The London Traveler

When you travel on the London Underground, you’re more than likely to hear the pleasant recorded voice of a woman announcing various stops and other various things on the trains.
Her name is Emma Clarke, and she was chosen out of a wide pool of applicants for the job. (The public could hear all of the applicants’ try-out tapes online.) Her voice is clear and hopefully makes traveling the Underground a lot better than other cities that rely on train operators to make the announcements. I remember traveling on the “El” in Chicago a number of years ago …read more

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London is a beautiful and dynamic city, but there’s a lot of England and Britain to be enjoyed outside of London. One of the best ways to see the countryside is by train. Below is a guide to the destinations that are served by each of London’s major mainline train stations.
Charing Cross – Dover
Waterloo – Portsmouth, Southhampton
Victoria – Brighton
Paddington – Bath, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea, Oxford
Euston – Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow
St. Pancras – Paris & Brussels (via Eurostar), Nottingham, Leicester
Kings Cross – Cambridge, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh
You can find train times and book tickets on line at the National Rail website.
Photo …read more

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When shopping for Christmas gifts, there is only one store you need to go to for toys… Hamleys. It is by far the greatest toy store in all of London.
Hamleys started as a toy shop back in 1760, and first had a Regent Street location in 1881. They moved into the current Regent Street premises in 1981. Spread over seven floors, it was once the largest toy store in the world.
Here is a quick guide to the floors:
5th – Boys
4th – Hobbies
3rd – Girls
2nd – Preschool
1st – Games
Ground – Soft toys
Basement – Interactive
I have to warn you, …read more

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Earlier this week I posted a Visitor’s Guide to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Today I’d like to talk about Thanksgiving in London… at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The United States and St. Paul’s have an interesting relationship. It was J. Pierpont Morgan who paid to have electricity installed in St. Paul’s back in 1903. After World War II, the British public paid to have the American Memorial Chapel built at the bomb-damaged eastern end of the church.
Each Thanksgiving, St. Paul’s opens its doors to Americans for a Thanksgiving service. As Thanksgiving is a very unique holiday, it’s a rather …read more

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Going to a British pub, for a beer or food, is one of those experiences that you have to have in London. Partly because it’s tough to avoid, but partly because you will never have a hope of understanding Britain unless you’ve spent at least a little time in the pub.

Opening Hours
Until recently, pubs closed at 11pm. There were other licensing laws that allowed other types of establishments to be open and serve drinks later (such as dance clubs, etc.), but pubs were limited to 11pm. New law recently came into effect which allows pubs to apply …read more

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When you’re traveling to London, I hope that you don’t spend very much time in your hotel. There are so many things to see and do in the city that you should never get bored.
That said, at the end of a long day it can be a bit relaxing to chill out with some television before bed, particularly on holiday. However, for those of you traveling with small children, there are some things you need to be aware of with late-night television.
The UK has a “watershed” time of 9pm. Before that time, adult content of any sort …read more

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St. Paul’s Cathedral is a London absolute MUST-SEE. It’s a landmark in the city, is incredibly beautiful, and is an architectural masterpiece.
There has been some sort of a church on the site since late Roman times. A previous church had been built in the Norman times (circa 1100-1200 AD) and it was one of the largest churches in Europe. Unfortunately, the Great Fire of London in 1666 massively damaged the wooden church building, and the decision was made to replace it completely.

The current St. Paul’s cathedral rose from the ashes. The famed architect Sir Christopher Wren …read more

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I’ve talked before about two big Christmas Light celebrations in London, on Oxford Street and Marylebone High Street.
This year looks to have an even bigger and better display on Regent Street, which will officially be lit up on Tuesday, November 20th.
Nokia is sponsoring this years’ display, named UNITY, which is a bit of a nice break from past years where cartoon characters from holiday films have been featured. Nokia is opening a flagship store on Regent Street, and have sponsored the lights in celebration of the store opening.
As a bit of a geek, I like how they describe this …read more

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From the infamous Arthur Frommer (who has a blog!), a reader of his sends some valuable tips to save money when traveling in London.
In London we stayed in LSE [London School of Economics] university housing that was available during the spring break. We paid about £34 per person per night, and this also included a full breakfast and access to laundry facilities. We were in Bloomsbury, close to three tube stops, and the bus stop was a block from the hotel. We ate semi-fast food for lunch, often Pret a Manger or something from a Tesco [Supermarket]. Sometimes …read more

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My friend Jay from Minnesota recently sent me a link to a fascinating AFP article as found on Yahoo. The title? “Die and you’re under arrest!”
Every country, state, and city have oddball laws on the books. Most of them haven’t been officially stricken simply because they’ve been made obsolete by other laws, but they’re still “on the books.”
The article lists the top ten ridiculous laws in Britain, as voted by about 4000 people. My favourites are these:

It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless …read more

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