On 26 Mar, 16:05, "MLD" wrote:

"Ian Jelf" wrote:

[snip]

Over 60s resident in England now get free bus travel throughout Eng;land.
Those resident in London also get free railed transport, as they do in
most other of our Metropolitan areas.

I appreciate that that won't help you. Perhaps if there hadn't been that
unfortunate incident with tea in your harbour all those years ago the
concession would have extended to you? :-))

I'll get my coat.......

Oh Ian, you were doing so good g and then you had to remind everyone that
at one time there were a few disagreements between UK and the Colonies.
Since you've been to Boston you must know that the city is loaded with
historic sights and reminders of what went on during the late 1700's--I'm
sure that you must have spent some time walking the Freedom Trail.
Anyway--back to transportation-- the tube ("Subway" here) Senior fare
started out at $0.10 (7p?), followed by rather modest increase for a while.
And then in a rather rapid escalation it made it's way up to the current
cost of the $1.60 (1.1 GBP). I'm about 10 mi. North of Boston--20 min drive
to a subway station and then another 20 min to get into downtown Boston.
One never drives into Boston unless you have a Death Wish--what was once cow
paths are now one-way meandering streets aimed solely to confuse the driver.
But on the other hand, it is a great, very walkable city--no need to use the
"tube" to get around, you can just about walk everywhere.
You guys have all been so helpful, how about a little off-topic suggestions?
With the Ibis Euston Hotel as my base, what is the best way to attack
(figuratively,that is) the city. Given six days, what is the best way to
break it down into sections? Is it best to take a city tour first or get on
one of those "Hop-on-Hop-Off" buses? I'm open to all suggestions on how to
maximize our time in your city; we don't want to be running around in random
back and forth, wasting lots of time kind of thing.
MLD

Blimey, where to start! First off, it seems walking is no obstacle to
you - that's great, central London can be well explored if you're
prepared to put in a bit of shoe leather. I'd advise getting hold of a
decent street map of the centre of town (an A-Z for example). I
wouldn't suggest walking everywhere as that'll soon knacker you out -
but there's no need to resort to public transport for everything.
Don't take the Tube map as a literal interpretation of the geography
of London either - it's really not!

Regent's Park is close to your hotel and well worth a visit, it's one
of London's Royal Parks (and, FWIW, hosts London Zoo!). I suspect you
may be coming sooner rather than later, so will miss the Open Air
Theatre in the park that starts in late May.

A trip on one of the open-top tourist guide bus thingies always seems
like a fairly good idea. There are two main companies - the "Original
London Sightseeing Tour" and "Big Bus", I'm told the latter is perhaps
the better of the two. My understanding is that both operate on a hop-
on-hop-off principle, so you can jump on and off at one of the
frequent stops. A trip by boat down the river is also a good idea, and
can be well combined with a (half) day trip to Greenwich. The London
Eye is good too. How about a trip down Regent's canal?

What are your interests, anything in particular that you'd like to
see, do you want to go off the beaten track etc? There's definitely
something to be said, I think, for making a foray into slightly less
obvious territory - but where to go kind of depends on what your thing
is. I dunno when your trip is, but there's often events or various
sorts happening which you might find interesting.

Lastly, you'll need a decent local pub (!), a couple of suggestions
are the Dover Castle and the Horse and Groom...
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs.../Dover_Castle/
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs...rse_and_Groom/

In message , at 16:23:09 on Thu, 26
Mar 2009, Adrian remarked:
Budget's also a factor, I presume - are you 5*-all-the-way people, or are
you happy to trade off a bit of luxury for some "reality"?

He's staying at the Ibis

Well, nothing wrong with that - I use them quite a bit as well. But 5*
it ain't.
--
Roland Perry

plcd1 wrote:
Engineering works - at weekends and evenings there can be
construction / renewal / upgrade works which mean either sections of
line and / or stations are closed. It is important that you check the
TfL website for the dates you may be travelling. The Victoria Line,
in particular, is subject to a lot of large scale (often the whole
line) closures at weekends. This would affect the advice I provided
to you.

When the line is closed, there are usually replacement buses provided for
rail ticket holders. These are shown on the rail timetable websites. I'd
allow up to twice the rail journey time if that's the case (because they
have to visit the same stations as the train, which often aren't connected
by a fast road).

As others have indicated the earlier you book then the cheaper a
ticket will be for the train to Wigan. The Virgin Trains website can
show the discounted tickets that are available per train. Note that
cheap tickets are train specific and NOT valid for other trains.

Also worth checking the 'special offers' section of the Virgin website,
which currently has an offer of tickets on the London-Manchester route
starting at a pound - booking site is:
http://www.mobitix.thetrainline.com/...ePurchase.aspx

These are sent to your mobile phone... it might work if you have a GSM phone
in the US (but they might block non-UK mobiles, don't know), or if you're
likely to have a GSM phone operating in the UK (if you can work out some way
to register and say 'send me my tickets nearer the time')

Theo

In message , at 12:05:07 on Thu, 26
Mar 2009, MLD remarked:
With the Ibis Euston Hotel as my base, what is the best way to attack
(figuratively,that is) the city. Given six days, what is the best way
to break it down into sections? Is it best to take a city tour first
or get on one of those "Hop-on-Hop-Off" buses?

I've shown American relatives around London many times. Here's a few
things they liked. By the way, you should really call it "London" (which
means the whole caboodle) and not the "City" which strictly speaking is
the 'square mile' near St Pauls that's the UK's Wall Street.

Euston is a very good place to be based, you can get everywhere you need
to very easily. I'd suggest the following are good value:

Take one of the bus tours, you'll find them near Baker St station, if
not Euston itself. That will orientate you for the rest of the week, as
well as briefly showing you most of the important sights.

Also take a boat trip from (probably) Westminster Pier, which will give
you amongst other things views of Tower Bridge, the "Dome", Greenwich
and (usually) the Thames Barrier.

It's worth exploring the Greenwich area (Naval Museum, Observatory on
top of the Hill, Cutty Sark - currently being renovated). Have lunch in
the village, and for a change return via the Docklands Light Railway
with a stop to look around the Canary Wharf area.

Back in Central London, walk west along the south of the river starting
just east of London bridge near London Bridge Station - as much as
possible stick to the waterfront; go as far as the Tate Modern museum
(inside an old Power station) from where you can cross the river on the
"wobbly bridge" and go see St Pauls cathedral.

Go see the Tower of London, and if it interests you, inside Tower Bridge
and HMS Belfast. The area immediately southeast of Tower Bridge has
retained a lot of its original character.

In the very centre of London, visit Trafalgar Square and walk up the
Strand to at least as far as the Ritz. To the north is Covent Garden,
and the London Transport museum. Back at the square there's the National
Gallery, although I find visitors often prefer the smaller Portrait
Gallery which is on the side. Then south on Whitehall to Parliament
Square and Westminster Abbey, maybe across the river to the Aquarium and
London Eye.

Further west, visit the Natural History Museum, preferably using the
underground passage from South Ken station. If you are interested in
social history and engineering there's the V&A museum and the Science
Museum nearby.

If there's time for a day outside the centre, the first choice is
probably Windsor (30 minutes from Paddington, change at Slough). Oyster
not accepted.
--
Roland Perry

"MLD" wrote in message
...

"Adrian" wrote in message
...
"MLD" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

how about a little off-topic suggestions? With the Ibis Euston Hotel as
my base, what is the best way to attack (figuratively,that is) the city.
Given six days, what is the best way to break it down into sections?

I s'pose the first question is "What do you want to see & do?"

I'm presuming you've got a good guidebook - figure out some of the "Must
See!" things/places/attractions, and some rough headings to give us
something to get our teeth into.

D'you want to stay totally in the city, or would you be open to a day
out?
D'you want to do the "headline" sights, or would be be open to some of
the lesser-known joys?
Budget's also a factor, I presume - are you 5*-all-the-way people, or are
you happy to trade off a bit of luxury for some "reality"?

Didn't want to clutter up the NG with a lot of specific OT subject
matter---but since you asked--
I've got the guide book, do want to take in the typical tourist
attractions but am open to the the quote: "lesser-known joys"---- the out
of the way local places off the beaten path, especially some good eating
places. We certainly are not 5* people; maintaining control of the
spending is important but. at the same time, we're not the hostel type
either. We've traveled many years in a "Pop Up" (Tent Trailer) all over
the States, sleeping 4 kids; places with no water or electricity
hookups--so "reality" is not something we'll shy away from. Most
important, however, is to not waste a lot of time running around in a
haphazard inefficient manner. Most likely, will spend all our time in the
city.

Another correction is that in London the term "City" refers to the "square
Mile" City of London which is the region to the east of Holborn.

The bit of London where most of the tourists go, is referred to as "The West
End". (Though there are lots of sights in the City as well and whilst there
are resturants there, usually they close early in the evening and don't open
at all at the weekend)

tim

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 12:05:07 on Thu, 26 Mar
2009, MLD remarked:
With the Ibis Euston Hotel as my base, what is the best way to attack
(figuratively,that is) the city. Given six days, what is the best way to
break it down into sections? Is it best to take a city tour first or get
on one of those "Hop-on-Hop-Off" buses?

I've shown American relatives around London many times. Here's a few
things they liked. By the way, you should really call it "London" (which
means the whole caboodle) and not the "City" which strictly speaking is
the 'square mile' near St Pauls that's the UK's Wall Street.

And cutting from a post that I made elsewhere -

Here's a list of "sights" that are around the city

The Bank of England
Mansion House
Guildhall of London
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
The Monument
St Paul's
St Mary Le Bow
Petticote Lane
Smithfield Market
Billingsgate Market
Museum of London
The (roman) London Wall
Old Bailey
Inns of Court (The Temple)
Old Curiosity Shop(pe?)
Lloyds Building

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:50:29 -0000, "tim....."
wrote:

Here's a list of "sights" that are around the city

snip

And it is in some ways worth going on a Saturday or Sunday, just to
see how dead it is!

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

In message , at 20:50:29 on Thu, 26
Mar 2009, tim..... remarked:
Here's a list of "sights" that are around the city

That should really be "... around the City".

The Bank of England
Mansion House
Guildhall of London
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
The Monument
St Paul's
St Mary Le Bow
Petticote Lane
Smithfield Market
Billingsgate Market
Museum of London
The (roman) London Wall
Old Bailey
Inns of Court (The Temple)
Old Curiosity Shop(pe?)
Lloyds Building

All within the 'Square Mile'
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

I've avoided using buses in London most of my life. In fact despite
periods when I've been travelling three days a week in the centre
of London I honestly can't remember when I last caught a bus. Maybe
30 years ago. A combination of tube and walking is fine.

You must have a different pattern of London journeys from me then. I have
one routing which is far better by bus than the alternatives, between
King's Cross station and the Blackfriars Road.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

(Neil Williams) wrote in
:

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:50:29 -0000, "tim....."
wrote:

Here's a list of "sights" that are around the city

snip

And it is in some ways worth going on a Saturday or Sunday, just to
see how dead it is!

It's much more lively than it was 12 years ago when I first moved to
London. Back then, the City on a Sunday afternoon was spooky.