Last minute London
 

Just jumped on a good deal to spend Thanksgiving in London, seduced by the (relatively) decent price and the chance to ride the 787 Dreamliner and - well, it's London. Will arrive midday on Thursday, depart late morning Sunday. Staying in Bloomsbury, quite OK getting around on public transit. If anyone knows of exhibitions, new restaurants, or other diversions please feel free to suggest.

Not sure what sorts of things you like but here are several listed in Time Out to get you started.

http://www.timeout.com/london/things...ions-in-london

Can we stop with the coyness and tell us which airline, how much, what hotel, and so forth or is that part of the mystique????

Huge Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery. We're going over Thanksgiving night and have pre-booked tickets for Rembrandt on Saturday.

Thanks, janis - have the TimeOut app and have found it useful on previous London visits.

amyb - thanks!

Coy, Dukey? - now THERE'S an adjective RARELY used to describe me!
It's a package for 2 through United Vacations, total cost for flights and 3 nights hotel (executive room, HI Bloomsbury Kings Cross) came in a couple hundred dollars less than current airfare alone.

Go and see the Ming exhibition at the British Museum. It's excellent.
The wedding dress exhibition at the V&A looks good too.

We have loved several times the annual Nat Geo wildlife photography contest exhibit at the Natural History Museum.

Plebian that I am at heart, the only fixed point on my itinerary is a visit to M&S to pick up some socks and smalls, and a pair or two of the nice sweat pants I purchased there a while back, if they are still on offer. The British Museum falls under "of course" as I never tire of it [favorite review from a friend's daughter: "<i>really shows how the English stole from virtually every culture in the world</i>"] and have not been to the Natural History museum in a couple years so thanks for that, laurie_ann.

Any new places to get good eats without need for a second mortgage?

Try Brasserie Zedel; very reasonable, great location.

Thanks, Tulips, that is now on the list. Odds are high we'll be in that area at some point, as the Boots located there is one of SO's favorite places. Was bemoaning that the brevity of this visit won't allow for a dash to Paris, so this can be the next best thing.

Tulips - thanks for the recommendation, we really enjoyed at Brasserie Zédel. We stopped in without a booking and had no problem being seated.

The restoration of the property is quite impressive indeed, and the menu offers a range of options, all quite reasonably priced. The onion soup was good, my hanger steak was prepared just as I oredered and quite good, as was SO's beef bourguignon. Instead of sweet dessert we opted for cheese and all on the trolley were excellent - especially the comté. And the bread was sooooo good!
On the recommendation of our attentive but unobtrusive server we tried a bottle of a modest red wine (Corbieres, IIRC) that paired quite nicely with our meat dishes.

Overall, it felt rather like a bit of Paris transplanted into central London. We left feeling quite sated and resolving to return on future visits.

Next time try to go to the small cabaret there, Crazy Coqs. It's wonderful, we've seen some great performances there.

"really shows how the English stole from virtually every culture in the world"

when we stole it we were British, the recent federalisation is just a piece of modern nonsense

Ack, considering how other cultures have mistreated their icons and treasures, it's not so bad that the Brits "stole" them so that they'd be preserved in the eponymous Museum.