My friend Chuck and I went to London for a week in late March/early April. We are both in our 50’s. He works a full-time job and takes care of his elderly mother who fell and broke a hip in the fall. He did most of the planning, and it gave him a bit of an escape from his daily life to do that. Me? I spent most of the winter working like a dog… a dog who loves what he does… but it’s still tiring. So, we were both looking forward to a one-week break in London. It was my second trip to London, but my first trip was for work several years ago, and I just wandered central London during that trip.
Transportation
I remain a bit of a Delta fan boy. We flew from our local southern airport to Atlanta and on to London Heathrow. The transatlantic flight was on a Boeing 767-400ER, which was a really nice plane despite being 20 years old. We were in regular coach, but it didn’t seem claustrophobic at all. A bit of aviation geekery: The 400ER was the least popular variant of the B767; only 38 airframes were delivered; 21 of those were delivered to Delta. The return flight was on an A330neo in Economy Comfort. Those extra 3 inches of legroom… I have to admit they did indeed make the trip more pleasant.
Transportation within London was primarily via the tube. I was not motivated to get an oyster card. I had read on the London transportation website that tapping a credit card would produce the same rate, so I just tapped my Delta AMEX. It was quite easy. I ended up spending around $7 per day on the tube. Perhaps others can tell me whether I did good… or bad. We also had some train trips to nearby locales during our trip; trains were easy to use.
Hotel
Premiere Inn County Hall. It was chosen based on recommendations from this site. Location 5 out of 5. Bed comfort 5 out of 5. Staff 5 out of 5. Room design 3 out of 5. Breakfast 3 out of 5. Internet 3 out of 5.
Clothing
Full MAGA. Every Brit I encountered loved it. Just kidding. I wore what I always wear. Which is pretty non-descript. Jeans and a button-down shirt. With a University of Kentucky sweatshirt on the chilly days. No one cared. One German stopped me because of the Kentucky sweatshirt to say he had lived in Seattle for a while and proceeded to tell me about his experience of the US. Which was positive. When the guide at Bletchley Park asked our tour group if anyone was an American (a set up for a joke about computers), I slowly raised my hand. I was the only American amongst a group of 32. No one cared. But I did get some questions at the end of the tour about my personal thoughts on US-western Europe relations and on the political climate in the US.
Activities
I will rate the activities on scale of 1 to 5.
• 5 = amazing
• 4 = average
• 3 = terrible (recommend others avoid)
• 2 = pretty cool
• 1 = also pretty cool.
Check that. I will go instead with the more traditional 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing).
British Library (3). We took the Treasures tour on our day of arrival. Interesting tour. Good guide. We passed through 2 locked doors to see an enigma machine. That was by far the highlight for me. Magna Carta, Magna Schmarta. Of note, several treasures from the Magna Carta room had been removed due to temperature/humidity issues in the cases. Chuck and I talked to the guide after the tour. Chuck told his favorite thing; I told mine – the enigma machine. The guide highly recommended Bletchley Park, which was not on my radar but rocketed to the top of the list of things I wanted to see in London