London...thinking out loud...
 

After the four of us (me, dh, mil and sil) do our tour of Ireland we fly over to London. Sil has never been, dh, myself and mil have... but, never see it all of course.
And, I have a niece who lives there now and we'll meet up with her for dinner at least one night. I am gearing this trip towards my sil who has never been. She wants to see:
Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Tower of London, the London Eye, have an afternoon tea.
So, Sunday: meet up with niece and maybe all do the Eye together (next to our hotel at Travel Inn County Hall)
Go to nieces flat, let her pick the dinner spot.
Monday: Buck. Palace Chang. of the Guard, 12:15 reser. for inside the palace (at this point dh departs and goes off to see things he'd like to see such as Churchills Bunker (he's been to the Cabinet Wars rooms).
I am thinking this would be a good time for us gals to head to Harrods...should we just do the tea thing there or should we head off somewhere else? I do know they would not want to do the Ritz (too exp. for them) but Harrods or somewhere else would be fine, but I do want it to be a real sit down afternoon tea.
Tue: Thinking Tower of London (early), St. Pauls (not doing the climb this time), Westminster Abbey...too much? Oh yeah, TKTS booth...see a show that night?
Yes, we leave on Wed....so, we do have to speed things up...trust me, she probably won't ever get to London again..trust me on that.
Any thoughts...esp. about Monday with Harrods and the tea place....good sand. and deserts most important!!
Thanks,
Shadow

If you are going to be at Harrod's anyway - then sure, do afternoon tea there. There are several restaurants w/i Harrods that do set teas. Or you could 1) go over to the Orangery in Kensington Gardens or 2 ) to the Patisserie Valerie location on Motcombe Street which is walking distance from Harrod's.

I personally think the Tower, St Paul's and Westminster Abbey is one too many "majors" for one day. I'd pick either church and call it a plan.

janisj,
Thanks! I guess we'll check into tea at Harrods then but Kensington was an idea I had in mind as well...so, we'll see how that goes...I am thinking we'll be too hungy to wait much longer than Harrods to eat so Harrods it will probably be.
I figured I had too much for that last day!! I will give my sil some choices and let her decide what are her "must see's"...and, go from there.
Thanks!!

"Churchill's bunker" IS teh Cabinet war rooms. If your other half is interested in this sort of thing he'll like the Imperial War Museum (lambeth North tube)

There is a Richoux shop across the street from Harrods. They do a very nice tea with finger sandwiches; scones, clotted cream, and jam; fruitcake; a choice of pastry from their glass case of goodies; and a pot of tea of your choice. It will cost less than Harrods, take less time, I believe, and the food is good.

And I wouldn't bother with the Tube to get to Imperial War Museum. The 3, 59, 159, and 360 buses stop right outside the door, whereas Lambeth North Tube is a 10-minute hike.

Back in '02, while paying a visit to my in-laws who live in Wickham (60 miles west of London, my hubby, dd and I decided to spend the day in London, so we hopped on the train and were able to cover: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul's (spent about 20 minutes inside), London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, few minutes at St. James Park (to please our 9 yr old), walked pass Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & London Eye for photo op, then went to Harrods for a little window shopping. Then took the tube to Notting hill for dinner. Most of the day was spent walking. Our dd actually hated that day. But I wasn't complaining. It was my first trip to London so thought we'd make the most of it. We'll be back this November, this time with my sis, and I made sure we'll be spending few days this time.

"Most of the day was spent walking ... thought we'd make the most of it."

Well, I'm afraid you didn't. If you have a lot of locations to get to, walking is a waste of valuable sightseeing time.

A walk for its own sake - such as a structured trek (or even an unstructured one) through the historical sites of The City, for example - is time well spent. But just marching for the sake of getting from A to B is better served by the myriad bus lines in London.

Thanks everyone! I do appreciate everyone's advice, thought, and experiences and the expertise of our Londeners. I am going to use all this great advice.
Shadow