Can Energizer Bunnies Survive These 7 Days During a Strike and Bank Holiday?

I know you are saving the Tower of London so that you can use the 2 for 1, but I'd do it on one of the tube strike days and forego the discount. You can easily walk to the Tower from Whitechapel and I'm going to guess that if you got there early, you might find shorter queues than normal on a strike day. It will take most tourists a bit of time to regroup and find alternate transportation.

You might also consider the Jewish Quarter London Walk on Friday morning. You'll learn a lot about the neighborhood that you are staying in and if Harry is guiding, he is a very entertaining guide.

Excellent suggestions, Laura. I'll have to ponder switching the Tower of London. I really wanted to see the Portobello Market and the V&A stays open late on Friday. We can get there using two Overgrounds and a bus which isn't too bad. On the other hand, those Overgrounds could be really busy on Friday morning. Luckily, we are right next to the Whitechapel station which is an Overground stop. I've heard that the London Walks Jewish Quarter tour is very good and I might be able to fit it in on Sunday morning. Judy or Shaughn are the guides. Thank you!

I agree with Laura. In the event of Tube Strike Action on Fri 28th I would have a plan to do Tower of London in the morning and take DLR to Greenwich in the afternoon.

With x5 London Walks scheduled I would find that a little too overloaded.

I would still go for Kew Gardens after Hampton Court, even with a possible Tube Strike. Take a bus back to Richmond from Kew Gardens, then National Rail to Clapham Junction for London Overground to Whitechapel.

What happened to the British Museum ??

Just my opinion, but the London Walks are even better than the Paris Walks!

Good luck with your strike-coinciding visit. I'm so glad you're planning ahead and are aware so that you can make the most of your time in London and not have to rejigger with a surprise upon arrival. I wish the strike weren't affecting your visit so much, but I admire your adaptability and forethought!

The walks are excellent. Paris came after London was a success.

A big agree that a strike day is the perfect day to do the Tower.

A great idea is the one you came up with of missing the Notting Hill Carnival. It will be a madhouse, as will be everything around there. That's not the day to try Portobello Market.

Agree with the excellent advice you've received above to swop your Friday itinerary and go to the Tower of London instead - really convenient to walk from Shoreditch. The loss of discount you would get from the 2for1 offer will be more than made up by the likely quieter lines at the Tower on a tube strike Friday and the loss of the hassle of trying to get to Portobello Market from your starting point - I really wouldn't try to get across London on a tube strike day unless I absolutely had to.

I'm another fan of London Walks, try to do one of their walks every now and then - as you don't have to book you can ditch (or add) to your itinerary depending on how things go. If you don't have the paper version of their summer schedule, try to get one from the first guide you are with - I find the paper schedule much easier to follow than their often confusing/overloaded website. (Or you can get the paper versions from the information desks by the Crypt cafe at St Martins in the Fields.)

I've one suggestion, and it involves your London Walks (which we love, and try to do as many as we find that interest us and fir our schedule.

You are going to be pretty seriously jet-lagged on Wednesday, do you want to be on that walk that late? In particular, if you reschedule so that you can do the Jack-the Ripper on Friday evening instead, you have a really good chance that it will be led by Donald Rumbelow. This is practically his life's work, and his walk is the best. Did it in April, we are currently finishing his book.

Grrrr....ok my friends....I'm making the switch and moving Tower of London to Friday as you have wisely and emphatically suggested. Brisbane David, I'm keeping Kew Gardens and the British Museum on my quiet list. You don't see them and if we don't get to them, all will be well. However, I'm keeping as many of those walks in as I can. I know it might seem a lot but we were so enthralled with the Paris versions that we ditched pre-purchased Giverny tickets so that we could take one more. I remember the Paris Walks owner telling us that his were modeled after London's (he was a Brit). Please! Keep the suggestions coming!! You're my best friends!

Just read your post, Larry, and moving Jack the Ripper to Friday night really fits with that new Tower day schedule. You've just brightened my reluctant attitude to make that switch and walk with Donald. (We don't usually suffer much jet lag so that wasn't a huge worry.) You're talking to people who drove out of Heathrow and headed to East Midlands past Lumbertubb Road for two hours on our first trip to England two years ago.

Check with London Walks when you get there to see if in fact Don Rumbelow is leading that Friday night. The schedule says Donald or Shaughan, the Brochure says Don, Andy, or Richard. I said Friday because that is what his was in the Spring, which we did. But note that both the online schedule and the Brochure say that the Sunday night tour is also led by Don, which might also fit your schedule nicely. The Brochure says Sunday led by Don or Molly, what it does not say is that Molly is Don's wife. When we did this, she took the leftover group that was too big to go with Don, and I am sure she also does a great job. Though she is not the showman that Don is.

But you need to check, as a link on the London Walks site (http://www.walks.com/Popups/Don_post-knee_op_dates/popupwindow.aspx) has Don's schedule for this walk, and currently it appears that he WON'T be leading this walk while you are there, looks like he had/is having a knee replaced.

A more logical Sunday perhaps ...
Sun, Aug 30
09:30 Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre - tours run every 30 minutes (9:30-11:30) and last approx 30 mins
11:00 Tate Britain
14:00 London Walks Shakespeare’s & Dickens’ London “The Old City” (from St Pauls Tube)
1630 St Pauls Organ Recital and Eucharist (finishes 7pm)
19:30 London Walks Haunted London (from Monument Tube)

Thanks so much Larry and Brisbane David. Now that there is no tube strike on Thursday, I'm back to reworking things...but still keeping the Tower tour on Friday.

You are welcome Kay. But I do hate it when I give what should be good advice from our experience, and then discover I was wrong when i try to help even more. Sorry about that. But you are going to have a fantastic trip. It is hard to go wrong in London. "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life."

Gosh, Larry, I'll bet you give lots of wonderful inside tips that make dreams come true. After all, one can't predict knee surgery and we just know that Donald will be back on track soon. I've seen amazing results from it. We might not have Donald as our guide, but I was greatly encouraged by you to make sure we take that particular walk. We're excited for our first trip to London and looking on the bright side of the Tube walk....we can consume more beverages and food because we've walked our booties off.