How much would a mini-cab be? <font color="blue">That depends on the distance and time of day.</font> What is the bus/tube fare for 5 people? <font color="blue">That depends on the zones and time of day (for Tube), and the travelers' ages.</font> Is the bus still less expensive? <font color="blue">In general, yes.</font> We used a Tourist publication listing destinations and the busses or undergrounds to them. <font color="blue">This information is also available at http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk</font> We also found the conductors to be most helpful advising us when to get off! <font color="blue">Well, conductors are history except on the Routemaster Heritage routes.</font> Here is a bus map that you might find helpful (you can get the paper version free at Tube stations): http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/pdfdocs/centlond.pdf

FlannerUK - Thank you for giving me the information on the history of the area. The only things I had read were the blurb on the London Walks site and the article from the Times. I was not aware that the building had other uses prior to it becoming a synagogue.

After looking again at the various maps we have revised our itinerary somewhat. I also think just getting the 7 day travelcard would be easiest and I won't worry about the few dollars we may lose. We plan on taking the Southern Train from Victoria to Gatwick when we depart.

Day 1 British Museum, Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock cafe. Looks like they are all on the same tube line so should just be on/off with a bit of walking.

Day 2 Train to/from Hampton Court

Day 3 Westminster Abbey in the morning, walk up Whitehall for Big Ben, Parliament, etc, lunch at St.Martin-in-the-Fields, concert if there is one that day, Buckingham Palace (we don't care about the guard change), Tube or bus to Harrods, Princess Di playground

Day 4 Imperial War Musuem, London Eye, cruise from Millennium Pier to ??? (still have to check on that)

Day 5 London Walk, Tower of London

I didn't want to do a jam-packed trip where we would be more exhausted than excited.

Again, thanks to everyone who gave me ideas and insight I hadn't thougt about.

Day 4: Greenwich. Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, Thames Barrier.

Day 3 London Eye - it's about 300 yards from Big Ben

There is a Jewish Museum in Camden Town- which is much more an area that would appeal to a tourist.

Of course you could just take the kids to Tottenham Hotspur.

Not after today's news!

Day 3

The Crypt, including the cafe, will be closed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields through September due to renovations. I had it on my itinerary for June. : (

Robespierre - We originally had planned a day trip to Greenwich but read the Observatory and Cutty Sark will both be closed during our visit. Those were the main attractions for the males so we dropped it. We may add it back once I check into how long the boat takes and how much time I think we will have.

Alanrow - I did notice the Eye was just across the bridge from Big Ben but since we want to walk up to Trafalgar Square thought it would be more prudent to go when we were on that side of the river for the war museum.

crazy4hawaii - Thanks for the update! I will have to break it to the oldest that he won't get to eat on top of dead people. It takes the gory to amuse him these days.

I am trying not to overthink the itinerary and everyone has pretty much left it up to me so long as we get in all the attractions each person has asked to see.

Yeah - what a bummer.

But is the entire obs closed, or only Flamsteed House? And are the rest of the transit instruments still accessible? That's worth the trip - and John Harrison's clocks were being shown at the Maritime Museum when we were there in '05.

We spent a week in London last year and found the 7 day travel card great. All prepaid and you can travel as much as you like. We bought the 6 zone card and used it everywhere. We also found the buses to be good in London. After a week in Paris using the metro I was just so eager to travel above ground and see the sights as we went. The buses are very efficient Monday to Friday, but beware over the weekends. I understand the London congestion tax does not apply over weekends and the difference in traffic is enormous. Use a bus and see if you can getthe front row seats upstairs! My daughters found the experience thrilling - they thought the bus was going to stop in the back seat of the vehicle in front!

6 zone? Where did you go to need that?

&quot;I understand the London congestion tax does not apply over weekends and the difference in traffic is enormous.&quot;

How Red Ken will love you. Perhaps it's actually to do with the fact that most people work during the week, at the weekend they choose either to travel through London and/or visit the city for its attractions and/or shopping. If you'd care to look at the figures you will see that weekend traffic volumes in London have always been higher on weekends. Indeed, this trend is repeated in other cities around the country. The congestion charge has nothing to do with it!

the RV1 bus route takes you from covent garden to waterloo, london eye, then tate modern, the globe and over the tower bridge. a great conveninet line to easily get you to the other side of the river enjoying a view the whole way.

Walking across to the Eye and back to walk up Whitehall is very doable. Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Eye and then the rest of Whitehall/Trafalgar Sq is a good plan. The Crypt cafe is closed so you won't be having lunch there anyway - so no need to get to Trafalgar Sq by lunch time.

As mentioned, the cutty Sark and Gypsy Moth are also closed

Re the Hardrock (the original one BTW) - do you plan eating there or just buying pins/souvenirs?? If just shopping, they have a shop across the street and no need to go inside the restaurant. If you mean to eat there - then be prepared to wait. There is often a long queue to get in.

Walking across to the Eye sounds doable. We would then definitely have time to take the boat trip to Greenwich after visiting the war museum. I am such a dork but I think it would be cool to stand at the Prime Meridian. Kind of like being in four states at once at Four Corners.

Janisj - I refuse to pay $30 or more for a hamburger served in a loud tourist trap. My Dad just wants the t-shirt that says Hard Rock/Planet Hollywood London. He has them from every place he's gone where there is one. Some people collect magnets but not him.

The #159 bus will take you from Westminster Bridge down to the war museum and back to Westminster.

And don't worry - every dork who visits Greenwich has his/her picture taken straddling 0&deg; longitude.

Problem is that (for reasons too arcane to discuss here) the Prime Meridian is actually about 105 yards east of where the brass line in the pavement is. Your GPS will show you that this is the case.

(Ordnance Survey maps are still zeroed on the 1884 Airy line.)

Hi trvlgirlmg,

On Day 5 (assume it's not Saturday), I strongly recommend the Jewish East End walking tour (and I am Jewish). The tours are usually on Mon/Wed/Sun, and start close to the Tower of London.

The guides are knowledgeable, and the tour gives you very good historical perspectives on Anglo-Jewry though I do admit it is not the vibrant community anymore. (Just like Lower East Side of NY now looks more Chinese than Jewish. My DH's Chinese acupunctulist used to have an office in a converted building that was previously a synagogue.) We actually got a photo of our bubbie and zeidie standing under the street sign &quot;Old Jewry&quot;, which was really hillarious.

Unfortunately, the walking tour does not go inside the Bevis Marks Synagogue (the oldest in UK), just a peak through the gate. If you're in the neighbourhood during the weekday, you should be able to visit the synagogue by yourselves (and they have an excellent/fancy kosher restaurant on the premise that's open for lunch). We just celebrated 350th year since readmission and the original interior is quite amazing.

If you want to see a &quot;living&quot; community, you can try either Stamford Hill (aka schtettle-on-Thames/L
Golders Green

sorry hit the send button too early...

If you want to see a &quot;living&quot; community, you can try Stamford Hill (aka schtettle-on-Thames/Lea), a short bus ride north of Liverpool St Stn. It's very black, mainly Satmer/Belzer harediniks. Golders Green is only worth if you NEED kosher foods.