One ‘Suite’ Stay in Cairo

We didn’t sleep in tents. Nor did we burn camel dung to stay warm at night.

Camels are a reason to visit the Middle East and North Africa

Yet, when we talk of our desires to return to Cairo, Egypt, we often get the furrowed-brow, less-than-enthused response, 'You really liked it there?'  The kind that we know was prompted by images of us sitting in a tent with sand blowing about. . .roughing it in a barren landscape a la Lawrence of Arabia.

While I hate to burst the worry-bubble of well-meaning friends, let me just say, ‘Au contraire. . .’

Hotel chandelier - Cairo, Egypt

The reality is that we’ve had a rather ‘suite’ time in Cairo on both of our visits to the city. As result of their drop in tourism in recent years, very nice hotels come at very nice prices.

Athens is but a short flight from Cairo

Those of you regulars here know that since we’ve begun ‘commuting’ between Seattle and Athens, we have found that flying from that side of the Atlantic is much less expensive than starting in Seattle. That means 'Somewhere-Seattle-Somewhere' is cheaper than 'Seattle-Somewhere-Seattle'.  And one of the best departure cities we’ve found is Cairo, because it is inexpensive, its exciting and it is only a short flight away from Athens. Even with that short flight, we’ve saved big bucks by using Cairo as a hub city.

Morning traffic Cairo en route to our hotel there

But Cairo, with a population of more than 9 million, is so large a city that you want to stay near the airport if you have an early morning flight. (Or set out for the airport at 3 a.m.)

A welcome on our room's television screen in Cairo (it was promoting Kuwait City)

That’s why we’ve spent our night-before-the-flight from Cairo at the five-star J. W. Marriott, near the airport. The cost for a night there isn’t much more than we are paying this summer at the decidedly more basic Fairfield Inn and Suites here in Washington State.

J.W. Marriott - Cairo, Egypt

A plus of the J.W. is its free shuttle to and from the airport. A hotel representative met us in baggage claim and ushered us through the immigration/visa checkpoints.  A most welcome service after 20+ hours of flights and layovers.

While the entry and hotel exterior is rather plain looking, it is what awaits inside that makes for the treat! It simply feels like entering a palace.

Lobby J.W. Marriott - December 2015

In fairness, I must mention hotel security. Many of the large hotels we’ve stayed at on the other side of the Atlantic (not just in Cairo) do have strict security measures in place.

Often before the taxi or shuttle pulls onto the hotel grounds armed guards check the vehicle with the assistance of bomb-sniffing dogs. They open trunks and look under the vehicle. 

They also have x-ray machines for hand carry bags at the lobby entry.  At the J.W. Cairo our large suitcases were run through a separate x-ray machine. 

Early on in our travels, I’ll admit I found it a bit unnerving, but now – especially now -- I see it as rather comforting and mention it only because it is part of the reality of today’s travel, no matter how luxurious the hotel might be.

The Suite Life

Our 'suite' J.W. Marriott - Cairo, Egypt - December 2015

We booked ‘a room with a king bed’ on each of our stays. In December we arrived at our room and found we'd be staying in a suite with a bathroom alone as big as a hotel room!

Marble elevators - J.W. Marriott, Cairo, Egypt

And did I mention the interior of the hotel elevators were marble from top to bottom?

Our return leg of our round-trip ticket (Cairo-Seattle-Cairo) brought us back in March. We’d had a flight delay in Paris – one of their annoying hour-long airport strikes – which made our arrival in Cairo very late. We figured we’d be lucky to get any room and didn’t expect another ‘suite’ stay. 



Once again, that genie must have rubbed the magic lamp because this time not only did we have a suite, we had a two-story suite! (I didn’t know they even had such accommodations in hotels!) It was so late and we were so jet-lagged tired that we didn’t get a chance to luxuriate for very long. Early the next morning we were up and off to Athens.

Still, our stays there make for 'suite' memories. . .

You would sit here to get your shoes shined at the J.W. - Cairo, Egypt

As I said last week, we are in the midst of travel planning season so it is time to think about booking flights back to the States, even though we haven't yet headed back to Greece.

And I’ll bet it wouldn’t surprise you, if I said Cairo is tempting us again. . .of course, there’ll be that matter of getting there from Abu Dhabi, but I’m leaving those details up to The Scout.  I’ll just tell you about them after he figures them out!

That’s it for this week.  Hope your summer has been filled with adventures and fun travels.  Tell us about them in the comments below.  And hope to see you next week – bring some friends along! As always, thanks for joining us~we appreciate your time and hope we are inspiring you to stretch the comfort zone a bit, just as we’ve been doing.

I suppose I should add a disclaimer to this one: We pay the same prices at the hotels as you would, we are not 'comp’ed' for these stays nor are we paid for writing reviews of them. We are members of Marriott's rewards/loyalty program and therefore qualify for room upgrades if available -- a pretty 'suite' perk!

Linking this week with:
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Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

Travel Planning in a time of terror ~

Plan – (noun) an intention or decision about what one is going to do

Planning (verb) decide on and arrange in advance: Ex:"they were planning a trip”

                                                                     -- Oxford dictionary

Mt. Rainier, Arriving Washington State

The next best thing to travel itself is planning it, to our way of thinking.  So much so, that we think of life as having two seasons: the planning season and the traveling season. 

Agios Nikolaos, Peloponesse, Greece - 'our' village

Sometimes though circumstances beyond our control can impact both the ‘plan’ and the ‘planning’ as we learned when we cut our spring stay short in Greece and raced back to the States to deal with a medical matter. 

Not only was our immediate plan impacted but planning for future travels was put on hold. It was a strange time for us.

Because, travelers like us, simply don’t think about not traveling unless some event – whether personal health or world event – forces them to do so.

To Travel or Not. . .

Not whether to go, but where to go? is the question

 
And there’s no doubt that world events are impacting travelers – headlines on a much-too-frequent basis remind us that any place, any activity can be a terrorist target:  Paris. Orlando. Brussels. Nice. Istanbul. San Bernardino. Munich. Japan. Watching fireworks. Dancing at a nightclub. Shopping at a mall. Transiting an airport. Attending a party.

Which poses the question, how much impact should these random attacks have on travel planning?

Terror – (noun)
-a very strong feeling of fear:
something that causes very strong feelings of fear : something that is terrifying:
violence that is committed by a person, group, or government in order to frighten people and achieve a political goal

                              -- Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

That impact was the dinner conversation we had with fellow travel enthusiasts this week. We’ve all been to Istanbul, Turkey and were discussing both its attractions and the double-whammy tragedies in Turkey; recent terrorist attacks and the military coup attempt. “I suppose you two are heading back there though,” one friend said to us. 

Istanbul, Turkey street scene

July 21, 2016

“U.S. Consulate General Istanbul advises U.S. citizens in Istanbul that it has encouraged its staff to consider limiting non-essential travel throughout the city, especially to public areas or sites frequented by westerners and/or foreigners. Extremist organizations may seek to take advantage of the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt to conduct near-term terrorist attacks.”

Istanbul  has been our ‘go to’ airport since purchasing our Stone House on the Hill in Greece.  Round-trip tickets from there to Seattle have provided significant cost savings in our commute between the two worlds in which we live.  It is such a vibrant, exciting city that we try to spend at least a night or two as we commute between continents.  But, no. We are not planning to transit Istanbul. . . for now but probably not forever, it’s on hold. [Well, we weren't when I wrote that sentence, but we've found a great airfare on an airline we like. . .maybe it isn't on hold. We'll see.] 

 Putting plans in Place. . .

But those headlines also remind us that bad things can happen anywhere, anytime, so the notion of staying within the United States and not traveling outside its borders is absolutely an absurd thought (especially for those of us who consider two countries as home). While we are enjoying our summer stay in the Pacific Northwest, we are planning our return to Greece and subsequent  adventures.

Arriving Athens, Greece

 

We’ll be heading back at The Stone House on the Hill for olive harvest. We are traveling via London – but only because we are able to fly directly to Kalamata from Heathrow this fall and we are eager to try the closer, quicker route.   We’ve decided not to book a return back to the States yet as we aren't sure when we are returning.  What we have done is booked a short cruise on that side of the world. On that adventure we’ll be setting sail from . . .

Abu Dhabi on the Arabian Sea

. . .  Bet you didn’t expect that one, did you!?

Magic Carpet is getting ready for another take-off

Yes, we’ll be heading to the Middle East from Greece. We’ll board a Celebrity cruise ship – the Constellation - in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for a 9-night Arabian Sea cruise. We sail to: Dubai, also in the United Arab Emirates, Muscat, Oman, Khasab, Oman and back to Abu Dhabi. The ship overnights in all the ports but Khasab, so we’ll get a taste of Arabian Nights as well as days.

Salalah, Oman

We are starting our research and look forward to hearing from you if you have recommendations for any of our ports of call. Hope you’ll shoot us an email or a leave suggestions in the comment section. 

That’s it for this week.  Hope you are having a great summer where ever you are spending it. Safe and healthy travels to you and yours. As always, thanks for stopping by – hope to see you again next week. And bring a few friends along!

Linking up this week with:

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See Dick. See Jane. See Ellensburg ~

See Dick’s art.       See Jane’s art.

See Dick and Jane’s Spot in Central Washington State and you’ll find not only their art, but the artwork of nearly 40 other Pacific Northwest artists on display as well.

Entry to Dick and Jane's Spot

We’re spending our summer at our Pacific Northwest home and soothing the travel itch with some in-state travel. Ellensburg, considered the most centrally located city in Washington State, was the focus of a recent travel article I was writing for the Seattle Times newspaper and made for a one-day getaway. (That article can be found at the other end of this link, so just click here.)

Back Yard at Dick and Jane's Spot

In pre-trip research I turned to Trip Advisor and found one of the most highly rated things to do in this university town, is Dick and Jane’s Spot. (Turned out to be a great recommendation.)

Dick and Jane’s Spot has been the real-life home of artists Dick Elliott and Jane Orleman for nearly 40 years. The small house on a corner lot across from the town’s police and fire Station has – in my words – redefined ‘yard art’. 

In the heart of Washington State

There is no admission fee, in fact, a small sign requests that you enjoy their outdoor gallery from the public sidewalk that borders two sides of the corner lot (unless you’ve called in advance and made other arrangements) or from the public walkway they’ve created on the north side of the house or from the alley behind it. And don’t forget to sign the guestbook.

The newest installation stretches along the alley

Their whimsical creations are made of bottle caps and reflectors – more than 10,000 of them. Over the years the works of other artists have been added to the garden gallery. As works decay (or rust), they are replaced with new items, such as the recently finished dragon that snakes the length of the back fence off the alleyway.

A Blowin' in the Wind and it gets windy in Ellensburg

Dick and Jane were 1971 (art majors) graduates of Ellensburg’s Central Washington State College, today a University. They married the same year and began turning their small home on Pearl Street into a gallery. Dick, aka Richard, Elliott passed away in November 2008 at age 63 from pancreatic cancer. Jane continues to live in their home and curates the outdoor gallery.  Once, they had a dog named ‘Spot’.

Geometric design to the side of the house

While the yard gallery is a fantasy-land setting – their reflector art is nationally-known and has been commissioned for entities that include: the  New York Transit System,  Minneapolis' light-rail system,  the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery and the Ellensburg Public Library. 

“The Old Inspires the New” reflector installation is found at the entry to concourse A at Seatac International Airport. The State of Washington owns 26 pieces of Dick’s artwork.

It takes awhile to see it all at Dick and Jane's Spot

If you go:

Ellensburg is 107 miles from Seattle via Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass. 

Dick and Jane’s Spot is just south of Ellensburg's historic downtown. Curbside parking is free in their neighborhood – just don’t park in front of the house, 101 North Pearl Street, so you don’t block fire trucks exiting the station across the street.

For those who are out of the area or who are armchair travelers, follow Jane on FB: https://www.facebook.com/DickandJanesSpot/?fref=ts and her web site is reflectorart.com

If you are simply passing through SeaTac and want to check out the installation there (as well as the other art on display) use this Art Map for the airport:  http://www.portseattle.org/Sea-Tac/Maps-and-Directions/Documents/ArtMap.pdf

That’s it for this week and again we thank you for the time you’ve spent with us. We wish you happy and safe travels.  We are spending our summer planning season figuring out future travels. I'll tell you about that next week!
 
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London ~ We Are Where we Are!

“We are where we are. Why DO you need the map?”

London's Theatre District

That is The Scout’s response when we set off on a DIY (do it yourself) exploration and invariably somewhere along our route, I start searching for the map that has disappeared in my purse. (No, we don’t do apps or downloaded pre-recorded tours.)

When you think about it, it is an excellent question and one to which I really have no answer.  Maybe I just like to get my bearings. Maybe I don’t want to miss something that might be nearby.

But in reality, we are where we are. . .what does it matter?

A garden on Park Lane - London

As I told you in earlier posts, circumstances prompted an earlier than planned return to Seattle from Greece, so we gave ourselves a few days layover in London with little thought to what we would do when we got there. We were blessed by the travel gods with blue sky and sunshine which encouraged our decision to explore the city on foot with no particular destination in mind.  So this week, take a look at some of the places we ended up with this devil-may-care approach. . .

The Old and New

Old and ornate giving way to sleek and modern

No matter what direction we walked there was evidence of the old, ornate architecture giving way to new buildings. Or they’d given way to new train connections which will certainly ease traffic woes in the city, but on the other hand, it seemed in some places have lost a bit of charm. Sleek, modern high rise buildings made it look like any other city.

Gardens and Squares

Manchester Square - Marylebone - London

There were squares scattered about the city – some were open and inviting and others, like the one above, Manchester Square, had no public access. All were different but picturesque.  This 18th-century Georgian garden square, not far from Oxford Street in the Marylebone area is in front of a mansion that is now the home of the Wallace Collection, a major collection of fine and decorative arts. It is open to the public free of charge.

Home of the Wallace Collection - Marylebone - London

St. James’s Park, near Buckingham Palace, is always a people-magnet and in spring its blooms were irresistible.  It is also open to the public free of charge.

St. James Park in springtime blooms - London

Buckingham Palace

You can’t visit London and not be drawn to Buckingham Palace. . .even if you are wandering as aimlessly as we were.  And sometimes you find you’ve arrived at just the right time, because the Queen just might be passing by. . . (She’s in the car on the right but I wasn’t expecting to see the Queen come by so didn’t have time to zoom in.)

The Queen really is in this photo - London

Even knowing the Queen isn't inside, one really must take a moment to admire the palace. How many times have we watched our television screens to watch the Royal Family step onto that balcony?

Buckingham Palace - London

Travel Tip:  Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk

Diana Memorial Walk plaque - London

If you want to do a DIY tour but aren’t ready to set out as aimlessly as we did, you might give the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk a try. It is a 7-mile loop marked with 90 sidewalk plaques like the one in the photo above. It leads to four parks, past three palaces and two mansions.  A downloadable PDF map can be found at: https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde-park/things-to-see-and-do/self-guided-walks/the-diana-princess-of-wales-memorial-walk

Guards Museum

Palace Guards at Work - London

Another bit of free entertainment we happened upon was at the Guards Museum, located near Buckingham Palace and just across Birdcage Walk from St. James’s Park. Troops were out practicing formations – and we had a front row spot at the fence because most tourists were back at the Palace waiting for the changing of the guard there.

Big Ben - London

I’ll sign off this week with a photo of Big Ben. I don't want you thinking we missed all the tourist ‘sites’ that London has to offer - our wanderings took us to many of them.   We walked 33.5 miles in the four days we had in this jolly ol’ town. There is so much to see and do that we could have doubled that distance, had we had the time and energy.  London isn’t an inexpensive city but there are ways to ‘do it’ inexpensively, as we’ve shown you in recent posts.

How about you?  Any money-saving travel tips for those heading to London?

We thank you for the time you’ve spent with us and so appreciate your comments. Hopefully you’ll be back again next week and bring a friend or two with you. . .we’ve got some travel plans to tell you about that might make some of you want to join us and may simply bring on a wave of discomfort for others of you. Until next week, safe and healthy travels to you and yours ~  

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Thirsting for History ~ A DIY London Pub Crawl

You can work up a thirst when you DIY (do it yourself) tour a city.  Especially when the temperatures are in the 80’s (26C) and the city is London, England.

We found there’s no better place than an old traditional English pub to provide a means of quenching your thirst while providing a taste of history. 

Ale taps at Audley Pub - Mayfair District

One of our favorite public houses – that is from where the word ‘pub’ comes --  is the Audley Pub, a block from Grosvenor Square in the Mayflower district, on the corner of Mount and South Audley streets.  It was an easy few blocks walk from our hotel. We’d been so charmed by it on a London stopover a few years ago that we headed back to it within hours of our arrival this spring. 

Interior Audley Pub - Mayfair District - London 

This traditional old watering hole was established back in 1730 as The Bricklayers Arms. It was rebuilt in 1888 at the instruction of the Duke of Westminster and the landlord at the time was allowed to keep his lease but had to change the name to the ‘more respectable’ Audley Hotel.

Stand up and sip outside the Audley Pub - Mayfair District

No longer a hotel, there is a cozy restaurant area on the pub’s second floor that served up some of the best pub grub we found in London during our visit a few years ago. It was closed for a private party the evening we were there this spring, so it still seems to be popular.

The Audley, like most pubs in London, is crowded in the early evenings with a mix of professionals who’ve come from their ‘dress-for-success’ offices and are still ‘talking shop’ and other more casually dressed drinkers, like us, who simply want a beverage and atmosphere.

George, a private club, occupies part of building across the street from Audley Pub

Audley Pub provided hearty servings of both beverage and atmosphere. We aren’t ale fans, but found a good selection of wine from which to choose. And once selected, we headed to the sidewalk (where smokers partake of tobacco because of recent anti-smoking laws) and others of us were there to enjoy the good weather and neighborhood surroundings.

A change we noticed from our last London visit, was that each pub had a security officer to make sure the patrons don’t block sidewalks or worse, step out into traffic.

Audley House - Mayfair District - London

Our sidewalk sipping was kitty-corner from the ornate entry to Audley House, built in 1881. It has been the home of James Purdey & Sons Gun and Rifle Shop since 1883, and back then it was considered ‘the most prestigious gun shop in the country’. The shop continues to flourish in this stately building that bears a plaque where shrapnel from a World War II air raid damaged pillars. (Windows on its east side were destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1972.)  

We’d pondered its history while sipping our wine and having  researched it since returning home, we plan to go in next time to see its Long Room which was used during WWII by General Dwight Eisenhower’s staff to plan battles. 

British Pubs – Here today – gone tomorrow?

While British pubs are as iconic a part of London as its red phone booths and double-decker buses, there aren’t as many of them around as there used to be.  In 2014 the British Beer and Pub Association reported there were 51,900 pubs in the United Kingdom, a sharp decrease from 1982 when 67,800 pubs operated there.

The Salisbury - theatre district - London

Any number of reasons have contributed to the closing of more than 7,000 U.K. pubs; among them are the anti-smoking laws I mentioned above, beer prices at supermarkets, and the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. According to the Association the British are drinking 23 percent less ale than a decade ago; their trend is toward drinking wine in ‘trendier’ bars.  In London, the hot housing market had pub owners selling businesses which were converted to houses or apartments. Many of the pubs are now owned and operated by breweries.

The Salisbury - London pub

One pub that is still going strong is The Salisbury at 90 St. Martin Lane, in the heart of the Theatre District. It opened in 1892 as a gin palace and in recent years has been featured in a number of films. This pub offers an app you can download for do-it-yourself ‘themed pub tours, such as a ghost tour, or a shopping tour. To download the app:  www.taylor-walker.co.uk/ale-trail/trails

The Iron Duke - Mayfair District - London

We had another taste of history, along with a glass of wine, at The Iron Duke, 11 Avery Row, back in the Mayfair District, as the pub’s name is for that of the “Iron Duke”, the first Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, a decorated army commander who ruled as Prime Minister in the late 1820’s.
(You’ll note here we were surrounded by the dress-for-success-after-work crowd.)

Prince Regent Pub - Marylebone High StreetAdd caption

And some pubs just call out because they are in an interesting neighborhood or they are housed in picturesque buildings, like the case of the Prince Regent pub we sipped at on the Marylebone High Street.

Marylebone is an affluent area, walking distance from our hotel near Hyde Park in Mayfair - for those who are able to walk several blocks. Its High Street is alive with small shops and cafes. According to Wikipedia, “Marylebone gets its name from a church dedicated to St Mary, represented now by St. Marylebone Parish Church(1817); the original church was built on the bank of a small stream or “bourne”.

Angel in the Fields - Maryleborne - London

As I told you in last week’s post, we spent a few days exploring London on our own without any particular plan. Several of the pubs we visited during our stay, we’d discovered on previous stops in London and we were pleased to see they were still in existence. Even with the decrease in their overall numbers, luckily, old traditional pubs are still easy to find in London.

If you aren’t up to setting out on your own, simply “Google” London pub tours and a variety of options will appear.  I did a quick search and found a 3-hour afternoon walk from $33.81US; a 4-hour west end tour from $64.91US and a Literary Pub Crawl and Tavern Tour from $24.34US.

Ale taps - Prince Regent Pub - Maryleborne

That’s it for this week.  We thank you for your time and hope you’ll be back to see what’s ‘on tap’ next week!  Until then, safe and healthy travels to you and yours ~

Linking up this week:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

London ~ DIY Low-Cost Sightseeing

Four days. No plans. Blue sky and sunshine. Temperatures in the 80's (26C).

London called out for aimless exploration. DIY – Do It Yourself sightseeing.

Street Scene Mayfair District

Our stopover in London en route to Seattle from Greece was -- even for us who love to go ‘where-the-wind-blows-us -- a rather spontaneous adventure.  We hadn’t had time to do our usual guide book and internet research.  (If you missed why, and care to find out, you can read that here.)

We’d booked a hotel. But nothing more than that and our flight to the States five days later had been given much thought. 

A Home? A Club? in London's Mayfair District

While that is far too unstructured for some of you and probably has you wiggling in your chair with discomfort, we found that having no expectations meant we had no disappointments. We hadn't arrived with a list of 'must-see' or 'must do'.

Because we weren’t rushing to get to the Tower Bridge, or Big Ben, or Buckingham Palace, or some other of London’s ‘tourist sites’ we had time to enjoy the street scenes that played out right before us – scenes we’d have likely ignored had we been racing to get somewhere to see ‘something’.

Exploring the Mayfair district

Selfridge and Co. on Oxford Street

Our hotel in London’s West End Mayfair district was footsteps from Oxford Street, a wide boulevard that is home to some 300+ shops. It is said to be  Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors. Perhaps one of the most well-known stores (thanks to the British television series) is Selfridge & Co. which opened on Oxford Street in 1909 in a building designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge. It continues to be the company’s headquarters and with a reported  540,000 square feet of selling space, the store is the second largest retail store in the United Kingdom. It was a short walk from our hotel and provided free ‘window shopping’ entertainment as we explored its many floors.

Add caption

Just across Park Lane from our hotel, the 350-acre Hyde Park, offered a green, quiet alternative to the bustling Oxford Street. It is one of the city’s eight Royal Parks and its more well-known features include the Marble Arch, Serpentine Lake and the Speaker’s Corner. The weather had drawn multitudes of bikers, joggers, and sun worshippers – and strollers, like us – to it.

A delightful place, its history only adds to its ambiance: in 1536 King Henry VIII confiscated Hyde Park from the monks of Westminster Abbey. Back then it was used primarily for hunting. King Charles I opened the park to the public in 1637. The current park layout was planned by architect Decimus Burton in 1825.

Animals in War Monument - Hyde Park

The park, which has no entry fees, is filled with beautiful statues but my favorite – a must-see any time we get to London – is the monument to animals who served in the war. The two-sided art work in which statues of animals with war equipment marching on bricks to the drab concrete wall which reads, “Animals in War – they had no choice” and on the other side the ‘free’ animals emerge to a green lawn and flower beds.

American Embassy at Grosvenor Square

We were just a few blocks away from one of London’s many squares, Grosvenor Square, pronounced grove-ner. Once part of the Grosvenor family’s estate, the square was opened to the public and since the 1930’s has had a strong association with the United States. The American Embassy, pictured in the above mosaic, is located at 1 Grosvenor Square.

Seeing London – On foot

No getting lost in London - thanks to these signs

London is a pedestrian-friendly city with sidewalks generally free of barriers and obstructions and crossing signals at busy intersections. Londoners do drive in the opposite lanes of what we do in the U.S. and other parts of the world, so visitors need to be mindful of that when crossing any street. 
Should you become confused about where you’ve taken yourself, you’ll find clarification from one of the many signs installed at intervals throughout the town, which tell you not only where you are, but what you are near as well.

For those who can’t or don’t want to walk, the city has any number of sightseeing options including:

Tours of London from the Thames are popular

Tourist boats of every size, shape and description travel the Thames River.

Regular city buses are a good way to see the city 

There are 'Hop On, Hop Off' tourist buses, or plenty of regular double-decker red buses that traverse the city, or for those who can’t decide between a bus and a boat:

Is it a bus or a boat or both?

They even have those tour bus/boat combinations.

We set out on foot with tourist map (from the hotel concierge) in hand and next week I’ll tell you about some of the places we visited on this spur-of-the-moment DIY tour of ours. Thanks so much for the time you spent with us today.  Our wishes for safe and healthy travels ~ 

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