Fly in from Los Angeles non-stop to Gatwick on Norwegian. Arrived 30 minutes early! Flying Norwegian was just what I expected from a budget airline . . . Worth the savings.
Stayed at the Rushmore Hotel, 2 minutes from Earl's Court Station. Just like the airline, a budget hotel that met our needs, including being quiet (which usually is a luck of the draw of the other customers). Only negative was crappy wifi, which was supposed to be throughout hotel, and often was out even by the office.
On our first London trip in 2009, we did many of the typical must-sees. Here's our highlights from this year:
*Kensington Palace: learned quite a bit about Queen Victoria
*Imperial War Museum. Wonderfully done. Very poignant. WWI was especially powerful. There was a sign cautioning parents regarding taken a child into the Holocaust section. I hope parents disregard this warning. Kids need to see what evil looks like.
*British Museum. 2 nd visit, with focus on Latin America. Well-preserved and fascinating artifacts.
*British Library. Highlights room was quite memorable, from Beatles to Beowulf to Bibles.
*Harrod's is immense, but no interest in going back (the missus has a different take on this)
*Greenwich was a fun and informative day Took the Thames cruise from Westminster (nice change of pace). Could have stayed 4 hours at the observatory, but only had 1.5. Maritime Museum was worth the 1.5 hrs. We regretted spending the 45 minutes at the Cutty Sark, and the 10 minutes at Queen's House wasn't worth our time, as viewing the dozens of paintings did nothing for us. We were clueless about the DLR train regarding zones . . .just lack of info and experience on our part
*Trooping of the Colours was SO worth the time. Arrived on The Mall at 10, saw the bands and royalty, stayed and saw them on the return. Good conversation with a couple of Brits during the wait time. 2.5 hours well spent
Restaurants for dinner: Mimino (Georgian) in Kensington was a return for us. Only time having food from that country . . .yum! LayaLina (Lebanese) across from Harrod's. Delicious, good value.
Thanks to so many who posted questions and answers on this forum . . .you (and Rick's book) made this leg of our trip so smooth. We'll be back for four more days at the end of our trek in a month from now.