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Originally Posted by Wormius
I have not been to Europe, but I have looked into some of the activites around London, and hopefully we can spend a few days there. Any tips on what the good touristy things are vs. the ones to not bother with? I have to say, we are all Harry Potter buffs, so we probably need to indulge some of the Potter sites.
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Well I'm not into Harry Potter so I really couldn't help you there. I stayed close to the city centre, which in my opinion is worth the price increase as compared to staying further away. You can walk to a lot of the major attractions. I really enjoyed St. Pauls Cathedral for example (and despite not being catholic) and it was a huge highlight for me. Westminster Abbey was impressive as well. I guess the Tower of London was alright. I just don't have much interest in the crown jewels which are there, and it was kind of overrated. If you are going to do that, definitely get a tour from a Yeoman Warder though. They're great.
The museums in London are really amazing though. They're free (presumably because they stole everything from everywhere else!), but the British National museum for example has all kinds of Egyptian and Greek artifacts and its just amazing if you like that sort of thing. I also thought that the Tate Modern Museum of Art was hilarious, albeit in the wrong context. It was more in that "that's art?!" kind of line of thinking. The National Gallery right off Trafalgar square is where you can find all of the traditional artists (Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Da Vinci etc.) and its really great...again if you like that sort of thing.
I spent many hours walking along the Thames and should've done a cruise down, but never did. I didn't go in the London Eye, but it looks pretty cool. I maybe can't recommend the Borough Market enough; its just great and there are lots of places to get some great food on the go. I think we went there basically daily on our way to other places.
And to wrap this up, do yourself a favour and get tickets to a Premier League game (or maybe Championship) if you can be there during that time! Buy some tickets, plan to buy a jersey or scarf (if you're not a fan already), but most importantly do a little research and learn the songs/chants ahead of time and just soak it all in. For a sports fan I would say that is a must though as the atmosphere is incredible (and for that reason I would skip West Ham...)
Hopefully this helps somewhat.