London in 5.5 days !!!

During the recent India trip, we took a stopover at London for few days. Flew via Virgin Atlantic to London and Jet Airways to Mumbai. Stopover @ London turned out to be a very memorable vacation. We were in London for 5.5 days. All of us had little bit of Jetlag in London and used to wake up late but then stretched the whole day out. But upon reaching India it turned out to be favorable since didn’t have to deal with early morning hunger pangs this year 🙂

We stayed @ Premier Inn in Earls Court area. Though we stayed in a hotel one can also rent homes on a weekly basis in London. Heathrow airport also has baggage storage option for extra bags and one doesn’t have to carry them around –
Heathrow Baggage
We however took the bags to hotel as we had arranged for a taxi pickup using – Heathrow Cars . Found the service and driver both very reasonable. The driver was Indian and we had a good conversation both ways.
Bank Of America has partnership with Barclays Bank – so one can use BOFA credit card to withdraw pounds in London. They do not charge any transaction fee. Alternatively one can pre order here and pickup from BOFA. BOFA in US does not carry the UK currency, it can only be preordered and collected. Barclays ATM’s were easily visible so it was very convenient to withdraw whenever needed. Also some places do advertise to be aware of pick pockets 🙁

Earls Court was very central for all the tourist attractions we visited, 15-20 minutes by train and we would reach our destination. The small grocery store was next to station and also had Indian restaurant (we didn’t try it though).

Phone data plan worth 10 pound was more than sufficient during our stay. We bought a Vodafone plan but there are lots of other carriers that one can choose from. Jayesh had downloaded some of the maps in his Iphone, which helped quite a bit as well.

The tourist attractions in London can be visited using the underground train network and after visiting London, one can clearly see the British influence on India ( V.T station looks like a carbon copy ! ). The underground train network is amazing – some stations have few floors deep below to connect the various train lines. The train lines are color coded on the map – and also the trains from inside have the same color bars, so that one cannot go wrong .
One can buy a oyster card which covers all the train lines (I believe ours was valid for a week), kids below 10 travel free with parents. The oyster card was very helpful – that way we didn’t have to buy tickets daily, just swipe the card in/out at the station. Each station also has attendant to help in case of need. Earls Court station had a convenience store from where we bought most of the tickets for attractions. Everywhere in London – they had a cheaper internet price and recommend to buy before. The store gave us deals comparable to internet bought tickets.
Mcdonalds are in abundance and have veggie burger/wrap. Subway Sandwiches too, but didn’t find as many as Mcdonalds. Subway Sandwich also had a Saag Paneer option in their sandwiches. One would find plenty small mom and pop style shops outside stations that sell croissants/danishes/muffins etc. And they have Samosa’s and Paneer/veggie stuffed puffs as well.

Most of the attractions are walking distance from the train stations. And we walked about 36 miles in 5.5 days. Surprisingly Jash never complained about walking so much. For Sanaa we took a stroller, no doubt it was very helpful – had to carry few steps at train stations but most had escalators so wasn’t a problem.

Madame Tussaud’s and West Minster Abbey were the only places which had a long wait. Kids had a blast @ Madame Tussaud’s. Lonavla has a wax museum now, has anyone been there ? West Minster Abbey is gorgeous from inside and it is amazing to see the tombs for royals and their history ofcourse. This place had free Audio tour for the entire church, very well made audio tour in multiple languages as well.

The most crowded place that we experienced was to see the Change of Guards @ Buckingham Palace. So reach early to get a good view.
The museums are free (British Museum, Natural History, Science, Arts etc), but they ask for donations for maps etc. Most days museums close by 5.30 pm even in summer. British museum has a huge collection, even though their must visit guide tells you the most important things to visit – it didn’t look very easy in terms of navigation to find those items. Don’t miss the Asia room in British Museum. The museums have lot to see, so if you are museum person then definitely allocate more time! .

Couple of places had picture exhibition/display of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration – it was nice to see the Royal life through pictures especially the Queen her childhood and more.

South Kensington seemed to be the most lively place in terms of dining etc – variety of restaurants to choose from, dining outside on the road. We ate at a thai restaurant here and also desserts at a crepe/ice cream place.
Tinsel Town was another restaurant that we liked (in the oxford circus area) – about 50 different varieties of milkshakes, yummy !

The state apartments in Windsor Castle were closed for all the days we were there, so we missed seeing those but the castle is beautiful and we enjoyed watching whatever was open. It was fun traveling in a long distance train. Seats had reservations in this train. The schedule for state apartments in Windsor Castle is published a year in advance so should take this into account if one is planning to visit Windsor Castle.

There is a new “Harry Potter” Exhibit that has opened this summer, but we couldn’t make it as it needed pre booking and was little far from where we were.
Preparation work for Olympics had begun and people were looking forward to the visitors to improve economic conditions in London. And like most places in USA, where we see bunch of Indians at tourist places, didn’t see that many in London – it’s just an observation 🙂