Six glorious days in London

Is it possible to see a city of 620 square miles, in six days?  The answer is yes – and no.  It is certainly impossible to see everything, but with some diligent preparation you can experience London in a variety of ways within a relatively short time frame.

Historic Westminster Abby final is the resting place of royalty like Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, poets and statesman

This particular vacation, to London and Edinburgh, had been in the works for a while. I had been to the UK many times but the main purpose of the visits was usually to attend a conference, leaving a minimal amount of time for sightseeing. On the other hand, my wife, who has visited most European countries, had never set foot in the UK. Our approach to travel is to plan out a visit in detail. We carefully plan hotel stays, meals, and we purchase tickets for any attractions that we categorize as “must see” places.  It turns out that this is a wise move because most A-list London attractions are very busy and getting same-day tickets can be a serious challenge.

On the trip to London, we stayed at Hazlitt’s House in Soho.  This is a lovely, old world, boutique hotel that is located close to the Tottenham Court tube station. This made access easy from Heathrow via the Elizabeth line. It proved to be the ideal location for walking to many of London’s important attractions, including the parliament buildings, Trafalgar Square, and the various attractions around Whitehall and Westminster.

Winston Churchill’s subterranean War Rooms

We were able to visit three traditional museums. The British Museum was by far the most interesting. It is enormous and requires the better part of a half-day to see a few of the 80,000 items on display. They have so many artifacts that the museum can only display 1% of its collection. We found the galleries of ancient Greece and Rome to be the most interesting.

Two other venues that have a historical dimension are Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms. At the Abbey it is interesting to be surrounded by the final resting places of royalty like Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, and see monuments to poets and statesman. As an unapologetic history buff, it was insightful to see the underground bunker where Churchill and his senior advisors hunkered down to develop plans to defend England during WWII. The multimedia in the centre is rather candid about Winston’s foibles and failures while educating visitors about the course of the war that resulted in the victory of the allies.

A Yeoman Warder tells visitors about his role at the Tower of London

One of the highlights of the trip was our time at the Tower of London. We recommend getting there early in the day. We were in the queue when it opened in the morning. There is a considerable amount of fascinating history from the prison to the crown jewels but it truly came alive when, by complete chance, we spent a half-hour listening to one of the Yeoman Warders tell us about his role at the Tower and how he qualified for it. Spoiler alert – more people have been in space than have had the prestigious honour of serving at the Tower as a Yeoman Warder.

The Kensington/Westminster area is home to a number of large parks.  We walked through St. James Park towards Buckingham Palace.  No, the King did not invite us into the palace for tea!  Nearby it is possible to walk through Green Park to Hyde Park and onward to Kensington Gardens – the site of Kensington Palace.

Darwin’s Brasserie in the Skywalk, 36 floors above London and overlooking The Thames River

The visit also featured a number of literal high points.  We climbed the 528 steps up into the dome at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Not for the faint of heart!  We also had lunch at Darwin’s Brasserie in the Skywalk, 36 floors above.  The food is excellent, the service is terrific and the view is utterly spectacular. Also, given the excellent weather while we visited, the pub culture was alive and well with people spilling outdoors around numerous pubs, beer in hand.  It is quite a tradition! We also had a wonderful fine dining experience one evening at an Italian restaurant called Bocco di Lupo, close to Leicester Square. We’ll not forget the amberjack carpaccio or the ricotta ravioli.

Finally, we advise booking any theatre plans that you envision well in advance. We caught a terrific play at the Wyndham Theatre, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Eugene O’Neill), staring Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson.

Can you spend more than six days in London? Of course. There are so many parts of the city that can be explored, in addition to the potential to take a variety of day trips just outside the city to places like Bath or Cambridge. Our time concluded in London and we headed for Edinburgh. More on that city in the next  article.

Travel Planner
Hazlitt’s Hotel in London: www.hazlittshotel.com
The British Museum: www.britishmuseum.org
Westminster Abbey:  www.westminster-abbey.org
Winston Churchill’s subterranean War Rooms:  www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms
Tower of London: www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/
St. Paul’s Cathedral: www.stpauls.co.uk
Darwin’s Skywalk Garden, London: www.skygarden.london/restaurants/darwin-brasserie       
Bocco du Lupo: www.boccadilupo.com