London Visits

My first visit to the British capital was on 23rd June 1989 during my time in Hastings. I went up by train for the day (cheap day return ticket for £10.20). I saw the Changing of the Guard at Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, Fleet Street, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Monument, Tower Bridge and I visited the Tower of London. And on 3rd July Michael and Rosemary took me to Wimbledon and we did a boat tour on the Themse in London, starting from Westminster Pier. On 27th July we went to Earls Court to attend the Royal Tournament.

Changing of the Guard	Changing of the Guard	St. Paul's Cathedral

Piccadilly Circus		Tower of London
Thames River Cruise		Tall Ship

In 1991/92 I spent 5 months at Reading University. Reading is very close to London and I took the opportunity to visit the city on several day trips. I visited Petticoat Lane Market, the City of London, Smithfield Market, Holborn, Bloomsbury, Portobello Road Market, Chelsea, Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden, Picadilly Circus, etc. I always travelled by train and usually on a Cheap Day Return ticket. I also had a student travel card which gave me an additional discount. On 16th November I went to London with some folks from the aikido club. We had the opportunity to stay at a flat in Barbican which belonged to one girl's dad. We visited the Natural History Museum and went out for dinner in China Town.		Knightsbridge
Hyde Park	London Bus	Picadilly Circus
On Saturday, 15th February, the Reading University Aikido Club made their second inofficial trip to London. Once again we stayed at Ruth's father's flat at the Barbican. The One Day Travelcard bought us a train ticket to London including local transport. We went to Oxford Street on the Saturday and Madame Tussaud's (£5.95) on the Sunday. My time in Reading came to an end. I travelled round the UK for a bit and in London I met my penpal Andrea from Switzerland who was working there as an au-pair. On Wednesday, 8th April, we did some sightseeing and queued up for tickets for "The Phantom of the Opera" in the afternoon. But when it was our turn there were just two very expensive ticket left, so we didn't buy them. We went to the cinema in Leicester Square instead. I took a train to Hastings in the evening.

On Saturday 11th April I went to London again on a day trip to visit my Reading pal Sisi from Israel and to get another chance to see the 3 p.m. matinee show of "The Phantom of the Opera" (£15.50) at Her Majesty's Theatre in Haymarket. This time I got lucky. I have always loved the music, but the entire show (the costumes, the stage setup, the magic) was fantastic. It took approximately three hours to queue in front of the theatre for last-minute tickets. Before the show began I walked around Trafalgar Square, China Town and Piccadilly Circus.

I was back in Reading in June. On Sunday the 14th I visited Kew Gardens, located between Richmond and Kew in the suburbs of south-west London, with two of my Reading friends.

In November 1992 I went back to Reading once again. On Saturday, 31st October, at 10:10 a.m. I took a Lufthansa flight to LHR. We got some great views of the city of London during the approach for landing. I spent some days with Michael and Rosemary in Hastings. On Wednesday morning I took a train back to London where I saw the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and Piccadilly before I continued to Reading in the afternoon.

At Easter in April 1998 I went to Hastings with my parents and Volker and as Michael is an MP now we went to London on a day trip so he could show us the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The six of us went on the train with a One Day Travelcard for £15.90. As Volker hadn't been to London before we also went to see Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge as well as Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus.

At the Tower of London

Horse Guard, Whitehall

Buckingham Palace

Tower Bridge

Almost 10 years had passed until our next visit and this was the first time I stayed in London for several days. From Thursday, 2nd August, till Monday, 6th August, 2007, Volker and I travelled to London again. Since Michael and Rosemary have a flat in a very central location they’ve been offering for a long time that we could stay there. Finally we took the opportunity and arranged for a long weekend. We still had some British Airways miles to use up but we still ended up paying 85 Euros tax per ticket. After getting a good view of the city of London in our approach of Heathrow airport we landed around 11 a.m. and took the tube to Elephant & Castle which took about an hour. We met Michael and Rosemary at their flat and walked to the Anchor pub at the south bank where we had a late lunch together. Then they returned to Hastings. It was really good to see them again. Volker and I walked across the Millennium footbridge to the City of London, up to St. Paul’s and back via Tower Bridge. It was pretty cloudy that afternoon.

The next morning the sun was shining and we were in for a hot and sunny weekend. We walked to the Houses of Parliament, then watched the Changing of the Horse Guards. Walked up to Buckingham Palace, then back to Trafalgar Square. In the afternoon we took a boat trip on the Thames to Greenwich where we visited the Royal Observatory. This is the place of the Prime Meridian of the World (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. Normally it’s also the home of the Cutty Sark, the last remaining tea clipper. Unfortunately it was under renovation. We went to Garfunkel’s at Leicester Square for dinner.

On Saturday we took the tube to Hampstead and walked around Hampstead Heath. After a walk in Regent’s Park we joined a London Walks tour in Little Venice which lasted about 2 hours and was fun. Then we walked back to Regent’s Park along Regent's Canal. We went to a pub near our flat at Elephant & Castle for dinner.

On Sunday we went to Covent Garden and Fleet Street, via St. Paul’s back to south bank. Then we took the tube to Notting Hill. We preferred to avoid the crowds on Portobello Road for the antiques market every Saturday. Some shops and stalls were still open. We found the bookshop from the film with Julia Roberts (13-15 Blenheim Crescent) and the door to Hugh Grant’s flat (280 Westbourne Park Road) which features in the film (photos). Then we walked in Hyde Park which was crowded with people sunbathing. We returned to the flat early to take a shower before we headed out to Wimbledon on the tube which took about an hour. At 7 p.m. we were expected for dinner by a colleague of mine and her husband. We met personally for the first time but it was very nice.

Monday morning was a bit cloudy, but it cleared up soon. We took a bus to Westminster, had a look at Westminster Abbey, then we went up the clock tower of Westminster Cathedral for a view of London from above. We walked back via Buckingham Palace, just in time for the Horse Guards to arrive for another Changing of the Guards at Horse Guards Parade. It was really good to watch. Afterwards we took the bus back to Elephant & Castle, finished to pack and left for Heathrow for our flight at 4:45 p.m.

	London Eye	View of the "Gherkin"
	London Bridge
	left: "The Gherkin", above: Sherlock Holmes pub	Houses of Parliament
	St. Paul's and Millennium Bridge	Buckingham Palace
	left: Royal Exchange, above: Piccadilly Circus	Little Venice
	left: Notting Hill, above: The Queen's Life Guard
	left: Portobello Road, Notting Hill, above: Blues and Royals	The Queen's Life Guard: Changing of the Guard
	left: Royal Courts of Justice, above: policemen on horseback	The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery
	The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery	The King’s Troop RHA: Changing of the Guard at Whitehall

London Tips

London Ceremonies and Traditions

Changing of the Guard:

Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, Westminster, daily Monday to Saturday at 11.00am and 10.00am on Sundays, The Queen’s Life Guard alternates with The Blues and Royals except for one month in August when The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery takes over. Arrive early, the activity itself starts at 10.45am.

Buckingham Palace, The Queen's Guard, accompanied by a band, is scheduled to change at 11:30 hours (not in wet weather), dates alternate each month. Arrive early as it gets crowded.

St James's Palace, The Mall, part of the Old Guard marches from St James Palace, Whitehall, to Buckingham Palace at 11.15am and returns at 12.05pm (same dates as guard change at Buckingham Palace)

London from above:

from the world's tallest observation wheel London Eye

from the external gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral

from the balcony of The Monument

from the high-level walkways of Tower Bridge

from the Campanile Bell Tower of Westminster Cathedral

from the viewing gallery at Oxo Tower

other locations with a view

London by boat:

Take a waterbus or narrowboat along the canal between Camden and Little Venice.

Or take a river cruise on the Thames (1/3 discount for Oyster card holders)

London on foot: