First draft of itinerary

I often will make an itinerary when traveling from town to town or country to country. I used to make plans within cities to see specific travel sights and eat at "famous" restaurants, however my time spent planning was essentially a waste of time. I usually found the restaurant menus not to my liking--or they were too expensive.
Make yourself a list of things you'd like to do, but don't make up a set schedule. Trips have a natural schedule and locking yourself into being somewhere at specific times can often tire you out and make the trip a blur.
Our 1 hour bus and train ride into Rome last Saturday ended up taking 5.5 hours. So much of the world runs on "their time" and that makes keeping up with schedules out of our control.

I do understand, but that makes it a bit difficult to lock in tickets for museum exhibits and advance fares on train tickets.

Hi Sandra,

We like a lot of the same things and your itinerary looks excellent! I have some additions but I know the hard part is to stop adding stuff, so I hope you will forgive me.

I am not sure you can get dinner at Cafe in the Crypt but it looks like you have done your homework, so I'll assume you already checked that. In any event there are lots of places to get food around Trafalgar Square so no worries.

If you have time and there is an opportunity I would suggest a tour of Somerset House on the day you go to the Courtauld Gallery. Somerset House is really interesting.

Dulwich Picture Gallery is lovely but on that potential free day I would pick a trip to Greenwich. Things to see there: the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House, the Old Royal Navy College, the Cutty Sark, and St. Alfege Church. You can also walk up the hill to the Royal Observatory and see the Prime Meridian if you feel energetic. To get to or from Greenwich you could consider a boat ride.

My favourite place is Kew Gardens, easy to reach on the Tube via the District Line, and I can spend the whole day there easily, followed by a short bus ride to Richmond for the evening on the riverside. (My favourite is the White Cross pub, have had several good meals there.) If you don't feel like going to Kew on the day before you leave, maybe a trip to Chelsea instead? You can visit Chelsea Physic Garden (well worth it and they also do a nice lunch), and have a good wander in Chelsea or along the river.

I like what you've put together. The Oxford tour should be fun. I'm a Morse fan too.

Hope to hear how your trip went.

Cheers,

Jill

Kew would be lovely in June. From the area of the IMW, where you are staying, you could get there by rail ( not tube) from Waterloo Station to Richmond. Buses run by the front of the station directly to the main Kew Gate.

Chelsea Physic Garden is another great idea. It is small and very interesting. When we went last May, we returned to our apartment downriver by taking a river boat, with nice views of the city and all the bridges.

I see that Brompton Cemetery's tours are on Sundays, so I'll have to switch that one around.

SandraL, seems like not long ago you were looking forward to your first trip to Britain. Now you're on your fifth, good job! Obviously you've been to the real "biggies" and now you're digging deeper.

My only thought would be that the Courtauld Gallery doesn't require a whole day, a couple of hours should be plenty, you could schedule that around whatever the talk is. Hopefully you can also do the Brompton Cemetery tour that day.

Dick, my first trip was in 1984, second in '86 and third in '87. Last year was my 4th. I can see why you might think last year was my first, though!!
Thanks for the suggestions, all! I'll keep working on the plans.

I took the London Walks "Blitz" tour last month and enjoyed it. Besides information specific to WW2, our tour guide pointed out sights relevant to the general history of the City of London, including Postman's Park where we stopped in for 5-10 minutes to view the memorial to heroic self-sacrifice. The tour ends back at St Paul's tube station around 430-445 pm, so if you would like to go inside St Paul's, you could attend Evensong at 5 pm as worshipers (closed to tourists); the service lasted about 45 min if I recall correctly.

Dinner in the Cafe in the Crypt was just the ticket. Had a slice of delicious chicken and leek pie. I had been warned that sometimes they run out of menu items by suppertime, but I didn't run into that problem. You MUST try the apple crumble with warm custard sauce. It's huge, so perfect for sharing.

May I also suggest the Wallace Collection (free), if you have a spare 1-2 hours? That's on my list for June, being highly recommended by a friend.

Have a wonderful trip!

Julie--thank you for the info about the Blitz Walk and St. Paul's. That's very helpful!
I have indeed had the apple crumble--and I ate it all by myself. Just about every bit of it!! One of my favorite desserts.
I was to tea at the Wallace Collection but did not visit the museum itself.

You're welcome! I didn't share the apple crumble with anyone either. :)

It looks great to me! I function better with a fairly detailed itinerary. I'm fine if it changes but I like to have a few goals each day.

I hope you do a Trip Report again, I really liked reading about your last trip. I particularly would like your comments on the Oxford tour.

In case you enjoy Canaletto, I just got an email yesterday from the Royal Collection indicating the Queens Gallery is opening an exhibition with his work in Venice on May 19.

https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/canaletto-the-art-of-venice/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace?utm_source=epc_Canaletto_subscribers&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=canaletto

I really enjoyed the Wallace Collection last year and could kick myself for not having gotten by there before. I went to the Courtauld 2 years ago and really enjoyed it as well. There was a very interesting sculpture exhibit in the courtyard to Somerset House at that time.

Also, when you do Westminster Abbey, I suggest the extra 5GBP for the Verger tour. You do get to go in to the tomb area of Edward the Confessor which you normally can't get to. I also downloaded the free Audio guide onto my phone before I went. I liked that better than holding the large one they hand out and I walked around with it before and after my Verger tour.

Did you do the Churchill War Rooms last year? That is convenient to Westminster Abbey if it's of interest.

Pam, thanks for the tip re: the Verger tour. I will definitely do that.
No, haven't been to the Churchill War Rooms. I will consider that!

Here is the link to the times for the Verger tours. I got there at opening at 930 and was put on the 1st tour at 10A, so I wandered around on my own for about 25 minutes with the downloaded audio guide.

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/verger-guided-tours