yeadonite

I am going to London for the umpteenth time and I truly love just being there but I would like some suggestions. I do not want to rent a car. While in the UK, I have been to Bath, Oxford, Greenwich, Kew Gardens, the Zoo, all the palaces, museums, Scotland, taken many other day trips while dating someone from Twickenham. I was looking for suggestions for this trip. I will be there for approximately 12 days.

annettetx

I've only been there briefly, but I thought Winchester looked like an interesting place to explore and an easy train ride from London....

Annette

Patrick

I too have been to London umpteen times, but haven't yet run out of things to do. I don't know what day trips remain for you to do, but a few of my favorites both in and out of London:
Stratford to see a play
Brighton
Rye
A day at St. Alban's (preferably market day), visiting the cathedral and the verulamium.
Hiking along the coast near Hastings.
Dover, maybe stopping at Canterbury
Taking the tube to Richmond, then walking along the river.
Doing the canal walk in London
Visiting a trade fair or home show
Sandwich and Deal by train
Faversham
Lunch time plays and concerts in London
Taking one of the London Walks (maybe one of the newer ones you haven't done yet.

welltraveledbrit

There are some smaller but interesting museums in London...the frederick leighton Museum on Holland Park Road or the Sir John Soanes Museum on Lincoln field are both interesting and often missed even by Londoners...or what about the Dulwich picture gallery?

sandykins

If I were on my umpteenth trip to London, I'd want to visit some of the cemeteries that I never seem to be able to fit into my itinerary.

Another thing I'd do is visit all the places having to do with the work of William Morris, starting with Kelmscott Manor. A google of "William Morris" brings up various places throughout England to view his work.

As an admirer of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, I'd also like to take a daytrip to visit her childhood home and final resting place at Althorp, even if it is awfully touristy.

Another thing is to pick one favorite English food and seek out the best versions of it throughout London and the surrounding areas. Let the stomach lead the way.

yeadonite

Thanks for the suggestions. Patrick I have never been to Stratford so it is probably about time I went. Did Richmond have a skating rink? I think I went skating there in the 1980's. The las time I went it was a shopping center.

What about Wales is it worht the trip?

nibblette

Love Wales! Been only to Northern Wales. But lots of castles if you like that sort of thing. Also lots of great hiking trails and the Snowdonia Park. But would easier to get around with a car.

jsmith

I suggest you spend $15 and buy a copy of "Daytrips London" by Earl Steinbicker. There are 50 day trips listed by train or car. Have you been to Rochester, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Battle, Brighton, Arundel, Chichester, Gloucester, Nottingham, Ipswich or Ely?

The ISBN is 0-8038-9367-1.

carolyn

I love to read, and I long to go to Hay-on-Wye, Wales, where most everything has been turned into used book shops. Don't know about transportation.

flanneruk

If you used to go out with someone from the suburbs, not all of this may be new to you, but:

1. Take this as nature's way of telling you to stop being a tourist and start being a Londoner (most of us started life somewhere else after all)
2. From which it follows: DON'T OVER PLAN. You can't predict the weather, you can't possibly know what plays or exhibitions are worth seeing till you've seen the reviews. And in the London version of the old Jewish joke: how do you make God laugh? Tell Her what time your train's due to arrive.

3. Live like us. Don't follow the recommendations on this board about plays: get Time Out before you leave home and get out to the fringe stuff. After the play or lefty rant in Islington or Shepherds Bush, eat at the local Ethiopian, West Indian, Georgian (as in Shervadnadze, not Coke), Keralan or whatever. Repeat several times. Then go to the big temporary exhibitions.

4. Get a pair of really stout walking shoes and take your pick from our 120,000 miles (no misprint) of open-access country footpaths. Buy the Time Out Book of Country Walks (no, I don't work for them: but they're provide the indispensable life support system for Londoners). Choose from 52 6-15 mile country rambles, all accessible by a 45-90 minute train journey from central London that lets you get back in the same day. England was built around old roads that give you a completely different perspective from recent roads: footpaths are mostly these old roads.

5. Do what we do. Go to the races, or to a cricket or football match. Read the Daily Mail AND The Sun (and the Guardian too, though a dash of sense from the Daily Telegraph helps). Watch proper political interviewing on Newsnight (infinitely more incisive than the tourist trap and geek refuge that Speaker's Corner has turned into). Listen to Radio 4 all day.

5. Get your brain to work again. There was a post from the Blessed Ben Haines in December 2003 about lectures in London. Find it and go to several of them.

6. If possible, don't stay in the tourist ghetto. Rent a flat where reasonably comfortable Londoners live - Islington, Maida Vale, Hampstead, Clapham, Primrose Hill. Then go to the stuff that's advertised locally. Whatever your religious views, go to a service - because liturgical singing is what we do especially well. Christian Sunday services are listed in The Times on Saturday, and London's Latin Masses and charismatic Black churches provide music almost as glorious as the Anglican canon. I actually don't know how happy Bevis Marks (the oldest synagogue in the English-speaking world) is about visitors (sadly, these days, there are real security issues with synagogues), but they've always made Mrs F and myself welcome.

7 Choose a subject and pursue it. For instance, the impact of Buddhism on Confucianism would send you to the British Museum, the amazing collection of Dunhuang manuscripts in the British Library, the sculptures from Gandhara in the V+A, and the deeper collection at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam. But you could be doing something similar on the evolution of gardens, the history of medicine, the emergence of he modern industrial world or just the life and times of great pop singers.

8 In case I didn't make my views clear. Don't plan. Just see what's worth doing. London really does respond better to being lived in than to being touristed.

yeadonite

Flanneruk

I love the way you think and write! Those are great suggestions. I will be staying in Holloway, which I have been told is outside London. Last time, I stayed in the London at the Cranley. I love this forum because you get so many idea on what to do. I will finalize my plans next week. I will keep all informed.

m_kingdom

Holloway? What a dumpy area, surely you can afford better?

Patrick

Congratulations m_kingdom on taking rudeness to a new level. For all you know, yeadonite is staying there with a dying mother to keep her company. Perhaps it where the family has lived for years. Is there any point in berating their area? Why don't you just shut up if you can't think of anything decent to say? Or perhaps, yeadonite CAN'T afford anything better. Does it make you glow with a feeling of superiority to point out that you have more wealth than some people? Yes, of course it does.

pdxgirl

Patrick - I agree completely with your response to m_kingdom. But as a frequent reader and poster to this forum, you must know by now there is no stopping this jerk from posting rude comments. Maybe the best strategy for all of us who enjoy this forum is to stop responding the m-kingdom altogether. Maybe if he/she fails to get a rise out of anyone he/she will eventually go away.

m_kingdom

Regardless of who or what is in Holloway N7, it is a dumpy, relatively undesirable area - ask any estate agent. This is not just my opinion, it is fact.

yeadonite

I think there are nice ways to say things and not nice ways to say things. If Holloway is a dangerous area, then in a polite way warn someone from another country. If it is just that it is not your cup of tea there is no reason to put fear into someone who is looking for help on these boards.

Gardyloo

One thing we hadn't done but loved was to go to auction at one of the big houses. Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonham's - it's amazing how much you can learn about history, art... plus if you know what you're doing (if you don't, then watch out!) you can score some beautiful things. At any rate, it's a fun few hours, surrounded by interesting people in beautiful settings, and free to attend. Not free to buy old masters, though. Check it out.

Have you been to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton? Worth a day trip; walk barefoot on the shore when you're done - very relaxing and not a hard train ride from London.

Patrick

Yea, I know you're right, yeadonite. It's just so hard to ignore someone so unbelievably ignorant that they can't even see the difference between saying "that is not a desireable area" and saying "surely you can afford better". One is fact, the other is total nastiness.

Well, I do hate to have a battle of wits with a totally unarmed person!!

yeadonite

Patrick,
I must admit I am now a little nervous about the area. If you or anyone wants to offer any advice about this area but does not want to do it on this board I have now displayed my email address.

yeadonite

I am going to London again this time the exchange is in Elsworthy Terrace, on a cul-de-sac directly off Primrose Hill and Regent's Park. So we are looking for any new suggestions.