itinerary input for 48 hours in London

Monday morning stands out to me as a particularly tight schedule, seeing Westminster Abbey and Kensington Palace AND shopping for your picnic all before lunchtime. (Unless you're planning on a very late lunch - you don't say what time you're leaving London.)

Also: You'll see Tower Bridge when you go to the Tower of London, and you'll see Big Ben (or rather, the tower that he's in - Big Ben is the bell) when you go to Westminster Abbey. And London Bridge isn't really much to look at, IMO.

Its a bit of a hump from your Paddington area hotel to Portobello Road Market. Would be a good way to get rid of your jet lag but if you aren't everyday walkers might be too long a stroll. Get an Oyster card at Paddington Station. You can buy from Kiosks with a CC or at ticket window. For 3 Days 15 pounds should surfice. This will be key to the city to see the sites you've listed and more. Try to get one of the free small pocket sized tube maps to carry with you as well. Invaluable!

As far as your itinerary I suspect 2 hours will be enough to see Portobello Road. From Abbey Road I'd consider taking the Jubilee Line to the Westminster Tube Station. Exit and see Parliament Square ( Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey). If not too exhausted walk up Whitehall past the Horse Guards to Trafalgar Square and have dinner in the St Martins of the Field crypt. Tube back to your hotel or walk to Leceister Square and then to the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus. Then tube back to your hotel. Or another option from Parliament Square is walk up Birdcage Walk through St James Park to Buckingham Palace. Depending on your stamina its about a 25 minute walk from there to Selfridges or you could take the tube from Green Park to Bond Street which takes 5 minutes.

As far as seeing London Bridge, its in Arizona.

Tower Bridge is an easy stroll from the Tower of London and if you don't have vertigo the Tower Bridge experience might be your cup of tea. Best way to appreciate Westminster Abbey is to pay for a Vergers tour. Not cheap but oh so informative. Otherwise move through with the hordes with the audio paddle. And if you are at Kensington Palace and Gardens you could picnic at the Round Pond or if your Paddington Hotel is near the Lancaster Gate tube station enjoy your food at the Italian Gardens in Hyde Park which are across the road from Lancaster Gate.

The tube will get you around London in a timely manner. Enjoy your brief visit. Try not to rush.

Be sure to check the websites of each attraction....we, too, have only two days in London, and were dismayed to find that Westminster Abbey, one of our must-sees, was closed on one of the days we were there (Friday, May 20) and open only 12:30 to 15:30 on the other day (Thursday, May 19). We thus had to redo our plan to allow getting there on Thursday.

Curious: Why visit Westminster twice? (once for service and once for a tour, I'm guessing?)

For me, what stands out is the logistics of Sunday. 8 am Mass, which would last a solid hour. (so, 9) Walk to Buckingham for a picture and then to the tube (assuming going to the St James Park tube station to catch the district or circle to the Tower) is about 45 minutes if you're not speed walking. And then tube itself to the Tower is about 30 minutes, so you would get there about 10:15, yes. I'm given to understand that many people will spend 4 hours at the tower, which brings you to 2pm, which gives you an hour before the evensong at St Pauls. For lack of a better term, it just seems frantic and leaves me feeling tired and hungry.

If you're going to go "back" to Westminster the next day for a 9:30 tour, why not go to the 8am Monday mass at Westminster and stay for the 9:30 tour instead of revisiting twice? You could even shuffle it around and do the Sunday morning mass at St Pauls which is much closer to the Tower.

That would explain it. Thanks, Emma.

One of these days, this heathen has got to learn what all those differences are.

Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate the input and links. Saturday evening mass at W.C. sounds like a good way to free up a bit of time for Sunday morning. I will do some more "studying" and planning, but have decided that we will take the time to really enjoy what we do get to see and not stress over all the things we don't have time for. :-)

Our trip was successful! Thanks again for everyone's help.

And just to help others, here is how it went for us:

SAT
-arrived at Heathrow about 9:00 AM
-took Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and stowed our luggage early at our hotel nearby
-took tube to Westminster Station to see Parliament, Westminster Abbey...just soak it in..(this was bad timing, as there was a FLOOD of people coming from the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace)
-took river cruise over to Tower Bridge/Tower of London area to soak that in
-took tube to Notting Hill and enjoyed Portobello Road Market
-took tube to St. John's Wood, then walked to Abbey Road crossing...it was calm for about 5 seconds, then nuts...the same people crossing back and forth to get tons of pics...one young girl said, "who walked here?" as she was preparing to cross and get her pic lol
-went to hotel

SUN
-8AM mass at Westminster Cathedral
-walked over to tour Royal Mews
-toured Queen's Gallery next door
-walked around the corner and took pics in front of Buckingham Palace
-walked through St. James Park (lovely pics with Palace in background one direction, then the Eye the other)
-took tube at Westminster Station to Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels (30 min wait in line for jewels, but worth it)
-Evensong at St. Paul's
-dinner out then back to hotel

MON
-took tube to Tower and walked across Tower Bridge, then caught tube to Westminster Abbey
-Westminster Abbey tour first thing (it was much LESS busy as we were leaving)
-tube to High Street Kensington Station then walked over to Kensington Palace
-toured Kensington Palace, ate at cafe there
-checked out of hotel then caught train out of town

The tube was great! We asked questions of staff in stations, as needed. They were very helpful. Oyster cards are awesome. We had London Passes, and maybe broke even on them, but will not purchase them next time. I would just buy site tickets in advance, as needed.

Loved our England rail pass (purchased through this site) for the remainder of the 14 days of our trip, as we stayed in a total of 9 different towns (with visits to others as well). It was so nice to NOT be on a time constraint. This probably cost me an extra $100-150 for the trip, but worth it to me.

Everywhere we went people were genuinely kind. Our fave place to stay by far was Robinsbrook near Cockermouth. The Lake District is like a fairytale everywhere you turn. Loved England and cannot wait to return.

Thanks again for everyone's help. :-)

Thanks for the follow up. So pleased to hear you had a lovely visit!