| Subject: Re: Fun in London |
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Hi Candice and interested Ziners,
We were in London for a week in June. Our travelogue is in the archives or
you can contact me to email it to you. Based on our one walking tour from
London Walks (http://www.walks.com) I would highly recommend this organization.
Most of the tours are 5.50lbs. Our Tour was "The old Jewish Quarter"
Brochures with all of the tours (probably more than 100/week) are available
in hotels and other places where you get tourist information. We got ours
in the basement of St. Martin-in-the-Field. The tour
guide was wonderful. He is an actor for the BBC. The brochure lists the
tour guides and brief bios of them. Many are London actors and are very
knowledgable about the tour. You can even take day long tours to places
like Stonehenge. The brochure tells you the day, time, and exactly where to
meet the tour. Most meeting places are right in or at the Tube stations.
Our tour met at the Tube station by the Tower of London. We had a talk by
the Shamash (caretaken) at the oldest Synagogue in London for about 20
minutes. This is a lovely Christopher Wren inspired building which still
uses candles to light the chapel. We walked through Whitechapel,
Spittlefields market, and ended at Brick Lane. The guide gave a history of
Jews in England and London and how these sites related to this history. It
was about 2 hours.
If the weather is nice, I also recommend an afternoon at Hampstead Heath. Climb Parliament Hill for a view of the city. Visit Kenwood House (which we did not) to see an old mansion and a very fine painting collection which included some great painting that have been stolen. You can take the Tube to the right station, transfer to a suburban line. Walk around High Gate. Visit the graves of Karl Marx, and other illuminaries at High Gate Cemetary. I believe that you can get a map of the cemetary. See Keat's house. We stayed at the London Hilton Metropole "in" the Edgware Road, a very interesting Muslim area with many Arab, Indian, and other reasonably priced ethnic restaurants. We highly recommend Mahal, an Indian restaurant where we ate three times. All of the restaurants in the area are Halal. We saw 4 plays. Two that I would highly recommend are "Iphegenia in Aulis" at the Royal Theatre, and Michael Frayn's "Democracy" about Willie Brandt's government and the mole that was his secretary. One nice thing about London plays is that there are different matinees each day and there is no night when all of the theatres are dark. Discount tickets can be obtained at Leister Square at the TKTS kiosk. There are other discount booths and all have tickets to different plays. Get a copy of "Time Out" at your hotel or at a newspaper stand which has everything that is going on in London, when, and where---concerts, movies, comedy, plays, etc., etc., etc. London has more to do than you can possibly do in a year! Michele Missner Appleton, Wi. Mod note from Lucy: The London Walks tours brochure is available at Heathrow as you disembark from your plane, before entering the luggage claim area. Something to read on your trip into London. |