There is no Stone Hedge, it's Stonehenge. There is no London Tower, it is the Tower of London.

The London Pass is a waste of money.

What service? Are you Episcopalian, Catholic, Presbyterian, other?

Thank you for your correction. I guess the London Tower I mentioned is probably London Tower Bridge. I'm a Baptist but I have already did my research on that and so far there are 3 churches that I would consider going to (their locations are listed in my first post).

Also, I prefer not be near where people get drunk, curse, etc. Noise doesn't bother me as long as it's not bad words>>

this is the second thread where the OP [different OPs so far as i can tell] have mentioned that they are particularly sensitive about bad language.

Hokeypokie - How do you cope at home? walk round in a bubble?

Sadly there will be times on your trip when there will be noisy people who may swear in your vicinity. I would particularly suggest that you avoid lawyers, taxi drivers, bus drivers, football fans, most reality TV, Shakespeare, and anyone under 25. also most pubs. [ok, you're a Baptist, probably the pubs are out].

where is CW when you need him?

That's why I don't watch TV.

I hear cursing every once in a while (well, I'm still in the world). I can deal with it but prefer not to be where people tend to curse a lot. Just want to avoid "garbage in, garbage out". I avoid to the extent that I don't watch TV or go to movie. Pub is out of the question.

Who's CW by the way?

I wonder if someone will chime in with really good suggestions.

To be as gentle as I can, if you really have a problem with bad language and alcohol, then you may really battle to come to terms with parts of London. Both are common enough to be considered part of city culture. Pubs are everywhere, and the levels of casual obscenity in terms of spoken language can even shock me (and I am a pub going football fan following a team from a naval town)

Bad language, etc, aside, I think your budget is not great. Is that $100 each or total for two and this is for London and not Manchester? I would suggest looking into a nice hostel or try Priceline, for example. Can't guarantee you won't get any bad language.

But really. You've lived long enough to realize that you can't avoid bad language forever. What's the big deal about just ignoring it? In all gentleness, you need to grow up and realize this or otherwise you will come away from new experiences hurt, angry, upset. Or, you may just eventually turn away from new experiences. TIme to face this. You don't have to befriend these people. Just tolerate.

CW is the abbreviation for a long time poster on these boards (who ironically was finally banned permanently for abusive language in the face of provocation) who was also one of the great experts on London.

I think your idea of breaking your queries into smaller chunks might help. I am not sure Manchester for a day is worth the trip unless it is for a very specific purpose.

Wembley stadium is nice enough, but it is just a sports stadium and the are around it is pretty unwelcoming.

The major London Museums: Natural History, Science, V&A (all in South Kensington) and the British Museum are all superb

The White cliffs are best seen by boat, although if you visit the wonderful Dover Castle, you can go down through the cliffs to see the wartime hospital, then exit onto a balcony half way up to view the sweep of the cliffs.

Bath is an excellent day trip, but equally good are Winchester or Salisbury.

You can eat at a pub without drinking alcohol or without having to worry about drunkenness and cursing. Try www.fancyapint.com for London - the listings describe the atmosphere at each one, so you should be able to find something that would suit you.

Lee Ann

manchester simply isn't a doable day trip from Uxbridge. From the train station nearest to Uxbridge it takes 3.5 hours to Manchester w/ 2 changes and the same on the return. So you are talking 7 hours just for transit.

You could fly from LHR to MAN -- but total time in transit will be about the same.

By all means, your mother should go to the British Library in London. The special documents room is fabulous, containing originals of the Magna Carta, some Shakespeare, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, the Lindesfarne Gospels, a Beatles lyric written on the back of an envelope, and many others. She can take a short guided tour and be shown the reading room and told the number of books in the library and how many hundreds of years it would take to read all of them. The benches in the entrance hall are made to look like open books. For a reader, it's a must!

Thank you for all the suggestions...

$100 per night is for both of us. We don't care much about how nice a room is. We just need it to be clean. Have at least a bed we can share. Private bathroom and wifi preferred (unless there are places like McDonald's that we can stop for a quick break/snack and get free wifi access). The room can be small and we don't need TV, table, or anything like that. It doesn't have to be in the central London as long as it's a short walk to the tube and short ride to central London (less than 30 mins total)

We are paying under $200 per person for the whole week in Uxbridge. But we will stay there for only a week. How far is that from Central London? An hour?

As for transportation, should I get 3 weekly passes for myself? Does that cover the ride from Uxbridge to Central London?

What would be the best way to take a day trip to White Cliff? On my own to take the operated tour from London? If we go on our own, what's a good company that runs the boat?

I'm adding museums and British library in my "to go" list.

My dad and cousin really want to go to Manchester. What if we start at 5am and leave there at 8pm? Wouldn't we still have a whole day to roam around? Or do you think it's better to leave London (Chelsea area) around 6:30pm Sunday night, stay at a hotel in Manchester, spend Monday there, stay another night there, then leave very early morning (tuesday) to Heathrow airport by 11am (plane leaves at 12:30pm). If the later works better, what would be the latest time we can leave and still be safe (in terms of not missing the plane)?

Public transportation: in London, you should consider an Oyster Card.. you buy the card at any tube(subway station) and add on money.. you can use it for the bus or subway within London. you may only need one zone.. if you use it several times a day there is a cap on the daily cost.. and its cheaper than paying each day if you are there for a week. the bus costs less than the tube.. but you can sit in traffic in some areas so often the tube is faster.

to find a decent hotel for $100 you will have to stay further out from central london although you can see if there are dorm rooms in the universities are available or a bed and breakfast ..
there are some less expensive areas in london.
tho you will probably not find free wi-fi

the british library is well worth the visit.
wonderful exhibits there.
you can take the train to windsor from london there is one change generally at slough,,, you get off and change for the windsor train on the same platform.. you can walk from the train station in windsor into the main part of town and the castle.. its not a long walk ... there are cheaper off peak fares ..check the britrail website.
you can also visit hampton court.. you can take a bus there,, or kensington palace in london
there are many wonderful museums in london..the national gallery, the national portrait gallery, the tate, and tate modern, the victoria and albert museum, as well as smaller gems
if you are interested in going to the theater,, consider the globe for shakespeare or the national theater ; depending on what church services you would consider.. if you go to services at westminster abbey or st paul's you wont be paying the entrance fee and you get to see the historic interiors..these are church of england (anglican) services..you can go for a late afternoon service.. westminister also has a garden area that is open to the public no fee

i highly recommend london walks for informative talks/walks on all sorts of subjects and neighborhoods and they have explorer days out of london .. day trips by train..they have a website with the tours listed for all days of the week.

I'm interested in the London walks but I'm not sure I can understand the English accent well. Would I enjoy it even if I don't understand what they say?

What do they do during the service? Just listen to the preaching, singing? Anything else? I have never been to an Anglican service before.

You won't be able to leave Manchester in the morning and get to LHR for 11am. Logistics won't allow it and in any case you would be better staying either in London or at the airport (though probably outside your budget) the night before. So 1 night in Manchester is the max I guess you'll be able to do.

As a Mancunian I can help with "what to see, do" etc. Do your relatives have particular interests or have something that they "must" see?

"I guess the London Tower I mentioned is probably London Tower Bridge."

Tower of London: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Tower_of_London_2006.jpg

Tower Bridge: http://www.london-architecture.info/043-DigitalTowerBridge.jpg

Mancunian? What's that?

I saw train from Manchester to London as early as 5am-6am. Won't that give us enough time to get to the airport?

If staying 2 nights in Manchester and be able to come back for the flight on time is not possible, then we may just stay in Uxbridge both nights and take a day trip there instead...

Places we are interested in in Manchester: Old Trafford (must see), John Rylands Library (must see), Whitworth Art Gallery (maybe), Royal Northern College of Music (maybe), Heaton Park, City Airport (maybe), Central Library (maybe), Ancoats (maybe), Museum of Science & Industry, Open to other suggesions as well (but we only have a day to spend there).

"Mancunian? What's that?"

Someone who lives in (or came from) Manchester.

"and take a day trip there instead..."

That really isn't a very good idea. Say you got to Manchester by noon, you'd only have a few hours when any sites are open. Then you wouldn't get back to Uxbridge until quite late at night. To make any sense -- one would need an overnight in Manchester.

The Tower of London and Tower Bridge are right next to each other, so visiting the former will mean you automatically get to see the latter.

I would scrap Madam Tussuards - it will not really give you a flavour of the UK, plus usually has very long queues.

Britian is quite sweary in general, so there is probably nowhere any of us can suggest that will be four-letter-word free!

The thing is... If we stay 2 nights in Manchester, we can take our luggage with us and leave it at the hotel and that will work out fine as long as we can come back by the time for the flight on Tuesday morning (which you said is not logically possible).

If we stay only Sunday night in Manchester, then where do we put our luggage on Monday when we travel in Manchester? Also we have to carry our luggage back and check in again for one night in London. That's why I think 1 night is not going to work if 2 nights doesn't.

If we take a day trip, we can catch the virgin train at 06:17am to get to Manchester at 08:28am and leave at 20:15 to arrive back at 22:33. Doesn't that give us plenty of time to see things? Also, if nothing is opened by 8:45am, we can go to the park and relax until something is open. Does that make sense?

You're young, you can surely do the day trip you mentioned. It would be a busy day and you'd have to have a good plan so you can maximize your time. Certainly choose exactly what is most important to see ahead of time. Then check to make sure these things are open and figure out how you'll get from site to site.

Those trains don't leave from/arrive at Uxbridge. How do you plan on getting from Uxbridge to Euston Station by 0617?

The tube doesn't run early enough to get you there from Hillingdon. So you'd have to take buses and tube, leaving by about 0500.

And the return journey will get you back to Hillingdon at approx midnight.

I don't understand any of the comments about your luggage? Any hotel will hold your bags after you check out -- that means one at Uxbridge -- or one in Manchester.

I don't at all understand why you'd prefer traveling from 5 AM to Midnight when you could very easily do an overnight trip to Manchester.

What's the earliest time the tube runs from Uxbridge and how late does it run until? Is it the same time every day?

I didn't know that the hotel would hold your luggage before or after you check out.. That's new to me. Do all the hotels do that in England? If so, then do you suggest I leave London around 7-8pm, stay 1 night in Manchester, check out the next day but ask them to hold on to our luggage, explore Manchester, come back for our luggage and head back to London that night?

Do you think the hotel would hold our luggages for 2 days?

First and last tube trains:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1129.aspx

libraries

London Oxford and Cambridge between them probably contain the world's greatest resource of libraries. But access to the working library bit of the really great libraries is heavily restricted: visiting scholars can register almost instantly, but it's virtually impossible for a casual tourist to get to the bookshelves. If your mother's interest in libraries has a professional basis (like she works in one), she'll probably find it easier to get into the main libraries through her professional organisation or through networking via colleagues. This obviously doesn't apply to ordinary, local council run,public libraries – but they're pretty much the same everywhere.

For the general tourist, interested in the region's five main libraries:
- Make sure your mother joins you on your visits to Oxford and Cambridge. In Oxford, the Bodleian has an intensive visit programme, accessible on its website: Merton College library (the oldest working library in the world) has very occasional public tours, also accessible on the Merton College website. In Cambridge, visitor access to the University Library is less commercialised and cheaper than at the Bodleian, but is also on the CU website. If there isn't time on your Oxford and Cambridge tours to see the libraries properly, your mother really ought to take separate trips. If libraries are your hobby, really exhaustive trips to Oxford and Cambridge are absolutely essential.

- In London, the public exhibition spaces at the British Library are, by a million zillion light-years, the finest book exhibitions in the known universe. But your mother still can't get into the working bits of the library. However, there is an ingenious system for handling its more modern (say 1500-1750) rare books: the restricted area where they are stored is a huge glass cage, with the spines facing outwards so that readers access them from the secure area, while casual visitors can see the photogenic spines, which reach right up across several floors.
The British Museum no longer holds a significant working library. But it retains its early 19th-century Reading Room, where lunatics like Karl Marx scribbled out (and, claims the propaganda, researched – though obviously never thought about - the data the nonsense purports to be based on) their destructive fantasies. The Room, which is beautiful as well as historical, has been kitted out to look pretty much the way it was when serious writers used it. With Merton and the Bodleian, the single site anyone interested in libraries has to see.

Between them, London Oxford and Cambridge have about 300 significant libraries over and above council run public libraries. Many of the more specialist ones (like the Wellcome medical library opposite the British Library,or the dozens of local history repositories around London)do offer much easier access to casual visitors. A more precise set of questions will get you more useful answers.

Churches .
I don't understand your question. If you want to attend a Baptist service at certain times and places, you're as capable as anyone else of checking whether there actually is a service at the times you want at the places you want.
If you're looking for a tourist-style recommendation (London has overwhelmingly the most outstanding church music in the world, and a few of Europe's most architecturally interesting major churches), you won't get any in Chelsea or Wimbledon.

You do seem a bit niaive and confused about travel, but if you've led a sheltered life in the US, then I suppose that does explain it.

As far as Manchester goes: I take it by Old Trafford, you mean Manchester United's ground? If so, I am warming to you now! There is a stadium tour that takes 1-2 hours and allowing for travel to and from the ground you've got half a day right there. I agree with Rylands library as a must. It's bang in the City centre on Deansgate and a proper look round will take a couple of hours. Allowing for time for lunch will take up another 3 hours.

Heaton Park is too far out for you to fit it in and the NCM is not really open to tourists. The airport is an airport and although modern etc. it's not really a destination. Ancoats has been pulled apart and the old mills that haven't been knocked down are apartments now. There are some bits of historical "industrial revolution" left, but not much and you don't have time to find them.

That leaves the Whitworth, Science and Industry Museum or Central Library. By far the most imposing building is the Central Library, built with cotton money(as were all Manchester's Victorian buildings) but again you won't have time to see them all.

The Central Library is a 5 minute walk from Rylands and you get to it through Lincoln Square, with its statue of Abe in the middle. The Whitworth is another 5 minute stroll away on the other side of the Town Hall. If you want history, then see the Town Hall, one of the most beautiful buildings around, both inside and out.

ok, here are my suggestions to try and whip [said in its non suggestive sense] your trip into shape.

1. use priceline to get a decent place to stay in central london when you arrive. staying out of the centre may be cheap but it may also be less clean than you should like, and the constant travelling into london will eat up any savings you have made.

2. although anglican services vary according to time of day, purpose, etc. they normally take the same sort of form with prayers, reading, hymns, [in which the congregation normally join] and sermons, with, if you are lucky, some organ music and or choral singing. - as well as Westminster Abbey there are a number of churches in London where you could listen to some very good music for example the Temple Church, which has an excellent choir and a newly restored organ:

http://www.templechurch.com/

the July schedule is not up yet, but should be soon.

3. the manchester trip. i just don't see how you're going to fit this in. your family arrive at 6.30 pm on the saturday, and you have your conference starting on the Monday. i don't know where they are coming from, but do your family really want to spend all day on sunday trekking to Manchester and back, or have i misunderstood your schedule?

4. I'm interested in the London walks but I'm not sure I can understand the English accent well. Would I enjoy it even if I don't understand what they say?>>

heaven help you in Manchester then.

I would also suggest leaving Manchester out, unless you are really determined. Of the places you mention, Heaton Park and the Central Library are not worthy of visiting. I live around the corner from Heaton Park and rarely go there, the grounds are not especially attractive and the Hall is an ugly building. Its only saving grace is they sell home made honey. The Manchester Science and Industy Museum (and indeed the Manchester Museum) are worth a visit. Old Trafford is for football fans so if you are in to football it is definitely worth a trip. Good luck.

annhig:

I believe you misunderstood our schedule. The first Sunday is not when we plan to go to Manchester. It's the second Sunday. We will be in church during the day so we will leave at night if we plan to spend a night in Manchester. Then we spend the next day (2nd Monday) in Manchester. Come back Monday night (or stay another night there if I can figure a way to be at LHR Tuesday by 10:30am or 11am the latest)

I survived a trip to Japan on my own and they don't even speak English there... We'll be fine in Manchester. Sightseeing is one thing, trying to enjoy a guided tour where the guide may be far away and you have a hard time figuring out what they say is another.

stevelyon:
I will leave out Heaton Park. My mom would not want to skip a library so we may give the Central library a short visit as it's in the area where we will be. I saw that Manchester museum has the Harley Davidson show so I thought that would be worthwhile. My dad and cousin are football fans and the Old Trafford is a must for them. I even mentioned to them about forgetting Manchester and they would still go on their own. They are the main reason we are visiting Manchester..

you're right, HP, I did. then i'm in the 2 nights in Manchester camp.

re the guided tours, I assume that you're OK with the differing accents you hear in the US? in which case the "accent" of the average London Walks guide should be no problem. you may struggle in Manchester but if you are not taking a tour, you will as you say, survive.

Annhig:

So you think we can leave Manchester early Tuesday morning and get to LHR by 10:30am?

I'm OK with the differing accents in the US. I may not always understand everything but I can certainly understand most of it. Do the people in Manchester have different accent than those in London?

i would recommend b&b belgravia. look it up on tripadvisor. we have stayed there. reasonable price... very short walk to Victoria station and lots of inexpensive eats around. they have a website and you can book direct from the site. it is in a quiet area just removed as i said from the hustle of Victoria Station but very close to walk easily. former PM Margaret Thatcher lives very nearby.

There are very different accents all over London! I was there with my grandmother for five days, and pretty much every different individual has a different accent. They all pronounce things with the same style, but with very different intonation, speech quality etc. etc. Especially if you are going to libraries, you will hear an amazing variety in accents. For instance, in the Guildhall library in London, the man in charge had a very polished, upper-class British accent, which was quite charming really, and just about every person working behind a cash register has a different take on certain words. It's really diverse! Manchester accents ( I know because I have a couple of friends who have one), are quite different to "standard" British. They tend to skip certain letters, like "T", in words like "bottle". Where a standard Englishman would say every letter in that word very crisply, a Manchester man would say it "bo'all", both ways are distinctly different from the American "boddle" pronunciation. Generally, British people are very easy to understand because their words are all very distinctly pronounced, but not in Manchester......

The word "water", is pronounced, "worter" in England, you may need that one.....

Ah yes, irishwhistler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4VFqbroi1I

To hear examples of British regional accents, you can play around with these:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html

In the north, you're more likely to get different vowel sounds from the south (say, something more like "cuhp" than "cup", or a short a to make "plannt" rather than "plahnt", as you would hear in the south), and some elision of the definite article, so instead of "go to the end of the road" you might hear something more like "go to t'top of (t)road".

But you could spend all day on regional and class differences in speech, and never get to the end.

So you think we can leave Manchester early Tuesday morning and get to LHR by 10:30am?>>

there are in fact about 5-6 trains that will get you from Manchester picadilly to LHR by 10.30 am. Here's the link [it shows the earliest ones, but there are a few more if you click the "later box"]

http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/combinedmatrix.aspx?Command=TimeTable

whether you want to take the risk however is up to you.

annhig: Your link won't work since apparently it was a schedule search you did and is timed out . . .

well, if the OP searches www.thetrainline.com s/he will be able to put in the same info as i did, and get the same info out.

The info on accents is very helpful. I think I should watch some youtube videos from the British locals to get used to the different accents.

annhig: I found 3 of them and they are 123.50GBP for 1 way (on the way back). If there's no cheaper option I may just consider staying only Sunday night in Manchester.

How come some of the trains take 9:30 hours?

Are they overnight trains that are 9:30 hours? Could be one train comes into a town that you transfer in late at night and the next train leaves first thing in the morning so you are stuck at your transfer station overnight....?

When I looked up online they didn't mention if it's overnight or not..

"When I looked up online they didn't mention if it's overnight or not.."

Well - if it arrives in the AM and takes 9 hours - then it HAS to be overnight . . .

According to the trainline - leaving Manchester Piccadilly at 10:07PM gets you into Euston at 7:02AM -- 8hr 55min overnight. But it has you sitting in Wolverhampton for almost 6 hours.

The idea of taking a train into London that morning doesn't make much more sense than doing Manchester as a day trip.