London

Stuff we have seen and done:

• West End Theatre District – boasts more musicals than any other city.
• British Museum – contains so much of Greek, French, Assyrian and Egyptian history. Such an amazing museum.
• Hanover Square – St George’s Church – for all those regency lovers out there this is frequently mentioned in novels.
• Sir Winston Churchill Tour of England – I am a big fan of his leadership during WWII, and I love lots of his history and his many characters. I’m just a fan of things of the past and if you are, take the tour.
• Natural History Museum
• Tower of London – and Tower Bridge Tour (where you get to walk up to the top and look through a glass floor below).
• London Eye
• Hop on/Hop off bus around London City – best way to see everything.
• Day Trips – to Bath & Stonehenge
• Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour – book long in advance it is often hard to get tickets on short notice.
• Eat some Fish & Chips in a Pub – it’s a very iconic English thing to do and it tastes great.
• High Tea – Gotta love me some high tea with their little cakes and sandwiches, tea and scones – just perfect.
• Charles Dickens Museum
• Jack the Ripper (solve the crime tour).
• Sherlock Holmes Tour
• Globe Theatre – 
• The Old Bailey 
• Big Ben & Palace of Westminster
• Westminster Abbey – if you do not want to pay, attend the services and you get to experience a service and enjoy the Abbey for FREE!
• Houses of Parliament Tour
• The view from the Shard
• Buckingham Palace
• Changing of the Guard – @10.45am in front of the Palace on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Soldiers gather at St James Palace & Wellington Barracks and march to Buckingham.
• Palaces – the many palaces around London and just outside London.
• Camden Market
• Art Galleries
• St James Park – once notorious as a meeting place for impromptu acts of lechery.
• Churchill War Rooms
• Regent’s Park
• Flower spotting at Kew Gardens
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Tate Modern – (free admission).
• St Paul’s Cathedral
• Hyde Park – (opened up by King Charles I in 1637 & previously the location of the Great Exhibition of 1851).
• Trafalgar Square (named for Lord Nelson after his famous victory at Battle of Trafalgar & perhaps one of the most famous of all London squares).

Off the Beaten Path:

• Highgate Cemetary – Karl Marx resting place.
• Leake Street Arches – So. Cool. Basically, the gritty archways under the Underground turned into an extraordinary art space. Has restaurants too.
• St Dunstan of the East – It’s actually an 1100s-era church ruined by The Blitz in World War II, but even before that, it had survived the London Fire of 1666.
• Brick Lane – old stomping ground of Jack the Ripper.
• Postman’s Park – right behind St Paul’s Cathedral.
• Camden Town – gaudy stores with decked out store fronts.
• Little Venice – people still live on these house boats.
• Chinatown
• Borough Market

Places to Stay:

• Aldgate Apartments – close to city centre, Tower Bridge and public transport. It has food markets on the street below at lunch time every work day @12pm.