Plans for my London trip

Yeah baby! When you’re reading this, the count down is seriously on: in little over 24 hours I will be hitting up good ol’ London town once more. I will only be gone for a few days, but since this is the 4th year in a row I’m going there, I think that is plenty to get around. I do have a few things I want to do. Some are completely new, others aren’t, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun. Care to know what I’ll be up to (and will most definitely write blogs about)? Then keep on reading!

Houses of Parliament w/ Big Ben in 2010

First of all this will be the first time in a long time of going to London when it’s not spring or summer time. The weather will therefore be an interesting factor on this trip. The forecasts so far are pretty good, with major rain not coming in until Wednesday which is when I’ll be leaving. The rest of my stay will see some scattered showers, but overall it should be dry and sunny for most of it. With London you can never tell though. I’ll just bring an umbrella and make the best of it.

My actual plans involve some of the ideas I had when I first booked the trip. I have plans for hitting up some museums as well as some shopping and seeing a musical. I have never been to the National Gallery so I’ll be going there. It’s still only February so I’m thinking I’ll be safer inside than outside to begin with. I’m also going to visit Temple Church. It is a place with very limited opening hours and needs planning ahead of time. I have looked up all information I need on their website, so I should be good and will not end up standing there when it’s closed.

I will also go to a part of the city I have never been to before: East London. The Brick Lane area to be specific. It’s this very hip and happening place (apparently) ever since artists such as Damien Hirst and his colleagues started setting up shop in the area. Rough Trade has a record store there (great resource for indie music) and also located in the area is Spital Fields Market which is a good place for shopping vintage clothes and accessories. I think it will be an interesting part of London to visit as it borders onto the borough where many Bengali immigrants live so there will be plenty of curry/ food places around methinks.

A museum that I plan to revisit is the British Museum. I went there way back when in 2004. At the time though I was sick and air conditioning made everything worse, so I only stayed inside for less than an hour and saw nothing but the Egypt section. Since the British Museum is huge, I definitely plan on devoting most of one of my days to it, depending on how interesting it is and which exhibitions they have. In the worst case I will just wander about for hours looking at all the prettiness of ancient cultures and then some.

Naturally I will also take out time to go shopping. I’m thinking of just going to Oxford Street and Covent Garden as I know from experience those places have everything I’m looking for. There’s the Primark flagship store, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Selfridges, TopShop and many more to keep me entertained. I’ll be looking mostly for clothes this time round and there are a few specific items that I hope to find while I’m there. Another shop I will definitely visit is the Twinings shop on The Strand. They sell all kinds of different teas not available in The Netherlands and to top things off I received an email saying they have added new green teas to their selection. I’m curious to try those.

So there you have it: my London plans. I’m just going to see how everything works out. If the weather is nice I will definitely spend a lot of time just wandering about and popping in and out of places as I’m walking around. These plans are by no means set in stone, neither are they intended to fill up my entire day in one go and I’m all for unintentional and spontaneous visits to places. I may or may not go see a West End musical or maybe I’ll just go and see a movie. Who knows! I’m curious to see what my hotel will be like. It does come with free Wifi so I hope to keep this blog going live from London. In any case I know I’ll have a blast.

What are your plans for the weekend?