Hello all our UK friends. I am writing this here so that it is easily accessible to all.
Jim and I are very excited about coming to Europe and having the chance to meet with some of our FDMB friends.
Itinerary
Friday, May 16. Disembark the QM2 in Southampton. The ship docks at 6am, and it takes several hours to check passengers off the ship. We have a private car that will take us to London. Our hotel is not yet firm, but looks like it might be the Novotel London West. Here's a Google Map of it. We would hope to be settled into our hotel and ready to roam about by 2pm (14:00).
Saturday May 17 is free.
Sunday May 18 we are with the tour group for part of the day. The sights they have on our itinerary are: the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Prime Minister’s Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, and the Changing of the Guard, if held.
We return from the continent late on Saturday, May 31 and already have plans to go to the Tower of London for the Ceremony of the Keys with Steve and Sabina at 22:05. Hopefully, we will have dinner beforehand. Our tickets for the Ceremony are for 6 people, so if there are 2 more who wish to join us, please let me know.
We plan to take a day trip to Bath, Lacock, and Stonehenge with a tour company on Sunday June 1. That will be an all-day trip.
On Monday, June 2, we take a private car from London to Southampton for the return ship to the US.
What Else We Would Like to Do
We would like to hook up with FDMBers and thank Elizabeth for her kind offer of her house for a visit. But we would like to stay in London to see some things that are on our "really want to do" list. Those are:
- London Eye
- Thames River Cruise (or at least a taxi up the river)
- St. Paul's Cathedral
- Tate Museum
- Tower of London
- Hyde Park
There might be other "really must do" things that our UK friends can tell us about.
So what in-London sights might FDMBers want to see?
I think it might be fun for a group to get into the same compartment on the London Eye. The Eye opens at 10:00 and departs every half hour. One must be on-site for boarding 30 minutes before the scheduled "flight time." Tickets are £15 for adults, £12 for children.
I don't want to drag folks to tourist spots they don't care to afford or see, but Hyde Park is free, as is the Tate Museum. The Tate has free guided tours at 12:00 and 15:00 on Saturdays. We could do a picnic or some other meal together.
Please comment here or on the sticky on the FDMB reunion Forum. We can have a great time together.
