London?

[Birma]

Tnis backs on to Mayfair and Shepherd Market, which is quite pretty and has good, reasonably priced restaurants, particularly Lebanese.

I have to heartily join Artingdon's recommendation of Shepherd Market - great place to eat.

I can't really recommend places to stay in London as I typically stay on my hotel points (constant business traveller so I collect a lot ) in either Mayfair or Buckingham Gate - both great areas but ones that I'd never pay my own money to stay in!

For a curry with a difference I'd recommend The Quillon also in Buckingham Gate. (I'm sure Liz and Phil probably pop there for a carry-out .)

[Dr. Harout]

...reasonably priced restaurants, particularly Lebanese.

If Lebanese then I definitely recommend it!

[David Kilpatrick]

Henry - Google Earth! I always use it when booking hotels. The satellite view and the street views let you see everything nearby. You can even see footpaths, road, shops, restaurants and stuff.

The last one we booked though, in Lanzarote, is mis-named by Google Maps and Google Earth - completely the wrong hotel is identified. We stayed in Gran Melia Salinas, and on Google it's labelled as Sands Resort, which is actually the next one to the north. But it was clear from the photos what the error was so we had a good idea of what we were booking, location, environments etc.

David

[bossel]

Seems our trip will be a cullinary experience Thanks everybody, up to me know to find something in either an 'outside' location like Richmond or in the center, like charing cross. And by the way, I did use Google maps when selecting a hotel last year in Tenerife! Can be very helpful.

[bakubo]

Henry - Google Earth! I always use it when booking hotels. The satellite view and the street views let you see everything nearby. You can even see footpaths, road, shops, restaurants and stuff.

Good idea. I hadn't thought of using Google Earth!

[bossel]

Petit change: rather than going two weeks in May, we've split it into two and we'll be going in two weeks for 5 days. A bit short, but we found a cheap flight, direct, into Heathrow and during daytime! None of these e*y j*t flights where you arrive at 11:30pm in Gatwick or Luton

Booked a hotel in Queensway which seems to be a lively area with shops, restaurants and very close to Bayswater and Queensway station. Took the 'deluxe' room for a little extra, since rooms seem to be on the rather very tiny small side in central London if you don't want to pay £200 a night

[harvey]

Keep the camera at hand then, you might catch Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

[bossel]

We will be taking only the NEX with 18-200 and 18-55 lenses - I've decided to no longer carry a huge SLR with me and will quit the A-mount. Will get more E-mount lenses later and upgrade the 5 to a 5N or 7 or whatever will be available in a few months

[mvanrheenen]

I just spent a few days in London last week. When I was back, I had the feeling I had seen every single person who lives in or near London, all 8 million of them! What a crowd! The pavement on Oxford street on a saturday are swamped with people, 8 rows wide and as long as they eye, or even 600mm lens could see! I went to London before, but couldn't remember it being that busy. The whole Olympics thing didn't help, much of the center city streets were broken up. I had a moment to visiy Jessops on Oxford street and near Hammersmith, nice shops. Kudos to the tube services, great experience!

It was impressive, and depressive a bit too for someone like me who enjoys the calm woods. Anyway, I did hulk my a580+VG and CZ16-80 with me. It also could be pricy (entrances of sights for example), but also pretty cheap, mostly shops which sell goods made in the UK. I saved 40 pounds on a pair of Clarks shoes in comparison to the Netherlands, I checked.

Will post the images later this or next week.

Hope you'll have a good time there Bossel!

Mark

[Birma]

Looking forward to both Thomas' and Mark's London pictures

Mark, I know what you mean about the difference between busy London and a quiet rural location . Whenever I visit London I always feel like the proverbial country-mouse (not sure if that analogy translates!) but it is an exciting place to visit. If you found Oxford street busy did you experience the tube in rush hour? 5 deep on the platform and all trying to push on to an already full train? Not as bad as Tokyo I guess where they are pushed on by the guards (do they still do this Henry?) but still a bit of a shock. Despite the hustle and bustle there are great places to visit. Free entry to the public museums and art galleries (the main exhibits anyway) is for me a huge attraction.

[mvanrheenen]

Hi Birma,

Well, the funny thing is I actually live in one of the the most densely populated area in the North-Western Europe (Randstad area in the Netherlands) with around 5500 residents per square kilometer. In comparison, London has around 5000 residents per square kilometer. However, we do have a few green zones where farmlands, forrests and reserves dominate the scenery. I live on the "outskirts" of our city where such a bufferzone resides. A few minutes walking and I trade concrete for woodlands So, I'm used to a lot of people around me. But London felt worse, especially with all the big lighted billboards, American style huge shops, rows upon rows of people all wanting the same thing and utter chaotic traffic due to all the work that was done for the Olympics. I really felt a bit depressed while standing there. The Hague can be as bad, but without the pressing feeling. Am I making any sense?

Our experience with the tube in rush hour on thursday and friday wasn't as bad as the Picadilly Circus stop on saturday around closing time. I shiver at the situation you describe. We have that kind of situations here too, but without railway personal helping to push people in so the doors can close. I was actually pleasantly supprised by the smoothness of the tube services. They're far supperior to what we have here. It's pretty bad here. Services during autumn and winters are so bad the government is involved as people were stuck for up to 8 hours waiting for some kind of information about the service. Imagine London, rush hour and no tube in sight for 8 hours...

I was kind of disappointed in the fees which were asked for entrance to some of the sights. £19,80 for a ticket into the Tower complex, £18 for St. Paul's and a similar figure for Westminster Abbey. I found that a bit much, especially as I had a days worth of 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' for less in the Vatican! Entry to Saint Peter's Basilica was free (read that London, free!) and the Vatican Museum with entry to the Sistine Chapel was around £20. That was worth every penny. Also, a day in El Alhambra, Granada (Spain) including some magnificent gardens costs £16. And believe me, you need that full day! So, you can imagine our disappointment in London. Don't fancy art galleries that much, don't like the ambience/feeling of going there. Museums can be very interesting, but the crowd I was with didn't share the sentiment

Mark

[artington]

You are quite right, Mark, about some of the excess pricing - St Paul's is a particulatly egregious example and a disgrace. That said our museums are largely free and charge only for special exhibitions, which seems fair enough to me.

Very nice too to hear your praise of the London Underground, which has improved enormously in recent years, not least through having automatic ticket barriers to cut down on fare avoidance and speed things up. The Northern Line is still pretty grim and the Central Line overcrowded but those apart it's a great service and vastly more pleasant to use than the Paris Metro which always seems to me to stink of sweat and other unpleasant odours. And on the subject of rail, our overground service, the old British Rail, is now reliable, clean and pleasant outside the rush hour but still hopelessly over-crowded during those times.

And yes, London does have lots of green areas on its periphery - I live in the Surrey countryside But am only 40 minutes from the metropolis by rail - and it also has lots of beautiful parks. Indeed it is the greenest city I can think of with the exception of Hong Kong (yes, I mean that, and as a former resident I know it to be so).

Martin

[bakubo]

Yes, I have been on the super crowded Tokyo trains and subways during rush hour, but as much as possible I avoid it. Years ago when I was working in Tokyo though I usually couldn't avoid it so I rode them everyday during rush hour. I have also ridden the Tube in London and even at rush hour, but it is nothing like in Tokyo. Most people who haven't experienced it cannot believe how tight you are packed in. So tight that sometimes you feel your chest compressed and it is hard to breathe. As the train moves and goes around curves people's weight shifts and depending on how that happens you might be able to take a deep breath or maybe you will be squeezed even tighter. Sometimes you can get your arm caught between people and as the train shifts you almost have your arm pulled out of the socket. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Not all lines are terrible at rush hour, some are merely very bad. It is part of the charm of Tokyo. I arrived back in Tokyo yesterday and expect to be here awhile.

The population density in Tokyo is 6000/km, but there are 2 big caveats that make that figure in reality way off:

1. "Also within the administrative boundaries of Tokyo Metropolis are two island chains in the Pacific Ocean directly south: the Izu Islands, and the Ogasawara Islands, which stretch more than 1,000 km away from the mainland. Because of these islands and mountainous regions to the west, Tokyo's overall population density figures far underrepresent the real figures for urban and suburban regions of Tokyo."

2. "Tokyo population is also higher due to the huge number of people who commute everyday to this city from the nearby prefectures for studying or for working. Because of this reason, the daytime population of Tokyo is higher than the nighttime population."

[mvanrheenen]

Very nice too to hear your praise of the London Underground, which has improved enormously in recent years, not least through having automatic ticket barriers to cut down on fare avoidance and speed things up. The Northern Line is still pretty grim and the Central Line overcrowded but those apart it's a great service and vastly more pleasant to use than the Paris Metro which always seems to me to stink of sweat and other unpleasant odours. And on the subject of rail, our overground service, the old British Rail, is now reliable, clean and pleasant outside the rush hour but still hopelessly over-crowded during those times.

Hi Martin,

Early last year I went to London for business and had to take the DLR from London City Airport to a station near Cannon Street (Bank I think) and these services were quite good too. It took a while to get there, 35 minutes I believe and although the carriage was packed it was a fairly pleasant trip.

This time around it was for pleasure. We were staying in Hammersmith so primarily took the Picadilly and District Lines. We had no issues, except for the somewhat rigourous way they force you to hurry. Once the signal sounds that the doors are closing they'll wait for no one. So we had a forces split of the group once. Oh well.

Henry,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the jobs in public transportation in Tokyo consist of people called "train pushers", is it not?

For anyone who has never seen the Tokyo way of entering the metro, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlNyCHlLt1Y. It's silly and sad at the same time, but will definately make you laugh except when your in one!

Mark

[bakubo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the jobs in public transportation in Tokyo consist of people called "train pushers", is it not?

Yeah, at rush hour sometimes the eki-in (station employee) must perform this service. Some lines and some stations are worse than others with more people at certain times of day so this doesn't happen all the time everywhere. At rush hour though even when there is not the need for a pusher it can still be tough to get yourself inside and not have any part of you caught in the closing doors.

For anyone who has never seen the Tokyo way of entering the metro, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlNyCHlLt1Y. It's silly and sad at the same time, but will definately make you laugh except when your in one!

This is an example of the worst. It is part of the charm of Tokyo. I don't ride trains this bad though. When it is this bad I just step back on the platform and wait for the next train and hope it is a bit better. Usually it is only a 2-3 minute wait for the next one. I remember occasionally letting 3-4 go by before I got on one.