I'm an Spanish who is going to stay in London three months. It would be grateful to share my experiences with all of us, and I need as well some advices about how to do and to see in London. Someone wants to help me?
I,m staying already in London. I live with a family and I,m working as an aupair, but no a lot of hours. I have time to go out and visiting London. Are you from London?
Some of the world's best museums are in London... and they're FREE!!!
There's the Victoria and Albert, the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Natural History Museum, the Hunterian, the British Museum, British Library, National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, Sir John Soanes Museum (costs 1 pound), the Imperial War Museum...
For great sites that you have to pay to get into, but which are amazing and you can spend hours and hours in are the Cabinet War Rooms, the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Westminster Abbey...
Get yourself a guidebook and explore! I like the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide for London because it is laid out geographically and there are lots of pictures so you get to see what is nearby.
I think you will probably find yourself in the best of all possible positions - in a big city with time enough to explore it. I always think that, apart from the fine museums and other things that cities have to offer, the hardest thing for a tourist to do is really get under the skin of a city. Cities are fun because you have a particular route that you like to take, or a favourite bakery or dry cleaners etc. and those types of experiences take time to be built up. I think that a 3 month stay will give you a chance to become acquainted with the real working London.
As I assume you will be living in one of the suburbs, my tip would be to suggest that you become familiar with various bus routes as they allow you to see all the different neighbourhoods as you travel. The underground is good for getting you places quickly but you get no sense of where you are. This site is essential for getting information on all your travel requirements.
Have fun.
Beebee
Posts: 1954 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
By the way, I worked as an au pair in London in the early 80s. I was in Hampstead Heath. Where are you? Since I didn't get paid much money, I spent almost all my time walking in the various neighborhoods of London. I also went to the free museums, especially the British Museum, because it has so many unusual things, you can go back and back. Also it is a nice place to rest and read.
It is also easy to go to free concerts in churches. You can find them in Magazines.
If the weather is nice, take a walk to Kenwood House at the top of Hampstead Heath. It's on Spaniard's Way, in fact. It is always nice to walk through Hampstead Heath. And it is nice to walk in Highgate Cemetery, too.
Other nice walks are along the Thames and through St. James Park. It's also interesting to walk through the prettiest neighborhoods of London, like Marylebone, Chelsea, etc. And if you like books, you can find lots of cheap books under the Thames bridges in summer and on the side streets near the National Portrait Gallery and Picadilly, or close to St Martin-in-the-Fields.
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