Hive mind, what do we know about London, UK?

In reply to oldtin:

IMHO I wouldn't go out of my way to see Stonehenge. IF you happen to be passing by stop and see it but I wouldn't make a two hour trip from London with only a week to sight see.

Flynlow wrote: Thanks for all the suggestions so far everyone. I purposely left things unstructured to see what people would come up with. That being said, if I were to narrow things down a bit, here are a few things on my radar, some of which might require day or overnight trips: -Tourist stuff: Museums, Tower of London, etc. -Walking around downtown and stopping in any random pub not full of soccer hooligans

You'll need this guide then.

Flynlow wrote: -Tour of McLaren facility (any others? Aston? Can I pick over the remains of TVR's shop in Blackpool, or have they restarted production w/ the new guy? -Are there any former WW2/Spitfire Aerodromes that have good museums? I'm a big airplane geek, and have been to both Smithsonians, several in the midwest, and the Boneyard out west at Davis-Monthan.

Then you'll want the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.

Flynlow wrote: -Possible trip to Ireland or Isle of Man.

If you only have a week you won't have time for that if you want to see stuff in and around London as well. Plus, I seriously doubt you'll want to go to the IoM in January.

93EXCivic wrote: In reply to oldtin: IMHO I wouldn't go out of my way to see Stonehenge. IF you happen to be passing by stop and see it but I wouldn't make a two hour trip from London with only a week to sight see.

I'll have to agree with that. First, you can't get that close to it anyway as it's fenced in and I didn't think it was that impressive.

If you are going out to Bath and have a car, you can take the long way back to London and drive past it, but I wouldn't make this a special trip just for Stonehenge.

Having friends in the area, I'd check out one of their fave their spots: http://letsrace.co.uk

Then there is Silverstone, and all those F1 shops within a stone's throw of the track. I'd also want to see the Top Gear airport test track, even if there's no way to drive on it... I'd do a track walk of it in the rain just to say I did a lap there.

And, if you're lucky, see about getting some tix to a filming of TG at the BBC studios?

Having friends in the area, I'd check out one of their fave their spots: http://letsrace.co.uk

Then there is Silverstone, and all those F1 shops within a stone's throw of the track.

I'd also want to see the Top Gear airport test track, even if there's no way to drive on it... I'd do a track walk of it in the rain just to say I did a lap there.

And, if you're lucky, see about getting some tix to a filming of TG at the BBC studios?

Thanks for all the extra suggestions! I won't have a car during the time that I am there, and the first week is pretty much all business trip, so it's just the 2nd week for sight-seeing.

I think TG filming is out, the waitlist for the show was insane last I checked. And I struck out on the McLaren tour as well:

http://www.mclarenstore.com/en/restofworld/customer-services/faqs/page/faqs/

Ah well. Will still be plenty to do. I'm not terribly worried about visiting race tracks, I have visions of a 2nd Europe trip later this year or next when the weather's better that involve my own version of a BMW/Porsche European delivery, only involving buying something interesting that's 25 years old, driving the 'Ring and possibly one or two others, and shipping it back to the states when I'm done. That's not this trip, this is just standard tourist .

Yes, don't bother with Stonehenge. Sandwiched between 3 major highways and you cannot get close enough to appreciate anymore. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is fantastic and about an hour and a half away. I thought the Warrior was much more interesting than the Victory.

N Sperlo wrote: Link NSFW Language Yes, London. You know: fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary berkeleying Poppins... LONDON.

Do you have anything to declare?

I have to say that I was certainly affected by visiting Saint Paul's Cathedral, and I've seen quite a few around Europe. It is pretty centrally located and easy to get to if you're doing stuff around the Thames/Tower.