Someone has got to paraphrase S. Johnson on this thread, so I will: The man who has grown tired of London has grown tired of life, for London holds all the pleasures that life can afford. (Plus it has Cadbury Flake bars stuck in vanilla ice cream cones.)

saw this string and had to have my twopence worth...i live in los angeles now but was born in england...whenever i go back i instantly gain a british accent and a craving for cockles and winkles....and i could go on forever about ploughmans lunches (and beer!!!)in small pubs in the countryside..but more than anything else it's the people...p.s. i'm off to paris, amsterdam,israel, and (of course)London this summer (am I nuts or what?) pps...i know this is not the right string, but this kind of discussion is why i'm a bit addicted to fodors, too.

I love everything about London! The people, the Eastender bus conductor on the 13 line, the parks, the nooks and crannies, the shops, the cafes, the sandwich shops in Soho, the friendly taxi drivers... I could go on and on. But I don't just love London, I love Great Britain! And I am busting out all over because I got my permission to live here permanently today in the post!!!! woohoo! <BR> <BR> <BR>Mind you, I love Paris too. &lt;g&gt; but I would never live in France. <BR> <BR>Anastasia <BR>http://www.greatbritaintravelguide.com <BR> <BR>

My first draft was very long so here are my thoughts in a nutshell: <BR> <BR>Gardens...everywhere...big and small, all glorious. The people it's given us...Shakespeare (London is Shakespeare, not Stratford)...Dickens (can we do without David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Scrooge?)...Princess Diana ( a poignant human tragedy). History everywhere! ( could spend a week in Westminster Abbey). Traditions (things have been the same for centuries). The Tower Bridge (I know, I know). The Tube that makes Europe's largest city a peice of cake. The Londoners...appreciate their reserve (coming from New England myself) as well as their willingness to help if need be. And TEA...an English table set with china and sweets and a beautiful pot of TEA! <BR> <BR>You can keep Paris...it's unimpressive to me. The thinking man's paradise is England and London is at the heart of it.

Art & culture, parks and gardens. Most of all liberal minded Londoners.

Linda (aka Onehappywren), what a swell post! I agree! You said it all.

I love everthing about London that's why I moved from Paris to live here. Ocassionally I miss Paris, but all I have to do is to catch Eurostar and I am in Paris in three hours.

Dinner on the "Silver Sturgeon(sp)" cruising down the Thames...the linens in the Grovesnor House...doubledecker buses...and the overwhelming feeling walking into Saint Paul's and Westminster for the first time..ahhhhhHHH...try to tour during a children's choir practice....

TOWER OF LONDON, WESTMINSTER ABBEY, WAR ROOMS. <BR> <BR>

IloveLondon too. Here's what I don;t like: The "take away" food wrappers and left over pizza on the sidewalk, the garbage that tends to pile up on sidewalks, the price of a "second" cup of coffee, the seedy hotels that pass for 4 star (in Europe, 4 star might mean that there is a phone in the bathroom), and a few other minor annoyances peculiar to London. All in all, a great city. Don't go there when all the French and Europeans are there in mass during school break (as we did). It is a mob scene in the tube stations. I wonder just how many English (English origin, that is) actually live in the city. Our English friends tell us they get out of town at every opportunity. We visit in the winter, when the crowds are gone, the hotels are running speicals, and the tickets to the theatre are better price.

Sitting in the choir stalls during Evensong at Westminster Abbey.

I confess I needed to control the urge to give a cynical answer to this post, like (as with Anchorage, which people love because it’s 20 minutes from Alaska,) that what I love about London is that it’s an hour from England… But no, I’ve resisted doing that. <BR> <BR>I love the sense of place. I exhort first time visitors to London to try to get right away to the south bank of the Thames (near the County buildings) without looking outside if possible (the tube from Heathrow in the early morning after the transatlantic flight works) then emerge, and walk across Westminster Bridge past Parliament, then up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. Right away. <BR> <BR>I think I have a realistic, and generally critical, view of the British imperial period, but man, I still get downright misty walking past the Cenotaph and Downing Street and the Churchill statue and all that. The whole world has been steeped in this imagery and to be HERE, walking past it…well, I love it. <BR>

Just returned yesterday...certainly not the weather...although it kind of "fits" in with London's history. <BR>The British accent <BR>The tea <BR>A Mass sung in Latin (and it was unbelieveably beautiful...) <BR>Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" by candlelight at St. Martin in the Fields <BR>The Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields <BR>Tea <BR>The National Gallery <BR>The British Museum <BR>The V&A <BR>Black cabs (and blue and red ones, too) <BR>Tea <BR>London Walks (although the Jack the Ripper walk by Donald on Sunday was absolutely jam packed (over 100 people!)so I didn't enjoy that too much... <BR>The tea <BR>Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard Sauce... <BR>The theatre <BR>The Globe Theatre where the performance was played to a full house (groundlings, too) in a rain storm, that included lightning, hail, and some sunlight... Vanessa Redgrave as Prospero in the "Tempest" was wonderful <BR>The newspapers!!! There are at least ten dailys!(does anybody know that Cherie had a baby boy named Leo last week? The baby weighed in at a little under seven pounds but the papers weighed in at over a hundred pounds of writing about it. <BR>The gap between the train and the platform...how does one "Mind" it? Has anybody fallen through? <BR>Give Way signs <BR>Look left <BR>Look right <BR>Way Out <BR>The entrances to the tube <BR>Lifts <BR>Boots Pharmacy (all 1,000 of them!!!) <BR>Sitting on the top of a double decker bus in the front...a real bus, not a tour bus...watching a black cab make a u-turn right in front of it without a hitch! <BR>The way the British do things... <BR>The politeness of British salespeople... <BR>The "loo" <BR>Full English Breakfasts <BR>Tea <BR>The guards at Harrods making sure nobody passes them clothed improperly... <BR>Did I mention the tea? <BR>The fact that it is the crossroads of the world and you are there to witness it! <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

placing my hands on a building that has stood for centuries.. and wondering about the people who have come before me. <BR>walking through the city any time of the day or night and feeling safe. <BR>waking up and hearing british accents outside your door. <BR>walking down a street and have the name suddenly change! <BR>waiting for the tube and finding it too crowded to get on.. knowing the next one is just minutes away. <BR>..it is a wonderful place.. everyone should go atleast once in their lifetime.

NATIONAL THEATRE. DONMAR WAREHOUSE. ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA. NATIONAL GALLERY.

Where are you Wes Fowler?

I love the history, the grandeur,the theater and the parks in London. It is a wonderful city that improves every time I return. <BR>-Dave- <BR>www.CrazyAboutTravel.com

Up, up, up

Most of the things I love have already been mentioned. One thing that is so cute about the British is that they really love their pets and look out for their animals. Another thing I find impressive is that GUNS ARE NOT ALLOWED, not even on the Bobbies. That's probably why they have such little crime!

Don't laugh - I love Pret A Manger and the shortbread cookies at Safeway!!!!