kh54828

Hello,
We will arrive in London on a Sunday morning (April 13). We have been informed that our room will not be available right away, but we can drop off our luggage. (We are staying in Crystal Palace)
There are a couple of places I would like to go, but I understand that maintenance, etc is done on Sundays. What would be a good way to spend my Sunday....I would like to go to the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, and Hever Castle. Would any of those be better than another on a Sunday?
Thanks!

janisj

We have already replied on your other threads about travel to places like Hever from Crystal Palace (to find all your threads - click on your name)

Since Crystal Palace is so far from LHR there is a semi-good chance your room will be available by the time you get there.

But Hever is pretty much out of the question. Hampton Court Palace is all the way across on the other side of London so not such a great idea. The Tower gets very crowded on a Sunday and you'd really want to be there by opening time.

Your best bet is to hope the room is ready and settle in a while and then head up into London just to look around -- or maybe go to Greenwich.

flanneruk

It's prudent (though, frankly, slightly anal) to check any train or tube journey at weekends, since thgere's a possibility it might be disrupted - which almost always means slightly prolonged - by some kind of works.

But such works rarely affect a journey you're planning (the law of big numbers means it's a few hundred of the other several million travelling that day who get hit) and, if it does, it usually - no, almost always - just adds a few minutes to your journey.

Apart from during some holiday weekends, engineering works never make journeys impossible - or even notably more unpleasant. There's just a hard-core whingeing group in Britain who love to clainm the world's coming to an end because their train's five minutes late.

highflyer

Chances are you wouldn't notice the delays due to maintenance. For long delays there are sometimes buses added to cover part of routes and I'd avoid those routes if you can but I would choose to stay within Central London anyway and walk around in the fresh air to blow away your jet lag. Sunday isn't a great day to visit any of the sites you mention... a week day would be less crowded.

alanRow

<<< Apart from during some holiday weekends, engineering works never make journeys impossible - or even notably more unpleasant. >>>

You've obviously never tried to go by train from Newcastle to Edinburgh (90 minutes travel time) on a weekend when the track between the two was being worked on.

The diversion was via Carlisle & Glasgow - effectively doing 3 aides of a square - and took 4 hours. It would have been easier for them to lay on buses between the two

highflyer

Yes, alan has a valid point but the OP isn't going that far. I've spent an eternity on a train from London to Wales on a Sunday due to maintenance; never again!

PatrickLondon

I wouldn't make any firm plans for the first day. Just relax and get to know a bit about the area you're in and local cafés/restaurants and transport services, go for a walk in the park, drop in on the Horniman Museum or Dulwich Picture Gallery:
http://www.crystalpalacepark.net/
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/
http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/

Then you won't be too far away to crash if the jetlag starts to hit you.

If you've really got all day to play with, you could take a train to London Bridge and walk along the South Bank, or to Victoria and wander around Westminster.

carolyn

We saw the Dennis Severs house on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It was very atmospheric with the candlelight, but I did hold on tightly to the stair rails.

kh54828

Thanks for the suggestions of local places to go...we've talked to the landlord and the room won't be ready until 2 pm, and I hope it doesn't take six hours to get from LHR to Crystal Palace!! We're hiring a car (at the recommendation of one of the posters in a previous question) so should arrive to CP before the room is ready. I've looked at some of thinks provided by PatrickLondon, and think that would be a great way to spend the time waiting for our room...
Thanks again everyone!

Nonconformist

"Apart from during some holiday weekends, engineering works never make journeys impossible - or even notably more unpleasant."

I regularly travel from Reading to Southampton (at least I get an onward connection there) for the weekend. It's supposed to take a little under an hour although Friday evenings it's often an hour. I won't go on a Saturday morning now, or come back on a Sunday, because diversions for engineering take over two hours, not counting delays, and it's really not worth it.

flanneruk

"I won't go on a Saturday morning now"

For crying out loud, stop being a drama queen. I regularly use the Reading-Southampton train on Saturdays. Just once in the past four months have I been delayed for as much as five minutes.

But, boy, when the train was delayed - did the whingers whinge! "Journey from Hell" confided one daft cow to her mobile, as the train got into Winchester seven minutes later than advertised.

janisj

My comment was not about train delays - it was about where makes sense to go after traveling from LHR to Crystal Palace on a Sunday morning. Whether your B&B is ready or not - you are still going to be IN Crystal Palace leaving your luggage.

As was explained on your earlier thread - Hever is really not possible by public transport. The suggestion on that thread and again on this one about a bus to Dulwich makes sense.

Or up to London Bridge/Southwark and walking along the southbank. Otherwise you really do need to take the jet lag into account and not over plan anything.

Nonconformist

"Just once in the past four months have I been delayed for as much as five minutes"

Lucky you.