Hi, hey, hello there!
I’m happy to hear that you’ve been enjoying my England posts. I’m even happier to hear that you’re going! I lived in England just shy of 5 months in the heart of London and I have to say, it was NOT enough time. This makes your only staying for a week thing somewhat problematic. However, I understand that a week is a week and you can definitely still fit in the highlights far and in between. So first things first what type of person are you? Do you like to see everything humanly possible, i.e. the stars of London. Now see if you can say this all in one breath…. ready: (big ben, tower bridge, tower of london, abbey road, the bbc, piccadilly circus, oxford circus, the thames, millenium bridge, the globe, london bridge, st. pauls, hyde park, regent park, tate modern, british museum, tate britain, westminster abbey, buckingham palace, greenwich, green park, south kensington, borough market, portabello road, notting hill, the underground, camdentown).
So it’s A LOT to work with, but the best method to deal with it is plan your schedule now. Easiest way is to find you hotel/hostel/friends house that your crashing at’s neighborhood, but more importantly nearest TUBE STOP. From here you can navigate yourself throughout London. The TUBE is the life blood of London, and planning your days around locations around a stop is key to fitting in as much possible as humanly possible.
For example if you get off at Westminster stop on the District Line Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey along with a great view of the Thames is at your disposal. Likewise getting off at St. Pauls on the Central Line will give you access to St Pauls, Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge, The Globe, and my favorite pub the founders arm. The entire tube system complete with stops and lines can be found here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
Make that your best friend over the upcoming weeks, finding exactly what you want to do, locations you want to see, and planning them around your Tube stop of choice for the day.
So as you can see, there’s a lot, and this is just scratching the surface. I think a major part of experiencing London is simply immersing in its culture. Make sure to take time to spend a night at the pub, not just to drink, but to soak in the atmosphere, chat with a mate, grab a pie.
Day trips are important too, I don’t know if London will be your hub or not, but you definitely have plenty of options to get out and see more than just the city. Trains connect all of England wonderfully connecting London to Brighton (Beach and Boardwalk town), Bath (Ancient Roman colony with hot springs), Oxford (College town). Buses also help connect to Stonehenge, and Beachy Head.
As for the TARDIS, I took a tour of the BBC while living in London. I also am a WHO-A-HOLIC so this was definitely a special moment for me. Look into scheduling tours in advance for places like the BBC and Parliament.
As for my final words of advice, there’s one tour service throughout Europe that offers FREE, yes I said it, FREE tours of major cities throughout Europe. It’s called Sandeman’s New Europe tours. They work on a pay as you want basis, meaning you tip your guide at the end of the tour based on how well they did. London has one of these as well, and this could be perfect to get a bit of history as well as getting a grasp on navigating the city, and knocking out a few of the must sees right off the bat. You can find the meeting locations here: http://www.newlondon-tours.com/
So there ya have it, I hope I’ve given you some stuff to think about over the next few months/weeks before you depart for the best city in the world. I did you a solid by putting this little ditty together, so please now do me one. Let any of your friends know who helped you out, and refer them to me if they need any info on any of the various cities that I explored throughout my time in Europe. I have a small little collectiong of posts on my page as you are aware in my Europe Made Easy section. Also PLEASE let me know how your trip went when you return! I would love to see photos and hear your stories.
Until then, Cheers!
thetravelowl 