Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report yk's slightly off the beaten path London Trip Report (incl how I survived Tube strike; and dinner with someone famous!)

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yk's slightly off the beaten path London Trip Report (incl how I survived Tube strike; and dinner with someone famous!)

Hello Fodorites-

I just got off the plane earlier today after a 6-day solo trip to London. Thanks to everyone who helped me plan my trip, made suggestions, and answered my questions.

Background and Preparation
Briefly about me. I'm in my early 30s and married. I lived in London for 1 year in the early 1990s, and since have visited London no less than a dozen times. I have visited most of the major tourist sites, so this time I focused on some of the less visited, less mentioned places.

I planned this trip a month ago, when I found out I had a week off in early September. DH couldn't take the time off, and since my birthday was in August, I decided to treat myself a solo birthday trip. I requested an upgrade for the outbound trip when I bought my ticket a month ago, and thankfully, the upgrade came through 3 days before I departed.

Most of my prior trips to Lodnon were very short, mostly 2-3 days. This time I stayed put in London for 5 full days.

I enjoy going to art museums, and before I left the US, I pre-booked several exhibitions including the ones at National Gallery, Tate Modern, and Royal Academy of Arts.

As far as guidebooks is concerned, the only one I brought was the Blue Guide to Museums and Galleries of London, recommended by Fodorite noe. I liked it though wish it were lighter in weight. I also had my indispensible Streetwise map.

Day 0
Dallas to London

As I've mentioned, my upgrade to Business class went through ($300 + 25k miles). AA operates a 3-class 777 for this route. This was my first time flying Business class, and gee, I can get used to it! The food was good, the service was great, and the seat obviously was much more comfortable than economy.

Our plane arrived 15 minutes late into Gatwick at around 8:15am.

BTW, before I left, I found out there was gonna be a 3-day Tube strike in London, beginning the evening before I arrived. I was hoping they would cancel the strike the very next day, but alas, the strike was still very much alive when I arrived Tuesday morning on Sept 4th.

Day 1
Queen's Gallery, Apsley House, Tea at Kensington Palace's Orangery

The immigration hall at Gatwick was a zoo. I waited an hour in line until my turn for immigration - which took less than 15 seconds.

In the baggage claim area (I had only carryon) I spotted a Barclays ATM, so I used my Bank of America debit card to get some £.

BTW, I didn't see any other Barclays ATM at Gatwick after exiting customs, so BoA holders please take note.

Thanks to Patrick, I found out that I could take the train all the way from Gatwick to Charing Cross station (with 1 change), which is very close to where I was staying. With the Tube strike ongoing, this was a much better option than going to Victoria and then try to figure out how to get from Victoria to Charing Cross.

The 1-way ticket from LGW to Charing Cross was £10.50. Because of some service problem, I had to change train twice, and I made a mistake of taking a much slower commuter train for part of the journey. The whole trip to Charing Cross took a little over an hour.

Where I stayed
I am not picky when it comes to accomodations. As long as it's clean an central and cheap, I'm all for it. So, I booked a single room at Northumberland House, which is a new LSE dorm. All rooms have private bathrooms (which is a must for me), and no breakfast is included. It is located on Northumberland Avenue, 1/2 block south of Trafalgar Sq, and 2-min walk from Charing Cross station.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/vac...humberland.htm

My room was not ready, so I left my luggage there and went out sightseeing. First item on the list was buying an Oyster card. Initially I had planned on buying the Oyster plus 7-day travelcard. But with the planned 72-hour Tube strike, it seemed silly, so I opted for PAYG instead.

I am quite familiar with taking buses in London, and the maps at each bus stop clearly list the bus routes. Without much trouble, I took the bus to Victoria Street and walked to Queen's Gallery from there.

I arrived at Queen's Gallery at 12noon. I was surprised by the crowd. I didn't book my ticket in advance, and I was given 12:45pm time slot. With some time to spare, I walked around the corner to Buckingham Palace.

Turns out the Changing of the Guards was underway, so I got a few glimpses of it. Buckingham Palace is open during the summer, and hence the enormous crowd. Lots of people buy the combo ticket which includes the Palace, Royal Mews, and Queen's Gallery.

Anyway, I got in at my time slot. The only reason I wanted to go there was to see the newly rediscovered Caravaggio. The current exhibition, Art of Italy, takes up almost all the galleries. I'm no big fan of Renaissance and Baroque Italian art, so I quickly went thru the exhibition. The Caravaggio is very beautiful and worth seeing. Also on view are drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/de...icle&ID=32

Next I walked to Apsley House, aka No. 1 London. The House is where Duke of Wellington lived and he hosted annual Waterloo Banquets. Admission price includes an audio guide.

The ground floor has nice dinner service and a huge "Wellington Shield" in gilted silver. Upstairs has plenty of paintings. The most famous is Waterseller by Velazquez. There are also paintings by Correggio, Jan Steen, van Dyck etc. I spent about 45 minutes at the House.

After I emerged from Apsley House, I decided to walk along Hyde Park. My destination was The Orangery at Kensington Palace.

It was a nice cool day, and I needed to fresh air to keep awake anyway. I walked along the Serpentine and stopped for a few moments at the Diana Memorial Fountain. I really like the design of it - with the water at places flowing smoothly and other places more turbulent.

Across the street is Serpentine Gallery and the 2007 Pavilion by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen. Quite a neat design.

I continued walking towards the direction which I thought was Kensington Palace, but I was dead wrong! I emerged the park to find myself facing the Lancaster Gate tube station!!! By then, I must have walked 3 or 4 miles... But I persevered and continued walking. Finally I arrived at The Orangery.

For the record, afternoon tea is served there from 3-6pm. I ordered the basic tea set and picked Tregothnan Afternoon tea. I have to say, it was quite a disappointing experience. The setting is nice, but I thought the tea was nothing special. The teapot was very small, and held no more than 2-3 cups of tea. The tea includes cucumber sandwiches, a scone, and an orange cake. The Tregothnan tea was weak without much flavor. I guess for its price (£13.50) I shouldn't expect too much. The service was left to be desired. After I asked my waitress for my bill, I waited for over 15 minutes and she was nowhere to be found. I guess she had gone home for the day? I finally had to flag down another waitress and ask her to get my bill!

As I left, I walked past the front gate of Kensington Palace. It was just a few days after the 10th anniversary of Diana's death, so the gate was decorated with flower bouquets, photos, poems etc. Very touching scene.

Finally I reached Kensington Road and caught a bus back to Charing Cross. As I was tired and still full from the tea, I skipped dinner and went to bed at 7:30pm.

I woke up at around 11pm, read for 2 hours, then back to sleep from 1am until 8am the next morning.

yk:

Enjoying your report. Great format, easy to read.

Sandy

Thanks for posting - I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

Lee Ann

Enjoying your report...I will be in London soon, after our Ireland trip so love reading about you trip!
Thanks,
Shadow

Interesting read! That's the 2nd bad review I've seen here for the Orangery tea. Those business class seats are addictive, aren't they?

yk - really enjoying it so far; heading to London in about 2 weeks myself! I looked at Northumberland House also but rented a flat this time; did your room have a small private kitchen, I couldn't figure that out from the site for sure.

Still waiting to hear about your famous dinner partner...

I know who that person is! Very very famous!!! :p

My mom and I met yk for dinner in London and we also stayed in Northumberland. Actually she helped me with some reservation difficulties (thanks again, yk!).

I think I can answer the question re kitchens. I don't think that you get a private kitchen, but there's a shared one you get access to. We never used it.

Northumberland also provides free computer access (code from reception) in the basement. Apparently yk didn't know this until I told her, but that was the night before we would both be leaving (I was there very briefly).

yk also told me who the famous person was. I won't spoil it for you guys. I've heard of this person, so I can tell you that the person is pretty famous as I am so bad with this sort of thing.

Then she told me that she saw a play in which another person acted. This time she was surprised I'd never heard of this guy.

Very much enjoying this report and looking forward to more.

and there I was thinking that 111op was the famous person!

Oh I wish.

I think that I've had my 15 minutes of fame already (but no, if I can claim I'm famous, I'm probably on a Z list). :-) yk and I were debating where to put the dinner person. I suggested B list. I think she wanted A list. In the end I think we said ok B+ list. It will be interesting to see what people here think when the identity is revealed.

However I do know some people you read about in the newspapers, so in that sense I am one or two degrees of separation away from some famous people (by certain standards, anyway).

But these are not the sorts of people most people will know about, unlike the one yk had dinner with.

kmowatt - Northumberland House has communal kitchens. About 1 kitchen per 6-7 rooms.

I'll post a more detailed review about Northumberland house at the end of the trip report.

Day 2
British Library, Kenwood House, Hampstead, and National Gallery

The Tube strike was still ongoing in the morning. Fortunately, the Northern line was one of the 3 tube lines that were not affected by the strike.

I left Northumberland House at 8:45am and walked over to Charing Cross station to catch Northern line up to Euston to visit British Library.

The station wasn't that crowded... but the first tube train was packed to the gills - from the 1st carriage to the very last.

I decided to wait for the next train which was due 3 minutes later. It was the same. Finally, I realized that if I were to get on the train, I had to fight for it. So I stationed myself on the platform where the doors would be lined up, and then pushed my way onto the 3rd train. Many others were not able to get on at all.

I got off at Euston and walked to British Library. This is my first time there. I mainly wanted to see the Sacred exhibition - a collection of illuminated manuscripts from 3 major religions of this world (Christianity, Judaism & Muslim). I had prebooked a free timed ticket for 9:30am.

Before I went in, I stopped at a coffee shop briefly for a quick breakfast - cup of tea and a chocolate croissant.

The Sacred exhibition wasn't crowded at all when I was there. A lot of the books were 1000 years old or even older. Quite amazing.

Afterward I visited the "Treasures of British Library" rooms where I saw notes by Leonardo da Vinci, original scores by Mozart, Gutenberg Bible, lots of literary texts, and of course 2 copies of the Magna Carta. I spent 1hr 15 minutes there and left at 11am.

I returned to Euston station and took the Northern line further north to Golders Green station. From there I changed for Bus 210 to get to my next destination - Kenwood House.

The entire journey took almost an hour. There is a bus stop right in front of the entrance to Kenwood House. From the main entrance, it's another 5 minutes walk to the actual house. It is located in the woods and the surroundings is very nice.

Okay, so why did I bother to go visit it? The most famous painting there is The Guitar Player by Vermeer. After seeing this one, I have seen 24 out of 36 Vermeers. It also a great self portrait by Rembrandt, and paintings by Gainsborough. A few of the rooms were closed for renovation, and I was pretty much done touring the house in 30 minutes.

Kenwood House has huge open grounds. Lots of people drive up there to walk their dogs or have picnics with their children. I ate lunch at the Brew House restaurant. A Tuscan pea soup with bread and a lemonade set me back £6.

Kenwood House is also one of the filming locations for the movie Notting Hill.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/s...show/nav.12783

I took the 210 bus back to Golders Green station, and then changed for the Northern line. I got off at the next stop - Hampstead tube station. Why? To take the 2pm Old Hampstead Village Walk organized by London Walks.
http://www.walks.com/Homepage/Wednes...fault.aspx#106

Our group only had 13 people and our guide, Peter, was excellent. I very much enjoyed this walk. This was my first time in Hampstead, and it feels so quaint compared to the hustle and bustle of London. Lots of famous people had lived (or still live) in Hampstead, including Constable, Keats, Jamie Oliver, 2 spice girls...

During the walk, I chatted with another solo tourist. She is a university professor from New Zealand who is on a 10-week vacation visiting Europe! 10 weeks! Her daughter works in London, so she uses London as her base and take various trips to other countries.

After the walk, it was time to return to Northumberland for a nap.

More to come...

Day 2 continued

After my afternoon nap, it was time to head over to National Gallery. It was Wednesday, the day that NG opens late.

I had prebooked a ticket for the current exhibition - Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. On Wednesday nights, the show tickets are half price.

When I arrived at 6:30pm, it wasn't too crowded. In fact, they were selling tickets for immediate entry. It was a nice exhibition with some blockbuster paintings from Mauritshuis and Rijksmuseum. Some paintings are just personal portraits, some are couple portraits, and some are group portraits.

After the exhibition, I went upstairs to quickly walk through the NG. I have visited the NG quite many times in recent years, so I am quite familiar with what's there to see. Sadly, my favorite section - the Sainsbury section - was closed due to personnel strike. I left the NG after about an hour.

I went to EasyInternet to check my email briefly, before heading to dinner at Belgo Centraal. Little did I know that I was going to share a table with a famous person......

You guys have to wait til next installment to find out as I have to have dinner now!

OH no! The suspense is killing me! Please post soon!

Jamie Oliver????????

Topping so I don't forget to come back to this thread to find out who the famous person is...

yk, this is so enjoyable!

I agree that the Sainsbury wing is the best part of the National Gallery - I go every time I'm in London. The Sacred exhibition at the British Library sounds wonderful. As for the Treasures room, I had to tear myself away after an hour!

EAT already!!!!!!

Shadow

Oh now you're just being mean! I fly to London tomorrow-don't make us wait!

Day 2 continued...
My brush with fame

I walked up on St Martin's Lane towards Belgo Centraal. I've been meaning to eat there for years but never gotten around to do so. Many restaurants line St Martin's Lane, and for the most part, they were quite empty on this Wednesday night.

I arrived at Belgo Centraal around 8:15pm. I had to wait for several minutes to be seated by the maitre d'. For those of you who haven't been there, the dining room is downstairs and filled with communal tables. The place was packed and I was seated at the end of a communal table. Next to me on my left were a couple, and the seat opposite me was empty.

After studying the menu, I was ready to settle for a quiet meal by myself. Before my waiter could come take my order, the maitre d' came over and seated a rather good-looking man in black T-shirt and jeans in the empty seat across from me.

He introduced himself as "Brandon" and then busied himself with the menu.

A few minutes went by, our waiter appeared to take our orders. I ordered the Classique Mussel Pot and a "Cristal" beer on draft. "Brandon" ordered the Green Thai Mussel Pot and a beer, and 4 shots of schnapps. We told the waiter that we are not together, but he didn't quite believe us.

Afterwards, we exchanged the usual pleasantries... "Where are you from? What do you do? What are you doing in London?" I initially assumed he is a Londoner, but turns out he's from Connecticut and works in the movie business. He's in London for a week making a movie (which I took as him being a low-budget independent filmmaker). He was quite interested in my profession and the fact that I was traveling solo.

A few minutes later, a fellow dinner patron came over and asked for an autograph from "Brandon." I even joked, "I guess you're famous, huh?"

We continued chatting over our moules et frites. Me talking about my upcoming trip to France, him mentioning he had previously lived in London for 4 months, and lived in other parts of Europe. The reason that brought him to Belgo Centraal tonight was he skipped out of an awful play staged across the street and came here for dinner instead.

Finally, half way into our dinner, I asked, "So, are you a movie producer? Or a director?"

"Oh no, I'm an actor."

Now thinking that he may be one of those extras in movies, I said, "Hmmm... I wonder if I have ever seen any of your movies? I don't see movies too often, maybe 1 or 2 a year."

He replied, "Well, depends on what kind of movies you like. Have you seen The Mummy?"

Of course I have seen The Mummy. It's shown frequently on cable channels and I used to watch it all the time! Now half drunk, I finally realized...

"You are Brendan Fraser???"

"Yup, that's me!"

The second half of our dinner conversation was about his shooting of Mummy 3, which is about the Terracotta soldiers in China. He was fascinated by the fact that I had seen the real terracotta soldiers in Xi'an (thanks mom & dad!). But he's in London for another movie, Inkheart.

In the meantime, he insisted me on sharing 2 of the 4 schnapps he had ordered.

Anyway, an hour later, we finished our dinner. Our waiter came to clear our pots and Brendan asked for his bill. I recalled Fodorite noe raved about the bread and butter pudding at Belgo Centraal, so of course I had to had it. Our waiter was confused - he still thought we were together!

Anyway, before Brendan left, I asked if he would mind having a picture taken with me, so that I could prove to DH that this really happened. He was completely fine with it, so the couple next to us took the picture.

After he left, I asked the couple if they knew who he was. The woman said she recognized him right away but they tried to be subtle about it. Apparently, while I was clueless on who I was dining with, half of the restaurant patrons were watching us and wondering who "that woman" was eating with Branden Fraser! :">

Anyway, this was certainly the highlight of my trip. He was easygoing and appeared genuinely interested in what I had to say.

BTW, the bread and butter pudding was really delicious! Thanks noe!
http://www.belgo-restaurants.com/

After dinner, I wandered back to Northumberland house via St Martin's Lane again. When I was passing Duke of York's Theatre I noticed a small crowd at the alleyway. I stopped for a few moments to see what's on stage and who's playing. Turns out the current production is a play called In Celebration starring Orlando Bloom! I asked a woman in the crowd if he's the one they're waiting for and she said yes. With nothing else better to do, I decided to wait around with them.

About 25 minutes later, the show ended and Orlando Bloom came out, showered by nonstop flashlights from cameras. I was standing close enough to snap a few pictures of him. Others had the programmes in hand, and he graciously signed all of them one-by-one.

What an evening, what serendipity!

I read about The Mummy 3. Great cast with Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, etc. But it was shot in Montreal. :)

So, do you think the play he skipped was the one Orlando Bloom was in it?

< So, do you think the play he skipped was the one Orlando Bloom was in it? >

You know, I should have asked... You'll see why later.

Absolutely a terrific trip report--informative and entertaining!

ttt .. and so I can find it again later to enjoy more!

He said it's cheaper to shoot in a studio in Canada (than in the US). I think there will be scenes in China. He mentioned he will be heading to Shanghai and then some smaller village in the near future.

FYI, the real terracotta soldiers will be traveling to the British Museum next week. Sadly, both Brendan and I are gone before it opens.
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/

My dinner at Belgo Centraal was £23.

Great report so far!! I'll be heading to the BM to see the china exhibit - that's if I can get in, it's practically sold out for the first few weeks.

Brendan Fraser is well educated actor - grew up in Toronto and attended Upper Canada College - one of our better schools, and most expensive.

Great report-thanks! Orlando Bloom is partially responsible for the timing of our trip-it's my 17 year old daughter's graduation gift-I'm glad he's still being gracious(the show closes Saturday).
Thanks for the heads up on the British Museum exhibit-I just bought a couple of the nearly extinct tickets.

Susan- Have a safe trip. If your daughter wants to get his autograph, she'll have to wait in the alley way before end of the show. If she waits until the play is over, there's no chance she can get close enough to him for the autograph. I'd recommend either you or her leave the show at 9:40pm and then wait for him to come out; or return there on a separate night. He only signed autographs for the folks who were in the front row of the crowd...

How fun - and even more so since you didn't realize who your famous dinner companion was! I hope you will share the pictures . . .

Not that I haven't been enjoying the rest of your trip report, (and I have really enjoyed it so far) I have been waiting to see who your brush with fame was going to be. You didn't disappoint! I love Brendan Fraser!! I am officially jealous of you. :) Seriously, though, that is really cool experience.

Johanna

yk - You 'name dropper' LOL!! So far it sounds like a great trip, looking forward to the rest. And if you can, post a link to your photos.

Tom

That's a really great story! Brendan Fraser and Orlando Bloom in one night? Wow, what a lucky girl. And all this time I thought the dinner would be with some British celebrity that I didn't really know. But Brendan Fraser is much better! :)

Great story!
And I'm glad you liked the bread and butter pudding - and that it was on the menu). I will say that I had even more amazing bread and butter pudding at Loch Fyne in Oxford, if anyone heads out that way.

hi, yk,

great report - I worked in London for over 15 years and never saw half the stuff you have. I'm afraid the northern line is crowded like that every day; nothing to do with the strike. they wre threatening to up-date it 10 years ago when we left London, and its very patient inhabitants are still waiting.

the Tregothnan tea you mention is actually picked from camelia bushes grown here in Cornwall, and is fearfully expensve, so needless to say I've never drunk it. it's probably safer to stick to good old PG tips.

as for your VIP, I have to confess I've never heard of him, though my DD would doubtless be very impressed. [she says I don't get out much!] I'm sure it was nice for him to talk to someone who wasn't thinking about how famous he is all the time, and just wanted to talk to him.

looking forward to teh next exciting installment,

regards, ann

I don't think I asked -- and I don't think yk told us -- did the waitstaff know that that was Brendan Fraser? I understand that some of the folks eating knew.

Brendan Fraser! I would have died. He is quite a looker. I've seen several of his movies. IMO, one of the best movies he did was a small one called With Honors, in which he played a Harvard student who befriends and takes in a homeless man.