Trip summary: London, England, July 2016
 

Trip Summary: Friday, July 22: My flight left Detroit Metropolitan airport at 10:30 pm

Saturday, July 23: Arrive at Heathrow Airport in London. They held me in a sort of semi-high security holding cell for suspicious people for almost 4 hours because I didn't have proper printed evidence of my itinerary (a return tick or evidence of the date I was going to leave). I forgot to print and bring the information from the website I bought my tickets from, if this would have helped.

Sunday: Went on a two hour walking tour that stopped at 4 palaces. Went to the British museum. Walked past the London Eye. Saw a magician who who quit in the middle of his show because his microphone died.

Tuesday: Went to the Wallace collection. Went to the National Gallery for 2 hours before they closed. Went to the Play "Ivanov" by Anton Checkhov. Cost just under 42 US dollars, bought 4 weeks in advance. I wanted a non-musical play.

Wednesday: Went to Buckingham palace. Tickets cost about $33 US dollars. There is a path through certain rooms and an optional audio guide with headphones. Ropes and guards keep people out of the private areas. Pictures are not allowed...Walked along so called Queens walk (path along the Thames River, passed by Tower of London, Tate Britain, outdoor seating areas of restaurants/bars, London Eye, and so on.

Thursday: Went to the Tower of London (about $40 US dollars), then Tower bridge (about $14). Walked past the Prince Albert Memorial.

Friday: Went to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It was a waste of time. To be fair, there was a 50,000 square foot greenhouse and a tower modeled after east Asian architecture that were are both closed for renovations until sometime in 2917-2018. Then saw the Victoria and Albert Museum. They were open until 10pm because it was Friday. (A crowd of younger people were in the lobby and a techno DJ was playing music. But I was just there for the museum). 10-25% of the crowd was diffusing into the museum.

Saturday: Went to the Jewish museum. The place is small but you could spend two or more hours there if you read everything. Went to Portobello Road Market to see scenery and walk past small stores and gift shops. Might or might not have been a waste of time. The only souvenirs I brought back were two t-shirts for myself. British sizes seem smaller than the same American sizes.

If this was your first time to London, and it sounds like it might have been, you really did a lot! Next time for trips out of central London, try Hampton Palace, Hampstead, boat ride on the Thames to Greenwich. Walking tours by London Walks are economical and very informative.

I was on the London Walks tour. My tour was "free" but I gave the tour guide a tip.

I stayed in a hostle and I bought my own food from small grocery stores. I traveled alone. This is why I spend so little compared to what other people in these discussions think a trip costs.

I gave a tip or donation to each "free" museum Invisited.

My airplane tickets + hostle cost just under $1,984 US dollars. Food was 93.13 pounds or 13.31 pounds a day on average. I spend under $2,500 US dollars total. I really got ripped or screwed by not exchanging my US dollars for pounds at a gift shop, like the ones on Oxford street or Portobello road or somewhere outside the airport.

For the next trip, of course I want to avoid getting held in a cell for imigrants and suspicious people while they decide whether or not to let me into the country. What happens next time I take a trip to somewhere outside thr U.S.A. and then get sent right back home? Does trip insurance cover this?

Insurance, you need to read your policy

Why did you exchange dollars, why not just use ATMs?

If your walk was free, it wasn't with London Walks.

http://www.walks.com

Ditto on ATMs.

London Walks charges up-front for their (excellent) walking tours, unlike some of the "free" ones, and tipping is not necessary.

For anyone reading who is planning a trip to any foreign country: yes, they want to make sure your paperwork is in order before they let you in. As most travelers purchase in advance their flight or train travel for returning home, or onward travel, and have the details of same to hand at Immigration, this is unlikely to be an issue.

Also for anyone reading who is planning a trip: don't take large sums of cash to exchange, just use an ATM when you get there. Of course you tell your bank at home ahead of time where and when you plan to travel, and make sure your card will work, and make sure you have a PIN, and have called your credit cards, et cetera.

Read the fine print on your trip insurance policy before you buy it.

It's a pity the OP didn't seem to enjoy his/her trip to London more. Apparently the street performer with the faulty microphone was one of the more memorable points of the trip. How about that Tower of London, then?

Speaking of which, adult admission cost for the Tower of London is £25 at the gate, which is $30.39 at today's exchange rate, and would have been $32.88 on 27 July 2016.

I think the OP just has quite a terse style of writing - I didn't take it to mean they didn't enjoy themselves.

I spend 5 hours at the Tower of London. This included the 1 hour tour narrated by a Yeoman guide, the coin-minting exhibit, armor displays in the White tower, walking on the street-like paths, and on the upper path that leads into a reconstructed bedroom, a display about soldiers training at the tower during World war one while the place was still open to visitors, the crown Jewels, the basement area with the medieval killing device. I partially looked at the display about the Royal Fusiliers but I didn't read everything.

Costs: in pounds of stuff I did:
30.45, Ivanov play, Royal Olivier Theater, bought 4 weeks in advance.
21.50, Buckingham palace.
25.00, tower of London
9.00 Tower bridge
12.00 exhibit, undressed, a brief history of underwear, victoria & albert museum. Could have skipped it.
about 45.00 worth of London underground train rides
2.00 coin pouch
10.00 Two t-shirts, which seemed like the standard souvenir shirts all the gift shops I walked past on Oxford street or Portobello road sold. They were wrapped in plastic. They look like too-lightweight undershirts somebody ironed the designs onto.
2-4 pounds each at the Tate Britain, Wallace collection, Victoria & Albert museum, British museum.
15.00 Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew

Typically, I am rather cheap. I typically only allow myself to spend have to possibly 2/3 of what I think I can afford to spend, when I take a trip, but I have no rational reason for this. I saved money by staying in a hostel and buying my own food from small grocery stores, but I didn't try to be cheap on museums and activities.

ttt

Just want to say thank you to the OP for making a donation at the museums - this is purely voluntary and frankly most of us residents never give anything as we figure we pay via our taxes. But tourists don't HAVE to contribute so it was nice that michaelpianko - a self proclaimed 'cheapo' - did. So sorry for the hold up at the airport. I'm glad you had a good time (apart from that) and hope you come back and explore even further afield. Kew is actually a bit off the usual tourist trail which makes me wonder if OP has an interest in things botanical. In which case, there are many wonderful gardens to be visited throughout the UK.

Kew is actually a bit off the usual tourist trail which makes me wonder if OP has an interest in things botanical. In which case, there are many wonderful gardens to be visited throughout the UK.>>

probably not if he didn't like Kew.

I'm wondering what happened to Monday!

Entirely possible to be interested in things botanical and still be disappointed in a visit to Kew.

On Monday, July 25, I went to the British museum, then wondered to the South Bank area, walked over a bridge where the london eye near me on my left hand side as I walked over it, pased a woman dressed as Shrek, who asked where I was and I repled, Michigan in the United States, and she replied, Romania. Maybe she was hoping people would have their picture taken with her and then give her money. passed the london eye, passed the magician who I watched until his microphone died... do other people also keep a paper diary of what they have done, while traveling?

I thought about going to the town of Bath but I didn't. I am thinking of visiting Italy on my next trip.

Other than the Rosetta stone, the second most memorable thing in the british museum is the Lindow Man, a dead man found in a bog in England in 1984 who was killed about 6,000 years earlier, which reminds you that when he was killed, about 40% of people died early due to murder.

Lindow Man, a dead man found in a bog in England in 1984 who was killed about 6,000 years earlier, which reminds you that when he was killed, about 40% of people died early due to murder.>>

mm - it's a while since I've been to the British Museum, perhaps I'll go and look him up next time I'm in London.

I'm interested in that statistic Michael - where did you get it from?

While there are, of course, a lot of Roman remains in Italy, I'm not sure there are any like the baths in Bath. And, of course, there is plenty more to see in and around Bath.

I was off on when Lindow man died. He died sometime approximately between 2 BC ans 119 AD. I might have read the statistic in a book called, The Better Angels of Our Nature, by Steven Pinker. I already took the book back to the library and he might be wrong.

I might have read the statistic in a book called, The Better Angels of Our Nature, by Steven Pinker. I already took the book back to the library and he might be wrong.>>

mmm - I thought it sounded a bit out. I suspect that most people died of disease at that time, just like now really, They just died earlier than we did.

I suspect infant mortality, especially at birth and in the first 6 months would have been the major issue