Bob's London pre-cruise Stopover

London is my favorite European city.  When we were able to capture a transatlantic Cunard Commodore graduation cruise it provided a great excuse to spend some more time there.  I am reminded of a quote from noted British writer Samuel Johnson "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

Having visited London several times we have hit most of the important "must do" sites so on this trip I planned to visit some of the lesser-visited attractions and to incorporate excursions to Stonehenge and Dover.

General tips:
--admission prices at attractions tend to be high.  Ask about senior discounts.
--for day trips, consider the bus instead of the train.  Advance purchase fares on National Express buses were far cheaper than train fares.  The bus journey may take a bit longer.
--Yelp now has listings for London that I used to help select dinner restaurants. Check them out at: http://www.yelp.co.uk/
--depending on what someone is planning to visit, they might save money by purchasing a London Pass and/or a London Travelcard (do a google search for details). 
--the Oyster card is a good way to obtain discounted subway fares.  You load up a plastic card with an amount of money and your discounted fares are deducted as you use them.  If you have money left on the card, it can be refunded to you at any manned underground station.

Where prices are shown I am assuming an exchange rate of $1.50 per British pound.

Hotel: I chose the Park Plaza Victoria, a short walk from Victoria Station.  This is a fairly upscale hotel at a reasonable price (at least for London).  Including tax it was a bit under $200 per night.  I chose the Victoria Station area primarily for convenience to the bus station (bus from Heathrow, bus to Dover, bus to Southampton and bus for Stonehenge day trip).  The hotel was fine and a short walk from many restaurants and a good supermarket.

Stonehenge:  I found a half-day bus trip to Stonehenge run by Evan Evans tours (http://www.evanevanstours.co.uk/).  Unlike most trips to Stonehenge, this one was a half-day trip that included only Stonehenge and was quite reasonably priced ($37.50 including admission fee).  The ride from London Victoria takes about 2 hours and is slightly scenic.  We were given 1 1/2 hours at the site which is quite adequate.  The tour includes an audio guide that is very well done, covering some of the speculation about how this amazing site was assembled by prehistoric people more than 4000 years ago.
tip: if visiting from London, the half-day trip is a good way to do it.  There are also longer trips that include additional stops like Bath.

Dover Castle:  Dover Castle overlooks the shortest sea crossing between England and France so it has been an important fortification site for millennia.  The castle was begun by King Henry II in the 12th century.  When I visited it 40 years ago, I felt that Dover Castle was how a castle should be with impressive stone walls and a drawbridge (rather than a fancy palace like Windsor Castle).  Visiting now I remain impressed.  This is a great place to visit for those with an interest in British monarchy and also with an interest in World War II.  There is a special guided tour (no additional cost, tour time booked at entrance) of the Secret War Tunnels below the castle complex.  The day we visited was overcast with a huge fog bank engulfing the harbor.  This precluded any views of France but we thoroughly enjoyed our five hour vist anyway.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/dover-castle/
tips: 
--try to arrive early in the day so that you can get tickets to the Secret Wartime Tunnels tour as these tend to get booked out.
--if arriving by bus or train, take a taxi to the castle.  This avoids an uphill walk and gets you to the castle faster.  The downhill walk back to town is relatively easy.
--the 8 Bells pub in downtown Dover had a good burger and beer special at about $9.

Canal cruise: Regent's Canal was built in the early 1800s to facilitate the movement of cargo to the north part of London.  Commercial traffic is no longer needed so the canal has become home to dozens of short narrow houseboats.  There are several options for touring the canal between Camden Town and Little Venice.  I chose to take the trip on the Jenny Wren for a 1 1/2 hour trip costing $13.50 per person ( http://www.walkersquay.com/).  It seems that walking or biking would be good options also.  The trip begins in Camden Town, a quirky part of London where the main street houses tattoo shops and many rows of outdoor market booths selling a wide variety of stuff.  In one section of the market a number of food booths feature various international cuisines.  We boarded the canal boat just before its 12:30 departure.  The journey starts by entering the Camden Lock where the boat is raised about 6 feet before continuing on the canal (not exactly the Panama Canal experience but amusing).  The boat slowly makes its way past colorful houseboats and goes through Regents Park and the London Zoo (minimal animal sightings).  The boat driver provides an interesting commentary about the history of the canal.  The boat turns around in an area called Little Venice where you can get off and spend a few hours before catching a return boat.  The combination of a visit to Camden Town and the canal cruise was quite enjoyable and would be particularly nice for people that like to shop. 

Kew Gardens: Anyone with more than a casual interest in gardening should visit Kew Gardens, more properly the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  This botanic garden covers almost 300 acres with a tremendous variety of plant species.  Several glass houses protect more sensitive species.  You can take a guided tour led by an enthusiastic docent.  We got some good ideas for creating a succulent garden in our yard.  We spent about 6 hours there though you could easily spend several days.  Admission is $21 ($17 senior). 

other activities:

--theater: we saw Wicked.  Fortunately I read an internet summary of the plot, elsewise I would have been lost.  I was pretty sure that we wouldn't find this at the 'half-price' ticket booth so I pre-booked seats via the internet.  Seat prices vary dramatically; our balcony seats were $34 each including booking fee.  Seats a few rows down were about twice that price.

--Churchill War Rooms: this museum will be educttional for those with an interest in WWII history and/or in Winston Churchill.  The museum is housed in the underground command complex where the British government directed the WWII efforts.  Well worth a few hour vist.  Fairly pricey at $23/person ($18 senior) but includes a well done audio guide.  http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/
--walking tour: we did a walking tour of the Westminster area using an MP3 player where I had downloaded Rick Steves' walking tour from his website.  His anecdotes help bring the area to life.  Had it rained while we were there we would have visited the British Museum using his audio guide.

--wander around a park: St. James Park was near our hotel and we wandered through it twice on our way back from somewhere.  One time we saw a portion of the famous "changing of the guard" ceremony.  Another time we stumbled upon a classical concert.  Very pleasant and no cost!

--dinner at a Belgian pub: Belgium is famous for mussels, French fries and beer and all are available at Belgo Centraal in the Covent Garden area.  An early dinner special is offered from 5-6:30 PM at about $9 and lunch specials with beer are $12.  http://www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk/locations

Our London and environs excursion ended with a bus trip to Southampton.  While waiting for the bus we met an older lady who said that she was a soprano opera singer and had performed on the QE2 many times. She indicated that she had completed 9 world cruises on Cunard.  Her name is Mary Mastony and has written several books about her experiences.  She shared our cab from the bus station to the ship.  At the 'past passenger cocktail party' she received the award for the most traveled Cunard passenger of the voyage; she has sailed over 1500 days!