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We just returned from four days in London over our Thanksgiving break. Mr_go and I are working on a brief trip report and photos, which we hope to complete in the next few days.
Mr_go seemed pleasantly surprised as he read the weather section in the Chicago Tribune the day before our November 24 departure. “Look,” he said. “It’s going to be 62 and sunny in London today.”
About 30 seconds later, he recanted. “Oops. I was looking at the wrong line. That’s Lisbon.”
Fast forward about 28 hours, to the morning of our departure. DD, sitting at our kitchen island reading the paper, announces, “Look, it’s going to be in the 60s and sunny in London!”
I said, “Let me guess…that’s actually the forecast for Lisbon.”
Pause. “Oh yeah, you’re right. How’d you know that?”
Well, we know no one goes to London for the weather, particularly at this time of year. So why London—and not Lisbon—in late November? In a word (or two, actually), cheap airfare.
Way back in mid February, I was playing around with airfare searches, as I tend to do sometimes while sitting on long conference calls (shhh!). I was surprised to find $500 fares (which now will be partially offset by vouchers, as I’ll explain later) from Chicago to London or Amsterdam for peak travel days over our Thanksgiving break. We’d taken a similar trip to Amsterdam three years ago and had a lot of fun. So with apologies to our families, who we will see in less than a month anyway, we decided to go for it.
It has been longer since we’ve been to London. Mr_go and DD (16) have been once, in 2000—our first trip overseas as a threesome. I’ve been a whole bunch of times; some for vacation but mostly for work. We’ve seen many of the major sights, so we felt this could be a nice opportunity to fill in a few gaps but mostly just enjoy being there. We didn’t do much advance planning.
The trip over went relatively quickly, aside for the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever been that cold on an airplane before. Maybe it’s a new cost-reduction technique—turn off the heat at 35,000 feet? Given the gloomy forecasts we’d seen just before we left (the real forecasts, not the Lisbon forecasts) we were quite surprised to see just light clouds and lots of sunshine as we flew in over Southwestern England. In fact, we were treated to a very nice view of central London several times as our plane queued for approach.
The much-dreaded LHR visitor immigration line looked a bit daunting, but it only took about 25 minutes. With Oyster cards already in hand (ordered in advance; arrived in just five days) and carry-on luggage only, we were off and rolling on the Piccadilly Tube line for the one-hour ride into central London. In total, elapsed time from wheels down to arrival at our hotel in Bloomsbury was almost exactly two hours.
Our four-day, Thanksgiving weekend getaway to London
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Looking forward to your adventures in London!
Was it American Airlines you flew? I fly AA and the planes are always freezing cold. It's now a habit of mine to wear as many layers of clothes as possible onto the flight - and I don't even bother to take my jacket off. A few times I've complained about the cold temp to the FAs, and they did turn up the heat some.
The Morgan Hotel, Bloomsbury
On past trips, I’ve stayed in many other locations around London (our family trip on ’00 was based in Victoria), but I’ve always wanted to stay in and explore Bloomsbury. That narrowed the field considerably but still left a lot of choices. We’re not big-chain-hotel types. We can’t (or won’t, anyway) do Priceline with three people. Nevertheless, the price of a triple/family room can be a bit of a shock to the system. And, we really didn’t want to pay triple rates and be squeezed on top of one another in a tiny room.
After a little online searching and putting out a few feelers, we decided on the apartments at the Morgan Hotel. The apartments were only about £40 per night more than a regular triple room and offered considerably more space.
The location is superlative in our humble opinion--right around the corner from the British Museum and within walking distance of transportation, restaurants, pubs, major sights, etc., all the while being an interesting and vibrant neighborhood with a somewhat residential feel.
We had a large bedroom with a double bed and two singles; easily the same size or larger than many triple hotel rooms we’ve previously experienced. Importantly, the bedroom is on the back of the apartment, which meant street noise wasn’t much of a factor. In addition, the apartment had a nice-sized living room with newer furniture and a large flat-screen TV, and a small kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave, sink, and some dishes and utensils. The included wi-fi worked very well.
The apartments are in a walk-up just down the street from the hotel. Ours was on the top floor; not a problem for us, but the top floor may not be for everyone.
Our only complaint was that at peak morning shower times, the hot water pressure could be a little unreliable (a couple of times, it cut out completely), although usually a short-term problem. Just plan accordingly.
Full English breakfast is included, served in the main hotel about eight doors down the street from 7-9am. It included eggs made to order, sausage, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, toast, juice, yogurt, cereal, coffee/tea...more than enough to tide you over for quite awhile.
Overall, we felt the apartment was well designed and well appointed. At £190 per night for three, it was a bit of a splurge, but with space and comfort, the services of a hotel and a friendly, welcoming proprietor and staff. I’ll go so far as to say I thought it looked better in person than in the photos online.
http://www.morganhotel.co.uk/
Next up, hopefully tomorrow, what we did during our four days.
yk, no it was United. I've usually had the opposite problem on United: too hot. I was bundled up in an extra sweater, the blanket, a pashmina, and a second pair of (fleece) socks, and I was still freezing.
I stayed in that exact same top floor flat at the Morgan about three years ago - it was really nice. Looking forward to reading more!
Oh good, I love to hear what's new in London. More, please.
Things we did, part 1
We’ve been to many of the major palaces, churches, monuments, parks and museums before. We did have a couple of places we wanted to re-visit on this trip; for example, Westminster Abbey was so crowded the last time we could barely see anything. We wanted to keep our schedule somewhat flexible depending on the weather--maximizing outdoor time if possible and not overdoing museums (unless, of course, it was pouring the whole time). We like theater and the arts, but we decided not to make that a focus for this short trip. And, we’re really not shoppers, markets aside; we enjoy those for the food, people watching and photo opportunities.
In short, we went with a long list of possibilities but very little set in stone. I should add that this is not in any sort of chronological order.
British Museum
One of the main reasons for staying where we did was the opportunity to pop in and pop out of the British Museum as time and interests permitted. It’s a virtually limitless source of fascination, with exhibits and displays from everywhere and every time period in history. Plus, the building, itself, is an attraction and the Great Court opened not long after our last visit. It would be a shame to cram it all into a single visit. DD particularly wanted to see the Rosetta Stone (she barely remembered it from her first visit at age 7) and ancient Egyptian artifacts (but we passed on the mummies, which we’ve seen and which were too crowded). Of course we visited the Parthenon Gallery. We were in Greece just last year, so that was of particular interest. The Mesopotamian relics were remarkable. We sought out a few other things of interest, such as the Lewis Chessmen. Unfortunately, though, we found the Lindow bog man is away on loan in Newcastle at the moment.
One other thing about the British Museum. It’s open late a couple of nights a week, and it was much more pleasant to visit on a Thursday evening than it was on a Saturday afternoon.
British Library
Next door to St. Pancras station is the immense British Library. Again, one could spend days here if one were so inclined. The “treasures” room on the main floor is a literal treasure-trove of written and printed material. We spent several hours just in that room and barely skimmed the surface--a draft of the Magna Carta; a Gutenberg Bible; the Codex Sinaiticus; illuminated bibles and other sacred documents from many faiths, some over a thousand years old; an original collection of Mercator maps; Shakespeare’s first folio; and hand-written drafts, letters and works from Austen (one of DD’s favorites), Dickens, Carroll, Kipling, etc. And, not to be forgotten amongst the centuries-old relics were some handwritten lyrics from The Beatles. The British Library was a particular highlight for DD. But, a note to the family that let their small children run around the room yelling: Perhaps you should have chosen a different destination.
Harry Potter sites
DD has been a Harry Potter fanatic since about the first grade. Say what you will about the books, they are directly responsible for her love of reading. Although she’s moved on a bit in genre, Track 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station was still an imperative for this trip. She posed for a few photos with the cart disappearing into the wall--but then told all of her Facebook friends that the stately St. Pancras (its Gothic façade, anyway) across the street was much more what she’d imagined the station to be. We also made a quick stop at Leadenhall Market, the setting for some “Diagon Alley” scenes and tried to put our imaginations to work...
The London Eye
We rode the London Eye the last time we were in the city, but it was a bit foggy that day; that was back in its very early days when you had to pre-book tickets in advance and hope for the best. This time, it was sunny and gorgeous...and we’re suckers for a nice view. We went when it opened and were able to walk right on, without having to buy the fast track--and, we still had the whole day in front of us.
The National Portrait Gallery “Beatles to Bowie” exhibit
One of the few things planned in advance was a visit to this special exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. While the gallery, itself, is free, there is a fee for this exhibition. I booked the tickets online a few days before we left, and we picked them up at the museum. This exhibit has a year-by-year collection of portraits and memorabilia for musicians and bands that defined each year of the 1960s. It encompasses not only the Beatles and David Bowie, but the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, Jimi Hendrix and many others--definitely a treat for these music fans. We did a little exploring in the rest of the gallery afterward but found ourselves back in another (free) special photographic exhibition--the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize--which we enjoyed just as much. We also discovered that the museum has a Friday evening (one of its late-opening nights) music program.
http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/beatles/index2.htm
To be continued...
ms_go, I'm so glad you enjoyed the Morgan. I stayed there in June (a room, not a flat) and thought it was great, and you really can't beat the location! And I'm just a little jealous that you got to see the Beatles to Bowie exhibition! The Portrait Gallery is one of my favorite museums.
Ms_go:
I was in Lisbon for Thanksgiving and the weather was indeed beautiful!
Ms-go:
By chance, were you on UA #959 Sunday afternoon? I flew home via LHR and will agree that the cabin was very cold. Having an exit row window didn't help the situation either.
Weekender, I'm glad the weather in Lisbon lived up to the forecasts. London was pretty, too, if a bit chilly. It only rained on us once.
We were on UA949 on Sunday; be glad you weren't on that one. We had a one-hour ATC delay before take-off, the IFE system was inoperative, and the economy cabin was understaffed for meal service (no beverage service with lunch). The good news is that we've received $450 in vouchers (for the IFE, specifically) so far and are still waiting for one more.
Ouch! It was absolutely pouring at departure(3:25PM)but we only had about a 15 minute ATC delay which we made up enroute.
Ms. Go what an enjoyable report. Thanks for the tip on the Morgan. I will file it away.
Weekender... you have the life!
ms_go:
Well done - looking forward to more.
Sandy
Thanks, everyone!
Things we did, part 2
I’ll try to make this second part brief.
We revisited Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The former was so crowded the last time we visited (an afternoon in August) that we struggled to see anything. This time, we went in the morning, on a week day. There were certainly people there, but it was much more pleasant. We were able to move around at our own pace and see everything we wanted to. DD, of course, particularly liked the Poets' Corner. We also wandered out through the cloister to the College Garden in the back, where few people seem to venture. Similarly, St. Paul’s early on a Friday morning was quiet and peaceful; conducive to sitting and gazing at the Center Dome and the Quire. Mr_go and DD climbed to the lower outside viewing point (I don’t do steep, narrow, spiral staircases very well; not a claustrophobia thing, but a balance thing going down...).
From St. Paul’s, we crossed the Millennium Bridge (which had been closed during our previous visit) to the Tate Modern. Truthfully, we’re not really modern art people; we were more curious about the building. We went in for a few exhibits and a view from the coffee shop on the top floor, but we found the museum pretty crowded with lots of school groups. There was a key escalator closed, and it just generally took awhile to get around.
The Old Globe Theatre, on the south bank near the Tate Modern, was relatively low on our list going into this trip, but we were in the area and with some time to kill before lunch. In fact, this turned out to be a highlight. It is a painstaking recreation of the wonderful old theater where most of Shakespeare’s plays originally were performed. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but interior, including the stage, was more ornate than we’d expected—especially the beautifully decorated ceiling above the stage and the colorful backdrop. The 45-minute tour was interesting, with an excellent, knowledgeable guide, and we got to watch several student groups have their moment on stage. The open floor seemed small to us, but our guide insisted that they fit 700 people there for contemporary performances (1,000 back in the day). There’s also an interesting inside exhibit/museum.
As mentioned earlier, we enjoy markets. Even though it was a bit brisk, we decided to take advantage of the dry weather to visit a few. We arrived at the aforementioned Leadenhall Market too late for most of the stalls, so that visit was more about the building. We did spend some time at the Borough Market, which is primarily a food market. We’d chosen to eat just prior to the market in order to get out of the cold for a bit. On a warmer day, we would have made this our lunch. As it was, it was fun to sample various cheeses and other items. On Saturday morning, we had a choice of markets; we decided to head just north to the Camden Markets—a collection of five or six markets offering everything from cheap t-shirts to antiques. There’s also a nice variety of international food stalls (along with various regular restaurants and cafes); we didn’t leave hungry.
http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/index.php?pid=1
This trip report would be remiss without mentioning the Leicester Square holiday funfair—something we stumbled upon one evening on the way from the National Portrait Gallery to Chinatown. There are various carnival rides and booths set up in the square, along with decorations and even a snow machine blowing little flakes up into the air. Always the adventurous ones, mr_go and DD immediately had their eyes on a ride called The Storm—two giant arms each at least 50 feet long that rotate like a demented pinwheel. At the end of each arm is a pod of four seats set on an independently pivoting axis, meaning that as riders are spinning at high speed in a giant loop, they’re also spinning in a tight loop at the end of the arm. They both found the experience more intense than anticipated and agreed it was a good idea they did this before dinner rather than after dinner. In fact, after the first rotation around the giant axis, mr_go’s first thought was, “This is not going to be a good death.”
Beyond that, we just spent time doing what we like to do on vacation--wandering and exploring, mostly in within a relatively small radius of our Bloomsbury hotel.
Okay, maybe that wasn't quite as brief as I'd thought...
I will post some photos later today, and the next installment will be on food.
"This is not going to be a good death."
That has been my thought the few times I have been tricked into going on any kind of rides. It will never happen again.
Enjoying your report, thank you.
See, that's the thing, Nikki. I usually love going on thrill rides, and so does DD (ms_go... not so much). But this one was intense. Really intense.
I'm just very glad that we decided to do this before dinner, and not after!
I'm enjoying your report! My husband and I are taking a long weekend in London over MLK in January. Having been to London numerous times in high tourist season, I'm really looking forward to going in January. Can't wait to read the rest of your report.
We're still working on photos. These aren't necessarily in order yet or well captioned (some not at all)...
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p777115584
For some reason, that zenfolio link is sending me to the last page of the album, hon. How odd. Anyone else having this problem should click on the page [1] below the pix to start at the beginning.
I just love your pictures, mr go! We'll be in London at this time next year (actually from September to December -- almost a full four months!) and I'm going to save your trip report and pictures to refer to.
Bloomsbury was high on our list of apartment sites but we've ended up with a charming little apartment in West Hampstead, five tube stops from Oxford Circus. We're great walkers too so we'll probably walk long stretches.
Can't wait to read the rest of your report -- especially on food.
Enjoyed your report and your beautiful pictures; you covered a lot of ground. Your daughter must be the envy of her classmates!
My husband and I took a similarly quick trip to London in Nov., 2000 (we left the day after the disputed election results, and everywhere we went we could hear people buzzing about it), and I was surprised at how we hit the ground running, both going and returning, something I can't say I feel like doing when we travel to France. It's hard to imagine that the one less hour in the air and one less time zone could make such a difference, but it did.
Your pictures are lovely - and the trip report isn't bad either!
Lee Ann
Gorgeous photos!
Those are great photos! I especially love the one of the Eye/pods.
Excellent pictures ! Nice report.
You sure covered a lot in 4 days.
Wonderful photo's and an enjoyable report, thanks so much.
Thanks, everyone! I'm glad you're enjoying the photos. I still have some work to do on them. DD also took some very nice photos, but I haven't even had a chance to download them on my computer so I can post some of them. Not sure where her camera is at the moment.
Goddesstogo: four months? I'm jealous!
Food
As background, we are not foodies. We don’t plan our trips around food. Not really into fine dining (except for special occasions). But we’ll usually spend at least a little time doing some research to find quality and value. Our plan for this trip was to mix it up with various ethnic meals. We did a little research here, but also used Time Out London and a few other sources. I’m using a credit card statement for reference, so some of this is in dollars and some in pounds.
Italian: La Porchetta, Holborn
A cozy, bustling place down a side street in Bloomsbury, with a real neighborhood feel (didn’t really seem like a tourist destination). Pizzas are the specialty and they did look great. But, after a long day of flying and a long walk around London, we all opted for pasta with a couple of starters, and it all pretty much hit the spot. $75.
http://www.laporchettapizzeria.co.uk/holborn/home.html
Turkish: Tas, Bloomsbury
This one we did plan. It was Thanksgiving for us, and what’s Thanksgiving without a turkey dinner? Well, how about a Turkish dinner. Our next big trip is to Turkey, so it seemed particularly appropriate. Tas is part of a small local chain, and it just happens to be located on the corner right next to the Morgan. Service and food were very good. Two starters, three entrees, dessert and drinks, $111.
http://www.tasrestaurant.com/tas_bloomsbury/index.htm
Tavuklu Ispanak
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p777115584/hc1a7af9#hc1a7af9
Kagit Kebap
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p777115584/hc1a7af9#h1aa2284e
Chinese: Baozi Inn, Chinatown
We solicited recommendations here and got many good suggestions (thanks to all!). I’ve posted the original thread here in hopes it will help others.
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/your-favorite-london-chinatown-restaurants.cfm
Thanks to yk and walkinaround for the recommendation of Baozi Inn. This is a small, informal place with very fast service. This is what we wrote in the other thread:
We were seated right away, even though it was pretty full; there was a line when we left. It's a chilly night in London and nothing sounded better than a hearty bowl of spicy noodles--a specialty here. We had a three-sliver salad (kelp, carrot and vermicelli); a spiced peanut salad; pork dumplings in broth; spicy cold peanut/sesame noodles; and Sichuan pork noodles. Unfortunately, they were out of the baozi (buns), but we ended up with plenty of food--with beer, less than £30 for three people. It certainly met our needs: fast, tasty and a solid value.
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/13356.html
Peanut noodles:
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p777115584/hc1a7af9#h194febdc
Three-sliver salad:
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p777115584/hc1a7af9#h43e10a7
Indian: Curry Leaf, Charlotte Street
We’d staked out an Indian option or two in Soho, but it was raining and we decided to stick closer to home. We headed to Charlotte Street and perused some menus before selecting this restaurant. We thought the food was pretty good, but for some odd reason we didn’t exactly feel welcome here. The bigger problem, though, was DD’s allergic reaction to her dinner. She is allergic to nuts (cashews, walnuts, etc., but not peanuts), and she is always very careful in choosing dishes in restaurants; we very rarely have problems. Her allergy isn’t a deadly one; but it can be very uncomfortable for a bit and can make her sick. The menu here did spell out nuts in certain dishes, so we were chose otherwise. Well, with one bite of her meal, her throat began to itch and swell...turns out the dish had cashews. She was able to manage through it by drinking a lot of water (we’d failed to bring the Benadryl with us that evening), but obviously had to leave the meal on the table and we had to make a fairly hasty exit. $125.
She ended up having a take-out pizza a bit later from Icco, which saved the day:
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/6197.html
Honorable mention to our quick but tasty lunch of toasties at Silva’s near the hotel:
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/10488.html
Just a few more small things to cover. I'll try to wrap up tomorrow.
Nice report. We enjoyed our dinner at that TAS as well on our last trip.
While my LW prepares her wrap-up, I’ll jump in with a little bit about another must-see attraction in London: the pubs. No trip to London is complete without a pint or two at a local establishment, and the areas to the immediate west and south of our hotel offered dozens of inviting options.
I have to say that I love traditional English pubs, from their homey painted-wood exteriors to their “real” ales pumped by hand from cellar casks to their implicit expectation that you engage in some friendly chat around the bar.
During our second evening there, ms_go and DD took a couple of hours to rest a bit before dinner, so I nipped around the corner to visit the Museum Tavern, directly across the street from the British Museum.
http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub306.php
Despite being in a prime tourist spot, this was actually a decent place to hang out and spark up a chat with the locals. After trying a so-so pint of bitter, some fellow named Nick suggested I try a Czech beer I’d never heard of (and can’t remember now), and it was excellent. He’d lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and had plenty to say about how it had changed in that time… for better and for worse.
Ms_go and I also enjoyed a drink early Saturday evening at Fitzroy’s, the venerable tavern that gives the Fitzrovia neighborhood its name.
http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub6.php
Literary and artistic giants like Whistler, Orwell and Dylan Thomas used to bend an elbow here, and we were pleased to do the same. Delicious Samuel Smith beers are offered on draught, but the white wine was adequate at best. Again, for a well-known establishment, it was nice to see a mostly local (and friendly) crowd there.
Thanks for the fun report! And your pics are fab, too. (Might "copy" some shots when we're back in August!)
Well, I don’t have much more to add, really.
Everyone knows how easy it is to get around. There are several transportation pass options, including one with entrance benefits at various sites. But, since our plans were loose and flexible and we weren’t sure where we’d be visiting, we decided to keep it simple and stick with the Oyster Card. I ordered these online a few weeks before we left, and they arrived in about five business days.
https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do
I had them preloaded with £20, and we used most of that. We went to the ticket office at Heathrow station at the end of our trip to redeem the small balance left. There was a line of about 15 people but it moved quickly.
Our hotel was near the Russell Square and Holborn stops on the Piccadilly line, so that served us well for getting to and from Heathrow. The ride to/from Russell Square is almost exactly one hour. I could see how this might be a little difficult with lots of luggage if traveling during rush hour, but for us, it was not problem; we had small bags and were transiting during non-peak times (mid-day on a week day going in; Sunday morning going back out).
While we watched weather forecasts for the week leading up to the trip, we knew that we could be in for just about anything (well, we did know it would be cold, but beyond that...). All in all, we were very lucky. Most of the time, the sun was out. It was brisk and kind of windy, but we only had to break out our umbrellas once, on the evening before we left. We couldn’t have asked for more. If I’d had a crystal ball and known how things would turn out, I would have gone with a warmer wool coat rather than the raincoat.
Things were taking a turn as we left, though. We could see the dark clouds building as we rolled our bags toward the Russell Square tube stop on Sunday morning; in fact, we left a little earlier than we needed to just to beat them. By the time our train emerged from underground, it was raining steadily. By the time we were boarded and ready to take off, it was pouring enough to cause delays.
One of those freakish, never-in-a-million-tries sort of things happened on our train ride back to the airport. My rolling bag bumped mr_go’s rolling bag as we were getting on the train, and a small fabric tag on mine became attached inextricably to the zipper pull of his. After much effort, we ended up having to break off the end of the zipper (with great force). A sign of things to come for the day?
The flight home wasn’t too late, considering the weather, but among other problems, the seat-back entertainment system was broken. The good news is that we’ve received $650 in vouchers (more than we paid for one ticket) for future travel.
I think that’s it. We had a fun and enjoyable trip. It had been about eight years since I’ve been to London, and it was great to be back.
We thank everyone for their help and advice and hope this report is useful to others in the future.
Wonderful photos, thank you!
Great photos!
The weather looks good in your photos! I love the one entitled 'queen for a day'
I've lived in the US for almost 9 years and this is the first year that we haven't been home and your photos made me homesick. Need to book tickets for 2010!
More good stuff from the Go family.
Loved the pics----Big Ben the most--great angle.
I really enjoyed your report. I was in London earlier in November, so your observations were fun to read. I skipped the paid Beatles exhibit at The National Portrait Gallery, but loved the Tudor room. Unfortunately, it was so hot in the museum that I couldn't wait to get out of there and into the fresh air.
mr_go - After several trips to London, I hadn't spent much time in the pubs, since I am usually solo or with children. I finally took a pub tour with Londonwalks (www.walks.com). Highly recommended. Also saw a bit of Hampstead on that particular walk. I will definitely take another one next time I'm there. One great thing is that you don't have to pre-reserve, you just show up at the appointed time and place and pay 7 GBP.
lovely photos-- can you tell me what sort of camera you have? I didn't see it listed on the photo information. I am starting to wonder if a higher-end camera will not be necessary to get the shots I want!
Thanks, all, for the kind comments.
travelgirl2, the pub tour sounds fun.
cpilgrim, the photos are almost equally split between a Canon Rebel XSi and a Panasonic DMC-ZS3. I don't think a higher-end camera is necessary at all to get good photos. The Panasonic is mr_go's new camera, and this trip was its first real "work out." I've played around with it a bit, and while I'm more accustomed to using a DSLR, I've been pretty impressed with the Panasonic so far. It doesn't have a lot of manual controls, but the 12x zoom is nice and photo quality seems good. We're still trying to figure out the video capabilities, though; hence, no videos from this trip.