Tourism review, Oldest Kid style
Today, we have a special guest blogger in Oldest Kid, who, after an unexpected stopover in Newfoundland, is back home somewhere in the southern United States. Take it away:
Sadly, our trip to the UK is over now. We had a great time with the W’s, and really appreciate their hospitality. Their flat was a great place to stay, very close to the tube (if you don’t mind long, long walks up steep, steep hills at the end of a long day of sightseeing) in a scenic part of London. And, their toilet lived up to Mrs. W’s earlier blog. It took us all a while to get the feel for how to get it to flush! In addition, Smitty made a great tour guide, with his knowledge of the tube and his London A-Z ever at the ready! (I’m grateful that he suggested we purchase it prior to our visit, or the cabbie might never have gotten us to their flat.)
I have to agree with Smitty on his review of the sights we saw in London and the UK. Without a doubt, Stonehenge was my favorite place. However, I think my OK and YK, while they appreciated Stonehenge, probably enjoyed Warwick Castle and Madame Tussaud’s more (and Madame Tussaud’s, while enjoyable, was probably my least favorite sight). As Smitty mentioned, we also did some touring without him. So here is my review of those other places.
1. Stratford-upon-Avon. It was easy to get to from London via the tube and train. We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast (The Emsley) just a few minutes from the train station. The hosts were particularly helpful in telling us the best places to eat (like the Black Swan, aka the Dirty Duck, and Russons for our before theater dinner) and how to get around their town. Since it was cold and rainy the day we arrived, we took a hop on/hop off tour bus to all of the major Shakespeare locations. Because it was cold and rainy, we only fully explored one of the sights, Mary Arden’s house. I enjoyed it but my OK and YK pronounced it boring. We also saw Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra in the wonderful Swan Theatre (configured as playhouses were in Shakespeare’s day), and were thrilled to discover that Antony was played by Patrick Stewart. He was wonderful and all but my YK enjoyed the play (YK slept through much of it, once he stopped asking why Patrick Stewart would be interested in doing anything other Star Trek and X-men movies). Patrick Stewart is as good looking in person as he is on TV and in the movies!
2. Warwick Castle. We took the bus from Stratford to Warwick Castle, where we were dropped off right at the entrance to the castle. Madame Tussaud’s bought Warwick Castle a few years ago and they have done a great job restoring it. Many of the original furnishings are still there and we really enjoyed viewing the restored rooms. They also had interesting demonstrations of archery, falconry, and, most exciting of all, at least to the three men in my household, the trebuchet. Who knew you could get motion sickness from winding up a trebuchet? From the castle it was a ten minute walk downhill to the train station, where we easily caught a train back to London.
3. Tower of London. Wow, very impressive. We visited this sight with our Danish friends. There is a lot to see there, from the Crown Jewels (with the Koh-i-nor diamond, among other large, old diamonds and other precious stones), to King Henry VIII’s fat suit of armor, to the seven ravens in the yard. We spent most of an entire day there and everyone was worn out by the end. There is so much history in that set of buildings. It’s overwhelming to think of all that has happened there.
4. The Natural History Museum. Our Danish friends’ OK wanted to see the dinosaurs, so we visited the Natural History Museum. It was very well done, one of the best dinosaur exhibits I’ve ever seen. Our only disappointment was that the giant squid exhibit was closed for refurbishment! In addition to the exhibits, the museum is housed in a beautiful building. My OK and YK thought this museum was much better than the British Museum.
5. London Eye and the London Eye Thames cruise. The cruise was very informative and an easy, relaxing way to see part of the city. However, I was too chicken to ride the London Eye myself. My OK and YK seemed to like it however, and so I would recommend it for those not afraid of heights. They certainly got some beautiful, panoramic pictures of the city from their 30 minute ride. I highly recommend buying your tickets on-line before you go. We were able to avoid the long line to purchase tickets and went straight to an ATM-type machine which quickly printed out our tickets. Plus, we got a 10% discount for purchasing on-line.
6. Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Every tourist in London needs to see this. We arrived around 11 am for the event, which started around 11:15. We secured positions on the Victoria Monument, rather than right in front of the palace gates. This allowed us to see the various groups of guards as they came marching in from different directions, and also gave us a good view of the actual event, over the heads of the mass of tourists in front of the gates. It was quite a long ceremony, with two different bands playing, a horse guard, etc. While it was going on two sets of ambassadors also arrived by horse and carriage, so we got see that pageantry as well. After the event, we visited the Royal Mews where we had a great tour guide tell us all about the Queen’s horses, carriages, and cars still housed in the mews near the palace.
The British Library was wonderful, even better than the British Museum, I thought, but I’ll let Smitty post on that. And, besides all of the wonderful sights, the best part of the visit was spending time with Mr. and Mrs. W. We played some great board games, in spite of Smitty’s aversion to them, solved the problems of the world, and we were able to celebrate the kickoff of the World Cup, with Smitty and my YK each winning one bet (who could have imagined that Poland would be beaten by Ecuador!).
I think I’ve written enough for now, but I reserve the right to add more later!
(Note: Edited to omit reference to Windsor Castle.)
Sadly, our trip to the UK is over now. We had a great time with the W’s, and really appreciate their hospitality. Their flat was a great place to stay, very close to the tube (if you don’t mind long, long walks up steep, steep hills at the end of a long day of sightseeing) in a scenic part of London. And, their toilet lived up to Mrs. W’s earlier blog. It took us all a while to get the feel for how to get it to flush! In addition, Smitty made a great tour guide, with his knowledge of the tube and his London A-Z ever at the ready! (I’m grateful that he suggested we purchase it prior to our visit, or the cabbie might never have gotten us to their flat.)
I have to agree with Smitty on his review of the sights we saw in London and the UK. Without a doubt, Stonehenge was my favorite place. However, I think my OK and YK, while they appreciated Stonehenge, probably enjoyed Warwick Castle and Madame Tussaud’s more (and Madame Tussaud’s, while enjoyable, was probably my least favorite sight). As Smitty mentioned, we also did some touring without him. So here is my review of those other places.
1. Stratford-upon-Avon. It was easy to get to from London via the tube and train. We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast (The Emsley) just a few minutes from the train station. The hosts were particularly helpful in telling us the best places to eat (like the Black Swan, aka the Dirty Duck, and Russons for our before theater dinner) and how to get around their town. Since it was cold and rainy the day we arrived, we took a hop on/hop off tour bus to all of the major Shakespeare locations. Because it was cold and rainy, we only fully explored one of the sights, Mary Arden’s house. I enjoyed it but my OK and YK pronounced it boring. We also saw Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra in the wonderful Swan Theatre (configured as playhouses were in Shakespeare’s day), and were thrilled to discover that Antony was played by Patrick Stewart. He was wonderful and all but my YK enjoyed the play (YK slept through much of it, once he stopped asking why Patrick Stewart would be interested in doing anything other Star Trek and X-men movies). Patrick Stewart is as good looking in person as he is on TV and in the movies!
2. Warwick Castle. We took the bus from Stratford to Warwick Castle, where we were dropped off right at the entrance to the castle. Madame Tussaud’s bought Warwick Castle a few years ago and they have done a great job restoring it. Many of the original furnishings are still there and we really enjoyed viewing the restored rooms. They also had interesting demonstrations of archery, falconry, and, most exciting of all, at least to the three men in my household, the trebuchet. Who knew you could get motion sickness from winding up a trebuchet? From the castle it was a ten minute walk downhill to the train station, where we easily caught a train back to London.
3. Tower of London. Wow, very impressive. We visited this sight with our Danish friends. There is a lot to see there, from the Crown Jewels (with the Koh-i-nor diamond, among other large, old diamonds and other precious stones), to King Henry VIII’s fat suit of armor, to the seven ravens in the yard. We spent most of an entire day there and everyone was worn out by the end. There is so much history in that set of buildings. It’s overwhelming to think of all that has happened there.
4. The Natural History Museum. Our Danish friends’ OK wanted to see the dinosaurs, so we visited the Natural History Museum. It was very well done, one of the best dinosaur exhibits I’ve ever seen. Our only disappointment was that the giant squid exhibit was closed for refurbishment! In addition to the exhibits, the museum is housed in a beautiful building. My OK and YK thought this museum was much better than the British Museum.
5. London Eye and the London Eye Thames cruise. The cruise was very informative and an easy, relaxing way to see part of the city. However, I was too chicken to ride the London Eye myself. My OK and YK seemed to like it however, and so I would recommend it for those not afraid of heights. They certainly got some beautiful, panoramic pictures of the city from their 30 minute ride. I highly recommend buying your tickets on-line before you go. We were able to avoid the long line to purchase tickets and went straight to an ATM-type machine which quickly printed out our tickets. Plus, we got a 10% discount for purchasing on-line.
6. Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Every tourist in London needs to see this. We arrived around 11 am for the event, which started around 11:15. We secured positions on the Victoria Monument, rather than right in front of the palace gates. This allowed us to see the various groups of guards as they came marching in from different directions, and also gave us a good view of the actual event, over the heads of the mass of tourists in front of the gates. It was quite a long ceremony, with two different bands playing, a horse guard, etc. While it was going on two sets of ambassadors also arrived by horse and carriage, so we got see that pageantry as well. After the event, we visited the Royal Mews where we had a great tour guide tell us all about the Queen’s horses, carriages, and cars still housed in the mews near the palace.
The British Library was wonderful, even better than the British Museum, I thought, but I’ll let Smitty post on that. And, besides all of the wonderful sights, the best part of the visit was spending time with Mr. and Mrs. W. We played some great board games, in spite of Smitty’s aversion to them, solved the problems of the world, and we were able to celebrate the kickoff of the World Cup, with Smitty and my YK each winning one bet (who could have imagined that Poland would be beaten by Ecuador!).
I think I’ve written enough for now, but I reserve the right to add more later!
(Note: Edited to omit reference to Windsor Castle.)
posted by Smitty Werbenmanjensen at 12:59 PM
6 Comments:
I know you were asking OK, but I can answer what I'd see over and over with anyone who comes to visit:
1. Stonehenge
2. Portobello Road Market
3. British Museum
4. British Library
5. Tower of London
6. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
7. St. Paul's
8. Westminster
There are so many things we didn't see the first time, that I don't know how much I'd go back to. We didn't see the Tate Modern, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum. We didn't go on a cruise to Greenwich or Windsor. I'd probably want to go to some of the other markets, like Spitalfield. And, I'm sure there's more! I would definitely return to Stratford-upon-Avon, stay at the same B&B, see another play at the Swan, and then I'd tour the area surrounding the town. I'd also go back to Bath and see more of the sights there. And, I'd like to get to Scotland and Wales. Smitty needs to stay in London for a long time so that I can get all of this in!
Wow! What an exciting and fun- filled visit. Aren't you glad that Mr/Mrs W were nice enough to let you stay with them.
We are very glad they were nice enough to let us stay with them! We truly enjoyed their hospitality. They have a very comfortable home, and even though it isn't large, there was plenty of room for all of us!
Excellent review! We saw Much Ado About Nothing in Stratford and I loved it and all of Stratford! Also I must say I enjoyed all the castles we saw - Warwick was much fun but I think I liked the ones in ruins even more! I'm going to be in London a couple days before & after my Italy trip in July/Aug - I will have to send Mr/Mrs W my dates!
Yes, Aussie Sarah, do give us your dates!
And the OKs were wonderful guests. It was a lot of fun to have someone to do things with (other than Smitty, who of course is always fun to do things with, but it's nice to have some variety too).
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