through the village and a stop in some ruins and the church (all amazing) we boarded the coach and headed into Burford for lunch. There were many options at all price levels.

We then boarded the coach and headed back into Oxford and had around a 2 hour walk of Oxford. We headed quickly to grab some photos an stop in at the Eagle and Child (Bird and Baby). At the end, there was about an hour of free time to roam before boarding the train back to London. We were back in London by around 6:20 in plenty of time for those going on to see a show. For us? We were shot and knew we need to get some rest before a day trip to Bath today and then a busy week in Rome ahead of us.

Following and enjoying your travels. Thanks for sharing.

Well done, and not all that bad for a quick day trip to Oxford. It would have left me salivating, however!

Day 9, Thursday July 12 -

Headed out early to get to Paddington again for a London Walks day trip to Bath.

We made it in good time and met up with Simon who was filling in for the usual guides. The trip to Bath includes your train ticket, a morning walk, and an afternoon walk. It also includes a quick stop on the Bath Abbey and a quick stop in the Bath Assembly Rooms.

To keep this one short, it was a nice quick day in Bath. Maybe we were just worn out but I didn't find the walks to be all that great. Just roaming the streets and talking about some History of Bath and some architecture. No real game plan, lots of doubling back on ourselves, and no real flow to the historical component of the talk.

I did enjoy getting to see the Royal Crescent and having an hour at the end to go into the Roman Baths. This is not included in the price and cost around £10 per person.

We made it back into Paddington around 6:15 PM and made it back to our apartment around 7:15. Just enough time for dinner and beginning to pack.

Today we head out to Rome. This evening or tomorrow I will post a final post on our trip back to Heathrow and our attempt to get a refund on our Oysters and our deposit back. Then I will link to the separate Rome thread.

Again, thanks for all of the help in planning this trip.

I'll keep up on this thread and answer any questions once we are back in the states.

And for those curious folks following, the wife ate fruit and yogurt for lunch. I had a sausage roll and a beef Cornish Pasty for lunch. We ordered in Indian for dinner again.

Great report, very interesting. John Lewis is a good supplier of reliable goods. Magna Carta (I think you will have seen one of the 4 first level copies as the original is long gone)

Sound great! Glad you enjoyed a pastie! I'm curious as to what Indian food you both ate this time around!

Thanks for doing the "running" report. Can't be easy!

Fun in Rome!

Day 10, Friday, July 13 -

Easily made our way through Paddington and navigated the tube out to Heathrow.

It is humorous that every app and website instructed me to go through Paddington and use the Heathrow Express ($$$$) when it was extremely quick and easy to just take the tube the whole way for a total cost of (from Kent House Rail Station to Heathrow Terminal 5) of £4.60.

At the tube exit stopped and turned in our Oysters and easily got back out deposits an remaining pence on the cards. Unlike what others have said in other posts, I didn't have to register the cards before receiving the deposit.

Quickly through Heathrow Security. For all of the horror stories, we navigated check in, customs, and security in under 30 minutes. This was much faster and easier than leaving Rochester or Chicago on th way to London.

The flight was quick and we had a great view of the Alps. The flight was, however, rowdy. It was a normal BA flight but it was the oddest flight I have ever been on. People constantly trading seats and moving throughout the cabin. People standing up in groups and leaning over seats. Flight attendants constantly up and down the aisles, squeezing past these congregated groups and not saying anything. Truly odd.

Landed in Rome, baggage was slow to arrive. Once through, the ATM would only work in Italian. This was stressful but I manage to get Euros. Our driver brought us into our apartment in Rome on record time. How many mph is 175 kph? .

Last night we ate dinner at a restaurant right below our apartment. Amazing and not too pricey. Al Braciere on Via Della Chiesa Nuova. We walked through Piazza Navona an I joked that we could accidentally bump into the Pantheon if we took a wrong turn. 5 minutes later, we rounded a corner and there was the Pantheon. Amazing view at night.

Wifi is spotty right now so I won't do Rome updates until that gets settled. Maybe once we are home if it doesn't work out well.

was this your restaurant?

http://www.ristorante-albraciere.it/il-ristorante/

we stayed nearby but didn't eat there, which looks like a shame.

I love the photo of the chef!

Glad to hear about your day and that departing London went smoothly! Hoping internet will get unspotty because I'm enjoying the daily reports!

Would you tell us about your apts in London and in Rome. We are always looking for good apartments.

Can you tell me how you found the flat you stayed in? thanks much ... I'm enjoying your posts

Thanks for your trip reports. All my intercontinental flights on BA have been calm so perhaps there was a tour group on your flight to Rome? Plus the FA's mostly stayed in the galley.

Quickly through Heathrow Security. For all of the horror stories, we navigated check in, customs, and security in under 30 minutes.

The much publicised problems at LHR are on ARRIVALS, not DEPARTURE. And you surely didn't pass through CUSTOMS on departure either (why would you, they only care what you are bringing INTO the country), just check-in and security.

All my intercontinental flights on BA have been calm so perhaps there was a tour group on your flight to Rome? >>

that was my thought too, Emily. a group of italian school children or students can be a little "undisciplined"!

<<The much publicised problems at LHR are on ARRIVALS, not DEPARTURE.>>

well, there can be queues to get through both passport and security to leave Gordon, but I know what you mean - our DD gets back from a long trip arriving into LHR next friday. [did she realise that she'd be getting home at the same time as all the athletes were going to be arriving when she planned it? hope not!. ] anyway, DH has volunteered to pick her up, so that's all right.

Or it could have been a dreaded stag or hen do - I have been on several flights and thats exactly what hey do - stand in the aisles and drink and be rowdy.

well, there can be queues to get through both passport and security to leave Gordon

But there are normally NO "passport" checks to leave the UK (apart from that done at airline check-in of course).

I say normally because maybe 2 times in the >200 departures I've made out of LHR, there has been someone making a cursory check at a post set up just after security before you enter the duty free shopping area (usually in response to some short-lived government ministerial panic about the UK being one of the few places in the world that doesn't systematically check who's leaving the country).

But there are normally NO "passport" checks to leave the UK (apart from that done at airline check-in of course). >>

really gordon? i must have been hallucinating then! I'm sure that I've shown my passport to someone just before I go through the security area - after I've checked in and no-where near the check-in desks. Mind you, it's nothing like as bad as the last time we came through CDG - we counted no less than 9 passport checks before they let us on the plane!

Nope - you are only required to show your boarding pass immediately prior to security: they aren't interested in your passport, though some people who don't understand the procedure will show it to them anyway.

Gordon -do you really know what you're talking about?

we had numerous people demand to see both our passports and boarding cards at CDG - and we speak pretty passable french so we knew what they were asking for.

similarly, i know when someone wants to see my passport or boarding card at a british airport.

Here is the continuation of this trip thread for those interested in Italy.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/7-days-in-rome-staying-in-piazza-navona-area.cfm

For the record, I was asked to show my passport at LHR to the BA agent, a security agent before the scanning area, and then we went through baggage scanners and metal detectors.

Yes,

http://www.ristorante-albraciere.it/il-ristorante/

Is the restaurant right below our apartment.

Very good and extremely reasonably priced.