Just in case you run into the issues I did, make sure you bring a list of contact numbers along.</p>
<p>When I went to get Eurostar tickets in London their reservations system was down. They said they could only give me the ticket for London->Calais and to pick up the return ticket (that I’d already paid for) in Calais - something to do with how money flows between the UK and French ends of the train. I wasn’t thrilled with this but had no choice but to depart. Naturally, when I got to the French side, they didn’t want to even deal with me, were rude to me, tried to ignore me, etc. After attempting to deal with them before they eventually just turned their backs on me and went into another room (I was the only one in the terminal at this point - Calais doesn’t seem too popular) I was able to call and finally get ahold of someone in the UK, explain the situation, and they said they’d put the return ticket on a later train over. Of course, the initial agent I dealt with in London had messed up and shouldn’t have sent me off the way he did in the first place. I couldn’t wait around for a later train (the next day) since I was off to Belgium. I then had some more anxiety filled times wondering if the ticket would really show up or not for my departure 3 weeks later. Well, after 3 weeks I showed up the prior day to get my tickets. After again being told they didn’t have them and shuffled around I actually finally got a guy behind the counter who was willing to actually assist me. It turns out the tickets were sitting on a shelf behind the counter and he handed them to me (no thanks to the other rude attendants there). I was able to eventually make it back to London albeit much later than expected because there was a problem with the train whereby for a long distance in England it could only go about 10mph due to the problem. </p>
<p>The moral of the story is to be prepared - take a cheat sheet with contact numbers, reservation codes, addresses, dates, etc. Know how to use the phone to call the numbers if need be and be ready to be persistent.</p>
<p>Absolutely book them in advance. It is much cheaper to book them in advance - though you may have left it a little late already. When we last went you book it online, get the reservation number etc, and there were machines at the station where you entered the info and it issued your ticket. If you are in London for a few days before then go ahead and pick up the tickets ASAP so you are not dealing with it at the last minute. This was when it left from Waterloo - I think it is Kings cross St. Pancras now.</p>
<p>Try and book it today if you can. There are tickets as low as 55pounds but availability at that price will get lower as you get close to the date. The longer you leave it the more expensive it will get. And if you can be a little flexible with dates and times it can make an enormous difference to the price.</p>
<p>We leave in 4 days! Just a couple of questions. I met a couple from London and they said that “Cambridge has no soul”. They said we should go to Oxford instead. Any thoughts? I don’t know if we would visit both places. They also highly recommended the double decker bus tours. I thought the price seemed high, but I guess every thing is expensive. Also looking for more Paris tips. I am also compiling a list of restaurants in both cities that are less expensive. So keep them coming!</p>
<p>Just returned from a wonderful family graduation trip to Madrid and Lisbon. If you are not already aware, you may want to stay on top of high fuel cost protests and strikes in Europe. Last week, we observed an (orderly) protest by Spanish Fishermen and I think that Spanish, Portuguese, French and Irish fishermen are now on strike. Local papers note other groups - including truckers and taxi drivers - are also considering strikes. I hope strikes do not disrupt your trip but it would be good to do some planning for disruptions just in case. Good luck!</p>
<p>Candace, in Paris, you can eat pretty much anywhere and you will have a good meal. </p>
<p>I really do recommend you eat at a Michelin three star restaurant though. Even the best restaurants in the US (Alinea, Charlie Trotters, Daniel, French Laundry, Inn at Little Washington, Joel Robuchon, Per Se, White Barn Inn, Woodlands Inn and Resort etc…) cannot compete with the best French restaurants. The ingredients and attention to detail is only duplicated at the top restaurants in German, Italy and Japan. Yes, it is expensive, but then again, it is a once-every-three-or-four-years event.</p>
<p>Oh, and with regards to Cambridge having “no soul”, that’s ridiculous. I find Cambridge’s campus more beautiful than Oxford. As far as the cities are concerned, they are both roughly the same. However, Oxfordshire is indeed nicer than Cambridgeshire.</p>
<p>Candace,
Have a wonderful time! Here are a few more London recos:</p>
<p>You mentioned fish and chips – two places to try are Geale’s (I think Notting Hill is the tube station) and the Golden Hind (Marylebone – also good shopping!). If you like Chinese, my daughter and I loved Fung Shing and went back three times when we were in London. It is in SoHo/Chinatown and can easily be combined with one of your theater evenings. </p>
<p>The Portobello market on Saturdays is great fun and not to be missed. It can be combined with “higher end” shopping in the cute boutiques on Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road.</p>
<p>If you and your daughter are into rock, the London Rock tour (which departs from the Hard Rock Cafe) is fun. It is an afternoon bus tour that will take you to all sorts of fun landmarks – Abbey Road (be sure and have your picture made crossing the street Beatles-style), Paul McCartney’s current London home, the place where Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful lived, the house where Jimi Hendrix died, etc. etc.</p>
<p>V & A Museum is not to be missed and they’ve usually got a good costume exhibit. Also highly recommend both the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern (you can take a boat between the two and make a day of it, then walk across the bridge to St. Paul’s (but if you want to go up in the dome, check the hours because they close early some days.)</p>
<p>“Alexandre, We will try to eat at one nice restaurant in Paris. You are absolutely right about not knowing if I will ever be back.”</p>
<p>If you do decide to go for one of those restaurants, the two restaurants I recommended in post 26, L’Ambroisie and Le Meurice, are quite possibly my two favorite. If you have a sweet tooth, you may want to consider Ledoyen. Their “Flight of Desserts” is decadent!</p>
<p>Candace, if your daughter really does not eat any kind of mean, then perhaps you should try Alain Passard’s cuisine at L’Arpege. He is considered the best Vegetarian chef on Earth. Then again, he does not eat meat himself, so that may explain his passion for vegetables. He managed to remove meat from his menu altogether for a year or so a few years back and managed to hang on to his three stars. In France, that’s saying something. He has added meat back in the menu in recent years, but his dishes remain largely vegetarian. His chilled tomato soup served with a mustard sorbet is mind-blowing! </p>
<p>A day trip to Cambridge is very easy, via the express from King’s Cross, which takes about 45 minutes. You can take a taxi from the train station to (roughly) the center of town, and then walk everywhere. Can’t imagine why anyone would say that Cambridge has no soul! Places I particularly recommend in Cambridge are:
King’s College Chapel. It is gorgeous! The chapel was saved from destruction by Cromwell’s men when the fellows of the college gave Cromwell the college silver. The stained glass windows are among the most beautiful I’ve seen anywhere. Look for the monarch’s initials on the screen. There is a large Rubens at the end of the chapel.
Trinity College. Home to Sir Isaac Newton. Lord Byron chained a bear in the quad there.
Queen’s College. Beautiful Tudor architecture. Mathematical Bridge over the Cam (supposedly with no nails in its construction). Erasmus wrote here.
The Round Church. Norman architecture, with rounded arches and incredibly thick stone walls. Usually very quiet in the midst of Cambridge.
The Backs. The river, running behind St. John’s, Trinity, Clare, King’s, St. Catharine’s, Queens (and probably Trinity Hall). Punting–you can hire someone in college jacket and boater hat to punt you along the Backs and tell stories about the colleges.
The churchyard at Little St. Mary’s, between the Fitzwilliam Museum and King’s. Wild, overgrown, beautiful retreat.
Fitzbillies. Famous bakery.
The Eagle. Pub where Watson & Crick worked out the structure of DNA.
Heffer’s. The bookstore. Not as large as Blackwell’s in Oxford, but still extremely good.
The tower of Great St. Mary’s, with a view of the town.
The old Cavendish laboratory. A large crocodile is cut into the side of the building, representing Ernest Rutherford. (Kapitsa’s idea, I think, and supposedly no one told Rutherford what it meant) If you can see the lecture room here, it’s also historic–supposed to have been designed by James Clerk Maxwell with narrow seats to keep the students awake.
Shops on King’s Parade. The Copper Kettle has wonderful scones (pronounced “scauns”).
A great antique shop, approximately opposite Magdalene (across the bridge, going from King’s Parade) Roman antiquities to Harry Potter printed “money”
Kettle’s Yard. I really love this place, but it might not appeal to someone visiting for just a short time is . There is a really lovely house-museum there, with wonderful lighting and an interesting sense of increasing scale as you move through it. Close to Crick’s house.</p>
<p>Just returned from London last week. I recommend the British Museum very highly. The Rosetta Stone. The marble friezes (mis)appropriated from the Parthenon and other amazing antiquities.
Agree that the Cabinet War Rooms (with audio guide) are not to be missed–historically rich and very moving.
Harrod’s. The department store. Ice cream at Morelli’s in the Food Halls.
St. Paul’s Cathedral. Restoration ended a short time ago. Magnificent.
For the technically inclined, the Science Museum, near the Victoria & Albert Museum has Babbage’s Difference Engines (or replicas) and a set of fascinating hand-blown glass Klein bottles, some sliced up in interesting ways.
Hyde Park, statue of Peter Pan and the memorial to Princess Diana.
Buckingham Palace–get tickets in advance. Well worth it.
“Mousetrap” is still running, in it’s fifty-somethingth year! “Billy Elliott” is rumored to be comic on stage–not quite like the film version. We saw “Wicked” and also an excellent production of “Mamma Mia!” in a much smaller theater. For some shows, tickets can be obtained at the theater the day of the performance (probably weekdays, especially)
The Globe! Reconstructed. You can see Shakespeare performed there afternoons and evenings. Hard on people with vertigo.
The Tower of London. Mobs of people, but a must-see.
The London Eye is worth the time, expense, and crowds, in my opinion.
Also, a river “cruise” with City Cruises, from Waterloo Pier to the Tower or on to Greenwich (Maritime Museum and Royal Astronomical Observatory–stand on the Prime Meridian) and back to Westminster. Entertaining commentary by the crew, and an astounding view of numerous historic sites from the river.</p>
<p>Also, Hampton Court is fascinating to visit during a day trip. Actors in Tudor costume, great sense of history, maze.
(Please excuse typos in earlier posts–firewall and privacy settings on this particular computer are so high that I can’t edit.)</p>
<p>Candace,
My family of 4 (2 teenage daughters 16 & 20) just returned this week from a 10 day trip to London (our first). My first suggestion is that you check out the tripadvisor forum on London. It’s very helpful. There were several things we did to make the trip more affordable, despite the poor exchange rate of dollar to pound. The absolute best was to buy a 7 day travelcard at any rail station (do not get an oyster card; the travel card needs to be paper, and printed on railroad stock, which will be the case for any 7 day card issued by any of the 10 or so rail stations in town). With this card, you will be eligible for the 2:1 discounts offered at many of the tourist attractions such as Hampton Court, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Churchhill Museum, Kensington Palace, etc. We saved over $250 in attraction costs alone with this card. In addition, for $48 (the cost of each card), you are covered for all transportation options in London, including bus & tube. It is truly an amazing money-saver, although there are a few restrictions (travel after 9:30 am for instance, but that was never an issue for us). We also rented a flat, and had breakfast at the flat each day, which saved a good deal of money. It also allowed us to feel as if we were real Londoners, with our own local bank, grocery, etc. We were in the Kensington area and loved it.
We took day trips to Hampton Court, Bath, Cambridge and Oxford. Bath was the favorite of all, by far. We were in Cambridge on a rainy day, so didn’t do the punting experience, but the best part of that day was Evensong at King’s College. We did feel that admission of $10/adult and $7/student into King’s College was unreasonable given that most of it was closed off due to exams. Evensong, which occurs at 5:30, is free, and since it’s in the chapel, basically the only place open during exams, we felt that we had wasted $34 at the gate earlier in the day. Trinity College, by contrast, was only $10 for the four of us, and the library there was astonishing. We did the hop-on tour, which got us into the center of town, but walked back. It really isn’t too much of a walk. Of the four of us, two preferred Cambridge, and two preferred Oxford, so it would be hard to choose which one.
A final thought is that taxi rates are very expensive. We had a car service to meet us at Heathrow and take us to our flat, and the cost was very reasonable. If you’re interested in the information, pm me and I will pass along the name and email address of the service which was recommended by the owner of the flat.</p>
Good point. When I’ve stayed at hotels near Heathrow, the concierge warns not to ‘just hail a taxi’ due to the high cost. The concierge calls for a taxi (I guess from certain companies) and the taxi driver can give you a business card which you call when you’re ready to return. It saves some bucks. You can also strike a deal with the taxi driver if you’re, for example, going from the center of London to the airport in a taxi. You can basically request a flat rate up front so you don’t have to be concerned if you get caught up in traffic with the meter going.</p>
<p>Some of the best and less expensive meals can be had in pubs so check them out. It also has more atmosphere than a restaurant. We ended up eating almost exclusively in pubs. They’re fine for the whole family. </p>
<p>Things will be expensive but try not to worry about it too much. Just go ahead and spend the money and make up for it after you get home.</p>
<p>Hi Candace: I think you would be brilliant to not do day trips outside of either London or Paris except maybe once each. Better to simply immerse in each city in my opinion as you will not be able to absorb either city if you are running around catching buses with the tourist trade. Start with the doubledecker or bike tours to get over your jet lag and get oriented, and then start living every day with the natives as much as humanly possible by finding the little places to eat that the natives prefer…and by getting on the “body clock” of each city…ie in London, the game is up by 9pm and little left to do after the theater is let out. “Everyone” is taking the bike tours of Paris these days and it is not rigorous as my least athletic friends in middle age do fine on them…great way to see the city in a more natural manner. If you do a day trip, Oxford is easy on the one day bus tours in and out…they run like clockwork. I personally felt that being “dropped” into Oxford that way was an eyeful, yes, but also felt very superficial and like we were part of a herd of sheep. Still, if you want a breath of the country side and flowers, a drive option in the Cotswalds will show you more of the true outside London life in England and it is a visual feast instead of a museum. London has so many gorgeous museums that if you leave town by all means go see some “green” space.
In London particularly, we found a very large number of men from Arab countries on summer holiday sans families/wives in Hyde Park hotels. It seems that they can afford five pounds for a cuppa tea and set the prices in some sectors. Dinner out with the works in London will set you waaay back without research and planning.
Musee de Cluny and The Rodin are favorites in Paris if like me you appreciate the jewels of the smaller sized venues…they do not overwhelm and leave a deep impression with only an hour per place required.
We saved money buying a book called The Peasant’s Guide to Paris and we were able to only eat with natives this way, although that was a long time ago…so I don’t know if such a guide is updated. No tourist places and the prices appealed to the locals and to us greatly. The “peasant” fare in Paris is heaven compared to the mid priced diet in the USA and affordable. I recommend reading the Slow Food UK and Slow Food France websites…which document an entire social movement near and dear to Europeans who come to France particularly to savor life rather than be harried. They have an ethos about eating that could lead you to better cuisine. I personally found shopping in Printemps and even in Harrods to be worth very little of my time and every minute I was in those places, I wish I could have back! The USA has good city dept stores. Eat in pubs when people are eating for business lunches so you can be part of real life in London.<br>
The best use of our money in London was going to the theater every single night with half price tix purchased that day. Why do the British excel at Theater and yet have so little inspiration in cuisine? Who knows. But if the Royal Shakespeare Company is presenting even the lowliest of titles, high thee over there. They make English well…sound as musical as French. And didn’t you leave a son in Durham (USA) the same time I did three years back? All best as you launch your second young adult…</p>
<p>We are in Paris first and need a way to our hotel. I thought we would take a taxi, but I am open to another way. Are all shuttles booked ahead? I don’t know if I would feel comfortable trying to take a train or a bus when I am so tired.</p>