zwho

To begin, I found a 4 night cruise out of London, that had 2 full days in Amsterdam and 1 sea day and then dropped us off in Oslo. At $172.00 for an inside room, and using discounted FF miles, the trip was almost FREE! We left KC on Thurs. got the Sheraton 4 points at O'Hare on Priceline and spent Friday in Chicago with my DH seeing business contacts. Dropped off our PL rental car and made it to the airport 2 hrs. before our half empty Virgin Atlantic flight to London. The flight was great. Everyone basically had their own row! Was it swine flu or the economy? Who knows? BTW, VA has the largest bathrooms of any airline I have ever flown. What a pleasure. I think the room helps keep it looking clean. We got to LHR at 8a.m. and took the Heathrow Express to out PL hotel. The express was about 17 GBP (I think). TIP #1. Just forget about conversion and think of European $$ as USD. You have to spend it no matter what, and worrying about it will just make you crazy, and you ARE ON VACATION! The Express took about 20 minutes and dropped us at Paddington Station. From there we took a cab, because with only 24 + hrs. to spend we wanted to dump the luggage and get to sightseeing. I'm sure there was someway to get the Tube (underground) to Swiss Cottage (our stop), but we felt we didn't have the time. Our hotel was a Best Western, again a PL find, but even though it was a lovely neighborhood near Regents Park, it was not in the city center, and we missed that. But then the price was right. Next time I would probably bid more to be closer in. I get sick of the subway...up, down, stairs & more stairs! We hopped on a hop on-hop off bus at Baker St. and started our tour of London by 10:00a.m. We got off at Westminster Abbey and walked around that & Parliament. From there we walked down to the Thames and got on a boat for (price included) cruise down the Thames and got off at the Tower of London. We spent about an hour there, had lunch at a sidewalk cafe and reboarded the bus. Saw more of London and then got off at Buckingham Palace. Walked around there and took pictures and went into the adjoining park. By then it was close to 5p.m. so we reboarded the bus and went back to where we began. Took the tube back to the hotel and napped and showered and went out again for dinner about 8p.m. Without that nap, we wouldn't have been able to go on that day. It really helped. We took the tube to Leichester Sq. and started walking towards Covent Garden. Stopped somewhere at a outdoor cafe and had wine & beer and appies. People watched and started moving again looking for somewhere to eat. Found a traditional English restaurant, not a pub, because we wanted to sit down. It was called Porters and it was delicious. Not expensive either. We all had meat pies and puddings and all the Bristish stuff, and walked back to the tube station and got to the hotel around midnight. Tomorrow we have to get to Harwich, which is where the cruise leaves from and we found out the train we should be taking from Liverpool Street station isn't running because they are working on the track. We need to get there and find a replacement bus. At the time all I could hope was that such a thing existed. It's about 200GBP to take a taxi and I didn't sign up for the cruise shuttle! And I think I forgot to mention, there was another couple with us, who left all the planning to me, cause I am such a Fodor nut and love to do it. I really didn't want to screw it up! More later.

Dukey

And that PL hotel was??????????????

nukesafe

Enjoying your trip report, but please think about using paragraphs. Makes it much easier for these old eyes to read.

Thanks,

zwho

You're right about the paragraphs. Sorry. Part 2, paragraphs, I promise! The hotel was the Best Western Swiss Cottage, a small boutique hotel. Considered a 2 star, but the place was clean, the rooms, nice sized, bathrooms with good showers, and nice staff. 1 blk from the swiss cottage tube station. Really, it was just fine for $103 USD a night.

artstuff

Here's a link to Part 2:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ies-part-2.cfm

Robyn