London 

Never imagined, I would be visiting London. Like Paris, London has a lot of history and no better place to get to know this better than the Museums. London is a city of Museums. There are a lots of museums, very well maintained and up to date and best part is all most all are free and with easy access by Tube (underground rail system of London).

We planned our stay in a service apartment. London has certain strict policies on stay. Hotel/Service apartments are very strict on how many beds/bedrooms you can book based on the size of the family. Since we were 2 Adults and 2 kids, we had to minimum book at 2 bedroom service apartment. Also while booking, we ensured the place is within city limits and closer to a tube station. This saved a lot of time and money and we also had easy access to super markets, places to eat etc.

We had booked our service apartment with Chelsea Cloisters, few min walk from south Kensington - tube station. This was a professional/business service apartment. This was recommended by my cousin, who has stayed her for couple of months when she was travelling on business.

After spending 9 days in Paris, where there was a dread for English Language, felt great that we could communicate to people in English and could easily shop and place an order in the restaurant. We traveled from Paris to London by Euro Star. We had started from Paris in the morning and we were in our London Service apartment by lunch time. We checked-in and stepped out as we weren't tired at all. Had a good Italian food at a small joint close to Kensington station. How much ever we try to convince ourselves not to do currency conversion - it is just inevitable :( Eating out in London is pretty expensive.

After lunch, we walk to the Kensignton station, and purchased the tube pass for the family. It is best to buy the pass based on the duration of the stay. From here we walked to National History Museum (this is right behind the tube station).

Fri 11th May 2012

Museum of Natural History

Museum of Natural History

This museum is a huge stone building and very kids friendly. Entry is free. Atleast 4-5 hours is required to cover the important sections in the museum. Such places are filled with so much of information and in so many ways - even if you just glance through each section, you would have gathered much more knowledge than any book can provide.

Victoria and Albert Museum, is 0.2 miles from Natural History Museum

This is another huge museum and very close to Museum of Natural History. We did not spend much time here. We were a little tired. There was an exhibition of Royal Gowns at the museum. This showcased the richness of royal family. It was superb. From here we walked back to our service apartment and called it end of the day.

Sat 12th May 2012

British Library

This is a must visit. It is s huge library and very old. During our visit, there was an exhibition of ancient scripts - some of them very very old. This library is almost like a museum. We spent about an hour and then took tube to

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

This is definitely worth visiting. It is a whole day trip and must visit. There are trains from Waterloo station and it would take about 30-45 min. Get down at Hampton Court Place station and it is a short walk to the place. Entrance to the palace is covered by London Pass. 

This palace is built of stone and is huge. The palace is surrounded by huge gardens which are very well maintained. Don't miss the maze in the garden - kids will love it.There are lot of activities, exhibitions running at any point. These will keep changing from time-to-time. You can get a broucher at the entrance and then plan your day. The palace also has a good cafe. It gets crowded at lunch time and could increase your wait time. It is better to plan the lunch slightly earlier if you don't want to waste time waiting for a table. If you have seen Bangalore Palace, you will realize how much influence the Tudor style has on it architecture. More details http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/

We spent the whole day at this palace. By the time we reached our room, it was late evening.

Sun 13th May 2012

We had planned for an entire day at Greenwich. There are lot of attractions here and an entire day can be spent. This to see are

• Greenwich park
• Astronomy Center (must see)
• Planetarium 
• Royal Observatory (must see. Even now, every day at 1pm, red time ball at Royal Observatory continues to drop) 
• Flamstead house and Meridian Courtyard
• Queen's house
• Maritime museum

Mon 14th May 2012

 St Paul’s Cathedral

A must see. The visit will take about 2 hours. There are about 250 steps to reach the dome and it is worth climbing these steps. Best is to reach the cathedral as early as possible, so that you can beat the queue if you wish to climb to the dome. The views are fantastic. Timings are form 8:30 AM to 4:30pm and it is closed on Sunday. The architecture of the cathedral is beautiful. The painting on the dome are magnificent.

Monument (0.6 miles from St. Pauls, can walk)

Next we walked to the monument, which is about 0.6 miles from St. Pauls cathedral. We explored it from outside. we skipped climbing 300+ steps to the top. This was covered by London pass

London Bridge Experience (0.4 miles from monument)

We saw ads to this everywhere and many travel portals also mentioned this as must see for kids. Trusting all this, we decided to visit this place. The kids however were very skeptical from the time we entered the place and waiting in the queue. It was very spooky. We kept telling kids, it will be ok. However as soon as we entered, the kids were very scared. The whole experience is not meant for kids and can leave them shattered for long time. We requested to staff to show us the first possible exit. The kids were really scared. I don't think this place should be visited by kids below 15 years and if you are a person who does not like spooky, haunted experience - please avoid this.

Tower of London 

Must see place. This place is about 2 miles from St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was covered by London Pass. This will take 3-4 hours to see the entire place. Tower of London is right across river Thames. The whole place is built of stone and can be easily spotted. Must see places here are The Crown Jewels - which has the exhibits of all the royal jewels including the Kohinoor diamond, the Tower Torture, White Tower and Medieval Palace. More details http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/ 

Tower Bridge

Opening of Bridge - Tower Bridge

from Tower of London, we walked to Tower Bridge. We waited to see the bridge open and worth the experience. Opening of Bridge to let the ships through may not be everyday. You will need to check the schedule and plan your visit. The schedules are on display in many resturants, supermarkets and also on the web. Visit to the Tower Bridge museum is also good. We got to see the working of hydrolic pumps and how the engines work.

Tue 15th May 2012

Shakespeare’s globe

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/exhibition

Good tour, if you are interested in the history. Guides will take you on a tour of the iconic Globe Theatre, bringing the space to life with colourful stories of the 1599 Globe, of the reconstruction process in the 1990s, and of how the ‘wooden O’ works today as an imaginative and experimental theatrical space.

Tours begin every 30 minutes, and are in English.

Kensington Palace

This Covered by London Pass. Everyday 10am to 6:00pm. It would take an hour to cover the palace.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/

Hyde Park/Kensington gardens

If you get time nice place to visit this park. 

Later in the evening we went to the city to check out if there were tickets available for the Lion King Musical. We bought 4 tickets (which costed us a bomb) and enjoyed the musical. This is something which should not be missed in London. It was mind blowing and icing on the cake was it was Lion King Musical - which is our all time favorite. The whole experience was amazing and the kids were awed as this was their first musical experience.

Wed 16th May 2012

Parliament Building

Queen’s Gallery @ Buckingham Palace

This is covered by London pass. 10am to 5:30pm. 10 to 11 finish this. Then go to change of guard @ 11:30

Change of Royal Guard @ 11:30am

This is more for been there - done it. There is lot of crowd to see the parade. It is worth a watch.

Royal Mews @ Buckingham Palace

This is covered by London pass. 10am to 5pm.

West Minister Abbey

A must see. It is beautiful and has lot of interesting stuff. It requires atleast 3-4 hours to see the whole place. This is covered  by  London pass.  9:30am to 7pm (last entry 6pm)

Big Ben and Parliament buildings

Tourists aren't allowed inside. It can be seen from outside. You can see it while walking towards West Minister Abbey.

London Eye/Thames River Cruise

We skipped the London Eye as we had got a good view of London from the top of St. Pauls Church. We  however took the cruise on Thames River. The cruise was relaxing as we had been on our foot for the whole day.

Free all day hop-on-hop-off ticket - The Red Rover Ticket
Normal ticket price: Adult: £13.50 Child: £6.50

From London Eye, the last boat is at 18:55.

Thu 17th May 2012

British Museum

This museum is free. Actually all museums in London are free. This is huge and would require atleast a day to do justice Free. 10am to 5:30pm.

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Harry Potter Studio

Must see for Harry Potter Fans.  http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/en/your-visit/getting-here

Remember you cannot buy tickets at the attraction. All tickets must be bought in advance. 

Plan to arrive at the Studio Tour 20 minutes before your tour time. If you have an email booking confirmation you will need to pick up your tickets from the kiosks outside of the attraction.

The tour is estimated to take approximately three hours, however, as the tour is mostly self guided, you are free to explore the attraction at your own pace.

Fri 18th May 2012

Science Museum

Must see if you are travelling with kids. Minimum of one full day is required to explore. Check out for the special events and plan accordingly.

Everyday 10am to 6:00pm

 .

Trafalgar Square and National Gallery

In the evening we visited the Trafalgar Square. Nothing much to see here, except it is landmark and right across this is the National Gallery. Most of these buildings are a monument in itself. We skipped going into the National Gallery as we were pretty tired. By now we were exhausted with lots of information across different museums. Europe has lot of history and best part is they have been successful in preserving it and making it interesting for tourists to visit and appreciate it.

Sat 19th May 2012

 Oxford

Oxford Campus

Visit to London is incomplete without a visit to one of the prestigious universities. According to me, a visit to either Oxford or Cambridge should be included in everybody's itenanry. Given enough time, we would have visited both. But since we had only one more day, we planned to visit Oxford.

There are trains available for Oxford (and this is the best mode to travel). It takes about an hour from downtown London.Travel Card does not work for the Oxford train. You can use it to get to the station in London to board the Oxford train. Minimum of one full day is required to cover the campus. Once we reached oxford, we choose to go with the hop-on-hop-off bus facility for the oxford tour. This option is best as the tour covers all the important landmarks and also the audio guide on the bus helps identify important monuments, buildings and events.

The visit here brings lot of inspiration - hopefully the kids will get inspired and strive to study in such universities.

Sun 20th May 2012

It was time to pack our bags and bid good bye. It was a wonderful trip and every moment cherished. We were also looking forward to getting back home to some indian spicy-tangy food - especially Rasam/Rice. We did carry a lot of MTR read to eat packets, gongura pickle, rice, noodles and soups. But nothing like a full meal at home. It felt good to be back after almost 20 days of trip.