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| Porn Users Forum » I am going to London |
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| 03-17-19 06:35am - 2107 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended  Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
I am going to London I am in the planning stage of a trip to London. Has anyone been there and can offer any advice? | |
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| 03-17-19 11:21am - 2107 days | #2 | |
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Thomas20 (0)
Active User Posts: 60 Registered: Dec 27, '09 Location: England |
Hi Mbaya, Happy to assist where I can. What type of info would help. I can't recommend actual hotels etc. as I have never been as a tourist but I might be able to throw some thoughts/ideas on specific questions.... T. | |
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| 03-17-19 12:28pm - 2107 days | #3 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
I very much appreciate that you are willing to help. I have a hotel booked already in Central London. The sights are interesting, but there are so many I don't know where to start. How is the subway, I see it is called the Underground? Is it safe and easy to get around? Edited on Mar 17, 2019, 12:35pm | |
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| 03-17-19 03:25pm - 2107 days | #4 | |
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Shen (0)
Active User Posts: 31 Registered: Jan 22, '19 Location: UK |
I've been to London dozens of times. In terms of sights and places to visit: London Eye Big Ben (although it might be covered by scaffolding for renovation) Buckingham Palace (not actually in it though, that's only available for the summer unfortunately) Tower Bridge The Shard Building House Of Parliament The Science Museum in Kensington Madam Tussauds (wax models of celebrities) London Zoo Trafalgar Square I'm just throwing ideas around. Yes, it is called the Underground and although it is very useful the lines can get confusing and everything is fast paced. You should try and be accompanied with someone at least the first or second time, as it is easy to get lost in my opinion. Much like many other major cities, everyone is walking very quickly and nobody likes a slowpoke there so if you need to slow down do it out of everyone else's way. This is the way it is unfortunately, in my experience. If you get lost, just ask (but not someone in a rush because you'll just piss them off lol) or find a map on the wall. You'll know where you are. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Just remember which line you're on and look up to see if you're on the right line, which stop you're looking for, and listening out for the tannoy to let you know where you are. I'm not sure if it is applicable for tourists, but if it is getting an Oyster card will be very helpful rather than buying a travel card. It's cheaper, quicker, more efficient. You can also use them on buses, while only travel card train tickets can do the same not others. https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/vi.../visitor-oyster-card I must add though that despite me going to London many times I'm not 100% sure on all this info as I also still get lost sometimes because I'm not very good at navigating around  and have to resort to my phone to get back on track. I don't know if everything is inch perfect in accuracy either. I don't live in a major city so that might be why.Good luck and hope you enjoy London!  | |
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| 03-17-19 06:05pm - 2106 days | #5 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
What a wealth of information. Much appreciated. I see that my hotel is very close to Trafalgar Square. I will definitely check that one out. | |
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| 03-17-19 06:47pm - 2106 days | #6 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Bring an umbrella. London is famous for the rain and fog. Maybe a trip to California might be better? Or New York, if you want to visit an ant hill? | |
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| 03-20-19 07:42am - 2104 days | #7 | |
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Thomas20 (0)
Active User Posts: 60 Registered: Dec 27, '09 Location: England |
The underground extends beyond the commercial, entertainment and touristy parts of London, into the residential suburbs and estates, not all of which are particularly salubrious. That said, whilst there is a recent surge in pointless violent street crime in some outlying residential districts, I do not believe there are any particular ‘no go’ areas anywhere. Most random violence at the moment seems to be in the outer boroughs between kids and youths knifing each other over grievances – real or imagined – and on the street rather than on the underground. Obviously you should follow the usual rules – don’t flash money about and don’t act like a dick but other than that, the likelihood of encountering problems in the parts you are likely to get to are remote indeed. As with anyone and anywhere, it always feels a bit uncomfortable travelling really late at night alone so I would try and avoid it, but that is more just a general sensible precaution rather than out of any expectation of a problem. There may be groups of drunk revellers in the evening but so long as you just keep a bit of a distance all will be fine. Again – just common sense and as applicable in the street as on the underground. I am not as pessimistic as Shen in terms of finding your way around the underground. But travelling on it is an experience to be endured not savoured. It is for the most part fairly dingy. At the main stations at commuter times the build-up of bodies borders on the sort of thing you only thought happened in films – spilling off the platform, up the stairs and out into the concourse. Shutters get pulled across to prevent too many people getting down to the platform. But outside those times it isn’t too bad. It isn’t a social network on the underground. If someone talks to you, for the most part they will be after money, drunk, mad or a combination of all three. From time to time someone promotes the idea of wearing badges to indicate that one is a person happy to converse in the normal manner but it never gets off the ground. Overall you will find more signs of communication, good manners and civility in an ant colony. The guide books will tell you more than I ever could about the sights and museums etc. I think the only thing I might add is that if you have particular interests then most main centres are fairly accessible and not that far from London by train (albeit that the train is expensive). So, for example, Rochester at 50 mins to an hour by train might be a destination for folks interested in the life works of Charles Dickens. Pretty(ish) in the day but as rough as old boots at night – much like in Dickens’ own time I imagine. But you get the idea in terms of the concept of other destinations! T. | |
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| 03-20-19 12:09pm - 2104 days | #8 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
I appreciate your input. I am used to the subway in New York and this has some points of similarity. | |
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| 03-20-19 03:18pm - 2104 days | #9 | |
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rearadmiral (0)
Active User Posts: 1,453 Registered: Jul 16, '07 Location: NB/Canada |
My bride and I visited London for the first time in the summer of 2016. I’m not a huge fan of travel generally but I really enjoyed this trip and we will most definitely go back. It made a difference that we could drive four hours and then have a direct six(ish)-hour flight. I prefer trips that are steeped in history but my wife really prefers to shop and be entertained so we don’t often take trips like the one to London. Weather has been mentioned, and it is certainly variable but we went in late July and it was quite hot and humid. I don’t recall that we got a lot of rain but it would be advisable to pack and carry an umbrella. Or, if it rains in the afternoon just duck into a pub for a beer. The heat and humidity just about killed me but since you’re from New Jersey it will probably seem like home. Another advantage you’ll have is that unlike someone from a rural area, big cities likely don’t intimidate you and you won’t do anything stupid that might make you a target for a mugging or something like that. One thing I’m just remembering is that we found the pub protocols different from what we were used to. We went into a pub to get lunch and waited forever for someone to come to our table to take an order. It turns out that in pubs that don’t cater to tourists that the protocol is to go to the bar to order for yourself. Keep that in mind. In more touristy areas like Windsor table service was available. The underground will be an essential means of transportation for you. I say that because surface transportation around the busy areas will be almost impossible. The Underground is clean and safe but there are so many lines that I found it difficult to use. But then I spent more time looking at the sights than paying attention to where I was. We stayed right in London for the whole trip (with one exception) as there was plenty to see and do. We did a day trip to Windsor by train and I would recommend that. There appear to be different kinds of rail service between London and Windsor so you may want to do some digging. We went to Windsor on an express train that was modern and air conditioned. We came home via an older, un-air-conditioned train that stopped many times on the way back. I think you just need to time it properly. I highly recommend the trip to Windsor. It’s worth it. I recall we bought something called a London Pass or something like that. It gave us free or heavily discounted access to many places and in some instances it gave us access to shorter waiting lines. We did go to the British Museum but that was both hot and crowded the day we went. It either isn’t air conditioned or not adequately so. I got to see the Rosetta Stone and some of the Egyptian artifacts and then gave up, but that’s not so bad as that’s what I wanted to see and I’ll plan to go back next time at a different time of year when it’s cooler and less touristy. (One advantage to being from Atlantic Canada is that I could go there for what the Brits call winter and probably wear shorts.) A highlight for me was Westminster Abbey. Utterly breathtaking! Religion, politics and history are all intertwined in the UK and I can’t imagine a place where this is more obvious than the Abbey. I’ll definitely go back there and probably spend most of a day. St. Paul’s Cathedral is also worth the visit. The Abbey’s history goes back well over a thousand years and is more closely associated with Royalty. St. Paul’s is a bit newer (but still old by North American standards) and definitely worth the visit. The year we went, Buckingham Palace was open to the public but I recall that was a rare occasion. If it is, that’s worth seeing too. Even stopping by to see the building is worth it. I got dragged to Harrod’s and that didn’t go well. I hate being hemmed in by crowds and I hate shopping. The crowd in Harrod’s was something that I was not prepared for. It was wall-to-wall people and VERY difficult to move. If you love crowds and shopping give it a go. If I’m dragged there again I’ll head for a nearby pub while my wife goes shopping. We took a Grey Line bus tour. You’d know the ones – with the open top buses. I wouldn’t do that again but I’m glad we did it. We got to see a lot and got to sit considering it was hot and humid, but the street traffic is so bad the bus moved slowly. I’ve done a similar tour of NYC and NYC looks uncongested compared to London. But it could have been the day and the place. When we book all our arrangements one thing we did was book transportation from the airport. There is a train that runs from the airport and drops you at an Underground station where you can then hop on a subway and get close to your final destination. You can take a cab or walk depending on distance and stamina. We did that because a lot of what we read said that taxis from the airport (Heathrow) were super expensive. So we dragged our luggage to the train (a bit of a hike), then to the subway and eventually to the hotel. On the return trip we were pretty tired. (It was us and another couple.) Rather than walk to the Underground hauling our luggage (it was a couple of blocks) we called a cab for that short part of the trip. The cab driver told us that we were misled, that taxis to and from the airport were not more expensive than the train. He asked what we had paid and he said he could get us to the airport for less than that. So, even though we had already pre-paid the train we were so tired we opted to have him drive us to the airport. We had door-to-door service (as opposed to walking probably a total of a mile otherwise) for the same or less cost. That is seriously worth looking into. Obviously you’re going to filter all of these suggestions in the thread through your own interests. There are other touristy things like the London Eye and the Shard. I wouldn’t do the Eye again but I’m glad I did it. If I had the chance to ride the Eye or spend an additional couple of hours at the Abbey I’d go for the Abbey in a heartbeat. For me the highlights, the things I’ll remember forever even if I don’t get back (and things I’ll visit again if I do) are Westminster Abbey and Windsor. Windsor will take an entire day. I can’t imagine doing it justice in anything less than that. If I think of anything else I’ll post again. | |
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| 03-20-19 04:56pm - 2103 days | #10 | |
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Shen (0)
Active User Posts: 31 Registered: Jan 22, '19 Location: UK |
This is a great breakdown and covered places I didn't even mention at all in my post. You sound like you had a wonderful experience. It just goes to show how much stuff you can do in London and how many great sights there are. I don't live too far from London have been so many times I've lost count, to the point where now things that are great seem mundane to me. Still, would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there. | |
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| 03-20-19 07:24pm - 2103 days | #11 | |
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PinkPanther (0)
Active User  Posts: 1,136 Registered: Jan 08, '07 Location: Oakland, CA |
Have a good time. I was only there once in February 1981 or so. I don't think it was a good time for the U.K. There was this intense melancholy everywhere in England of "empire lost". The English food was horrible. We went for Pakistani food as much as possible, which was readily available and pretty good. Luckily we were only in England for a few days and then we went to Ireland, which was awesome no matter where we went. Irish people can take a sunny side up egg with toast and make it feel like a real treat, and they're funny and generous and all that good stuff. Anybody I know that's been to England more recently has really enjoyed it. | |
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| 03-21-19 09:02am - 2103 days | #12 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
Thanks so much for your post and advice. We will be there in mid May, so I hope that the weather will not be too hot or humid. As far as an umbrella, the ones I can get in my area are a waste of money. I expect to buy one when we get there. I have heard the English are known for better umbrellas. We have a ride from the airport as we used Expedia for the hotel and flight and they offer this service as well. You mentioned the Greyline bus tour. I want to try that as an introduction to the city as we have never been there. I want to go to the British Museum for the Rosetta Stone, I see we have that in common. I was thinking of going to Harrods, but may not. I hate crowds although New York is crowds on steroids. I never got used to that. You mentioned Windsor. I will check that out. I should start a post with advice on visiting New York. I could have been a tour guide as I have been everywhere. | |
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| 06-05-19 01:14pm - 2027 days | #13 | |
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CowboyDave (0)
Active User  Posts: 23 Registered: Oct 03, '18 Location: United Kingdom |
How did the trip go? Bit late now but I am from London so could have given you some tips. | |
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| 06-05-19 03:08pm - 2027 days | #14 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
Thank you for asking, I got back last week. It was great, even better than I was hoping for. My only regret is not being there when there when I could see the anti Trump protests. | |
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