Money Matters
by sswagner
London is one of those places that will drain your wallet very quickly. This is one place which requires me to be very budget minded. Just about everything in this city is expensive to locals and foreign visitors alike. Here are some things which helped me out.
(1) Use ATMS to withdraw cash whenever you can. Your bank will likely give you a better exchange rate than the airport, the train station, or the exchange kiosks.
(2) Do not take a taxi. Avoid this at all costs. A ride on one of these could cost you more than a day's wages. Take the tube or a train from whichever airport you fly into. Also make use of the city's excellent transportation system, most notably the tube--mind the gap!
(3) Dont feel like you have to splurge on food. Paris would probably be the place for that. London does have good restaurants, but they are very expensive. Fish and chips, a ploughman's lunch at the pubs, and fast food will do your wallet the least amount of damage. I would even consider bringing some snacks from home so you will not have to eat out as much. No really, I am serious. Wait until you see how much it costs.
(4) This is a good place to research hostels. Hotels are going to cost you a bundle. However, I got a decent rate in the middle of winter at a small hotel near Victoria Station. The bathroom was shared, but the room did not cost me an arm and a leg. You might want to check with the tourist bureaus at the airport when you arrive. There was a place that could find you something in your price range just before getting to the trains at Gatwick airport. They found me a decent hostel for the night. Coming home not broke because I avoided the most expensive stuff.
Treacle pudding
by Mique
Even though i have been to the UK several times before i never had eaten this yet. The name alone reminds me of the Harry Potter books... And according to Bernie it is typical english so when we couldnt decide she told us to try this..
It is quite good though very sweet. ANd i was glad i didn't need to eat all of it since Inga and i had decided to share this...
World's Biggest Store!
by londonlover
Even though I am a non-shopping enthusiast, I found Harrod's in Knightsbridge amazing in its expanse and variety. Definitely worth two hours or so, and a lunch in any of their several restaurants. I recommend the chocolate almond milkshake in Max's Chocolate Cafe... :)
London - a personal reflection
by KennetRose
I'm an upcountry girl myself. I first saw London on a school trip when I was ten years old and living on the Wirral, a time when I still suspected that to venture past Chester meant falling off the edge of the world. We travelled overnight on a train with a steam engine, and none of us got much sleep so we were all tired as we were herded in for breakfast at a shabby, greasy cafe in Leicester Square. We were shown round on a bus in the morning, taking in all those sights that were so full of easy familiarity but which belonged so much in picture books that I had to keep pinching myself to persuade myself that it was real. Even after I got home there was still the lingering sense that I'd been swept off to the Emerald City in a dream tornado.
Later, when my family had moved to Hertfordshire, London was a place you visited for a special occasion like a trip to the theatre - memorably for a sixth-form excursion to see Ingrid Bergman, Joss Ackland and Kenneth Williams in Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion - but on those occasions one stuck to the business in hand as far as possible. I felt repelled by the dirt and the noise and the tackiness of the cheap souvenir stalls.
There came a time, when I was careering towards my thirtieth birthday and the aeons of banality that would surely follow, that I met somebody special . One thing led to another and before long I spent the night there, getting up early in the morning to return to work in Cambridgeshire. In the half light London was sleeping as peacefully as a little child, and in that moment I fell in love.
We all, I suspect, know that person who shows a severe, unapproachable face to the world but reveals a softer, sensitive side in private to those they trust. London is like that person. You cannot know London well until you get to know her vulnerability. I did, and that's why, wherever I may wander in the world, London is the home to which I shall always return in the end.
Chimney Pots
by grandmaR
Chimney pots are ceramic chimney extensions. One of the first things we noticed on the train ride in from the airport was the chimney pots. There's a scene with the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins that everyone will remember. In the typical London street, from every roof rises a cluster of chimney pots. Each chimney pot is the flue of an open fireplace that heats a single room.
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Victoria & Albert Museum
Bucket of Champagne
Interior (2) and David
The London eye as viewed from the boat
