Valentine’s Day – a tale of two cities
The Romantic City – I’m in lurve
You can’t have failed to notice that Valentine’s day is coming up. And if you’re in love, and want to show it, what could be nicer – London can be one of the most romantic cities in the world.
Now you could, if you wanted to, take a Valentine’s trip on the London Eye. It’s been decorated with a huge heart for the occasion, and offers special ‘Red Rose Flights’ and ‘Champagne Flights’. But it will cost you – £20 for the red rose and £33/35 for the champagne one. Or, from the same site, you could book a 45 minute river cruise. In the air or on the water – or both – your choice.
But I’m more tempted to head off to the National Gallery, which is offering a free guided tour themed specially for Valentine’s Day. Meet up at the Sainsbury Wing information desk at 1130 or 230 to get your romance with some culture. (And it’s free.)
But you know, you don’t have to get anyone else to make London romantic. Just take a nice leisurely walk along the Thames Embankment. Or go to Little Venice, where the canal with its narrowboats, pretty houses and little bridges looks stunning – a great lunchtime walk (Warwick Avenue tube station). City types can head for Exmouth Market, in Clerkenwell, a bustling but strangely evocative market street with a superb florist’s, The Black Tulip.
The unromantic city – Bah, humbug!
But then again, maybe you’re a hard bitten cynic who knows Valentine’s day is just a way for restaurants to jack their prices up and florists to make easy money. Or maybe you’re not in love – maybe you don’t want to be reminded of romance. Okay, London has some places for you, too.
First up, the London Dungeon in Tooley Street, near London Bridge Station. If you think Valentine’s Day is torture – this is real torture! You can even experience the final moments of a condemned man on the gallows with an ‘attraction’ called ‘The drop ride to doom’.
Nearby is the old Operating Theatre of St Thomas’s Hospital for further torture. (I had my wisdom teeth out in the new hospital here – but if you’re after gory detail you’ll be disappointed; thanks to one of the nicest anaesthetists I’ve ever met, it didn’t hurt a bit.) It’s a remarkably gruesome attraction and makes you feel very grateful that medical science has advanced since the nineteenth century.
And to set the seal on a truly horrid Valentine’s experience take one of the London Horror Tours, led by a guide in Victorian dress. Vampires, ghosts, Sherlock Holmes or Jack the Ripper – they’ve got it all.
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[...] us about the best of times and the worst of times regarding Valentine’s Day in London with A Tale of Two Cities. Ken at The Vancouver Traveler suggests that we take to the water in his post [...]
[...] tells us about the best of times and the worst of times regarding Valentine’s Day in London with A Tale of Two Cities. Ken at The Vancouver Traveler suggests that we take to the water in his post Valentine’s [...]