London - What to see?

I'm heading out tomorrow and the wife and I are spending 6 days. We'll do the usual like Stonehenge, Thorpepark, etc, but is there anything "out of the tourist norm" that shouldn't be missed? Thanks in advance.

When we went, we avoided the Changing of the Guard because we (I) figured it would be too touristy. After we got home I kind of wished we had.

Stonehenge was closed because they were shooting a Swedish metal video - I kid you not. That's the only reason I would accept for not getting to see the place.

We spent a day touring Windsor Castle just west of London, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The Royal doll house there is awesome - it has real 1/12 scale bottles of Guinness.

Somewhere in west London was a toy museum that was a lot of fun, and so was the Victoria and Albert museum.

Thanks for the tips. I'd like to check Windsor Castle out.
Looks like I missed Goodwood Festival of Speed by a month....damn.

Big Ben, Parliament

jg

Donington Park is a couple hours (by train) from London. Aside from the Castle, a gearhead's preferred destination would be the Donington Gran Prix Exhibition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donington_Grand_Prix_Exhibition

The first time I went... I did all the regular touristy stuff but most remember that I enjoyed a boat ride down the Thames from somewhere near Blackfriars to the meridian - sat in a pub and watched a Chelsea game in a mob of shouting locals while drinking hand pumped ale - then just wandered around in increasingly larger circles on both sides of the river from Victoria all the way to Tower Bridge.

As somebody who's lived there for a while...

Stonehenge is at least a day, but I guess you know that already...

For something motoring flavoured, you can consider Beaulieu (hard to get to without a rental car, though), the Haynes motor museum and the . Of course none of these are in London...

Dover Castle is also quite neat, one of the biggest castles in the UK if not the biggest. That's an easy day trip (take the South Eastern High Speed down there, should be about an hour or so from St Pancras).

You need to go find one of the pubs that has been operating since the 1400s.

I did a bunch of stuff already mentioned, so i'll add the imperial war museum to the list.

Do not go to see Shakespeare's Globe Theater, waste of 7.50 pounds...

I regret not checking out the Tower of London, so I'd do that, also check out the free walking tours as my buddy and I spent about 4 hours on one and it was extremely interesting. The tour guides essentially work for tips, and we dropped 10 pounds on the guy cause it was a great tour.

I heard they have a river with a bridge over it and a big clock.

Thanks for the tips guys! Tower of London is on the list and we have talked about a boat ride on the Thames. Also would love to visit some of the car guy stuff Boxhead mentioned.....need to look up specific details on those.

Edit..wow I just looked up the Beaulieu motor museum boxhead mentioned. It looks great. Hopefully we can make time for that one. http://www.beaulieu.co.uk/beaulieu/index

Check BBC taping schedule? Studio audience ticket for Top Gear or James May's show? Ace Cafe. Ride around in the tube and watch the people. Hyde Park, speakers' corner, Pub walking tours, Soho, theatres, here's a Linky to some more.

take a train / ferry up to Greenwich - it's a really interesting place.

oldtin wrote: Check BBC taping schedule? Studio audience ticket for Top Gear or James May's show? Ace Cafe. Ride around in the tube and watch the people. Hyde Park, speakers' corner, Pub walking tours, Soho, theatres, here's a Linky to some more.

Thanks!....I just checked out Ace Cafe's site. I like that. Hope we can make it there on the 31st to check out the cruise in. Here I thought I wouldn't find that much to do....now I have too much on my list!