2 days in London
 

We have about 48 hrs in London - arriving from Chicago early Mon morn (10/22) and leaving Wed morn (10/24). From reading other posts, it sounds like we should walk or bus ride the morning we get there, maybe a short nap after lunch? Since we have so little time, I don't think we'll spend too much museum time, but will try to "walk the sights" as much as possible. We're staying at the Renaissance in Covent Garden.
I'm intent on seeing the Tower, and going to a play on Tuesday night. Any other thoughts about what not to miss? Any ideas of great little spots to eat along the way?
thank you everybody who has posted before, it's given me a great start on our planning!

We missed our flight and got a free day in London from British Airways. Anyway, we managed to see a bit of Picadilly, Buckingham palace, the Green Park, and took a short cab ride to Harrod's to look around. Fortnum and Mason's tea room was in or near Picadilly Circus, as I recall. Covent Garden is within walking distance of Picadilly, we were told. Though it was a whirlwind sight seeing tour, and I'm certainly no london expert, we enjoyed it, and you might too!

I'd take the hop on/off bus to get a good overview.

From Covent Garden, you could walk to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly, and Westminster (Big Ben) on Monday, then do the Tower and perhaps St Paul Tuesday. It would be a lot of walking Monday, but it's pretty easy to see those major sights, and it'll definitely keep you awake!

A few suggestions/observations if you do decide to take the hop-on hop-off bus tour:

1. Rather than taking a ride on the full route first as an "overview" decide what sights you really want to see and get off on your first trip around to see those sights. The bus trip can take an hour or two to cover its full route and with only a short amount of time to see/do things, you may run out of time if you spend an hour or two just making the drive first and then going back to all of the sights.

2. Be forewarned, we saw many people who had just arrived from the US taking the "overview" ride on the bus and quite a few of them kept dozing off - the ride seemed to lull them to sleep (that coupled with exhaustion and the time difference I'm sure).