Most weekends, England offers sports courses. Boating can be had either by hire or commercial trip. The canals are busy, locking yourself through is exciting. Inquire of the national sports organizations for courses.

look east...e.g spitalfields area. a vibrant part of london often ignored by tourists.

Be sure to check and see if you can do the Verger's Tour of Westminster Abbey. We have done it a couple of times by just showing up around 9:30 and signing up. It has been a several years since I did that, but it was a great "insiders" look at things. I had my young niece and nephew with me last time, and the verger let them sit in the queen's box and he took their pictures with each of their cameras. It was the highlight of the trip for them.

Highgate and Harrow on the Hill

The V&A museum is open late on Wednesday and you can have dinner there and attend a free concert. The concerts vary as well as the times so check ahead to see if this is of interest to you. We have done this several times and found the concerts enjoyable.

You requested non-obvious things in London so perhaps you would consider the Sunday 6:30 pm Evensong service at St. Bartholomew's in the City of London. It is a lovely place and has an interesting history. You may recognize the interior as it has been used in several popular films.

They have a newish website at www.greatstbarts.com with more information.

If you go to the Temple area as annhig recommendeds, and do go, the Middle Temple 12th night debut building closes a couple of hours in the middle of the day for guard's well-deserved lunch break.

thank you so much! many great ideas, as i had hoped.....

Whoops! I forgot Westminster Abbey. We also did the verger's tour, which was really interesting and allows you to see bits of the Abbey you can't visit otherwise.

Lee Ann

The Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Man (or whatever it might be called these days) would be high on my list.

Walk along the Southwark side of the Thames, Hampton Court Palace is wonderful...spend a day! See some theatre, Portobello road ...just walk the streets...amazing! Enjoy!
Rosie((R))

A previous poster may have given the impression that Tate Britain contains little but JMW Turner in the collection and that much of that is on loan. Not true.

The Clore Gallery attached to the Tate and devoted to Turner "comprises nearly 300 oil paintings and around 30,000 sketches and watercolours (including 300 sketchbooks)".

In addition, the Tate collection contains works by Hogarth, Gainsborough, Stubbs, Constable, Whistler, Sargent and a host of others.

A visit to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the oldest public picture gallery in the UK, is a treat with works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Poussin, van Dyck, Canalletto, Rubens, among others. Sir John Soane was the architect.

Go to an evening performance at the Open Air Theathre in Regent's Park. Very nice.

bookmarking, thanks!

If you want a bit of a shudder, the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret Museum is worth a visit

http://www.thegarret.org.uk/oot.htm

Someone else already mentioned Sir John Soane's Museum, but I want to second the recommendation. It is unbelievably cool, an incredibly personal collection of fabulous art displayed in the most eccentric and compelling fashion. A true London experience!

I know you aren't interested in shopping, but if you like food you should make time for Borough Market on Saturday. Even if you don't like food, it's great for the sights and sounds and smells and people watching in a very old marketplace that is now very fashionable. The whole South Bank area is well worth visiting.

The WWII codebreaking facilities at Bletchley Park. Arguably one of the most important undertakings of the entire conflict, it gave the allies vital information on enemy troop dispositions and plans.

I've recommended this already on another thread, but since it's so good, I'll give another plug to Time Out's '1000 things to do in London', which has slightly more off-the-wall ideas than normal guides - like a list of 'secret' gardens, butchery (!) courses, tours of the BBC, old umbella shops etc

Thanks, Miss Prism and Robespierre! We will be checking out the Old Operating Theater and Bletchley Park in September -- both sound interesting and will be new to us.

Try visiting the silver vaults in London. Maybe you cannot afford anything but it is a great way to spend a few hours dreaming!!!
http://www.thesilvervaults.com/