London Tourists

It was a crazy, busy day in London where we played the role of tourist

About tourists – they are rude.  Not so much the Americans, but the folks from other countries push and shove to be first.  Apparently, it’s either be aggressive or be last.  The polite British queue is not enforced.

A tip for future visitors to these tourist traps.  When going on a tour going from room to room, figure out where the exit door is and position yourself close by so at least you’re not last to get out.  It can take a LONG time (like in the Anne Frank House.)

Rose really wanted to see the wax figures at Madame Tussaud’s, so several months prior to the trip, I found that tickest for it cost £40 (about $50).  However, for £65, there was a city pass that had it AND other attractions rolled in.  They were:

• Madame Tussaud’s
• Shrek Adventure
• London Dungeon
• London Eye
• The Big Bus hop-on, hop-off

We had not planned on the London Dungeon nor particularly the Shrek Adventure nor London Eye, but in the end, we did all of these things. 

Our first tourist trap, or rather I should call it Tourist Money Sucking Ambush, was at 221B Baker Street.  There never was a real 221B Baker Street which is why Sir Arthur chose it.  But that didn’t stop commercialization of house number 221. which downstairs is a gift shop (literally found in EVERY attraction) and I bought a Sherlock Holmes Escape Room book/game.  Updates was  the "museum", which cost an extra ₤15 which of course we spent.  Unfortunately, it was pretty lame and not really like the rooms on the BBC show "Sherlock", but they did have a lot of junk there. 

Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussauds was next and it was within walking distance of the Sherlock Museum:

Segue - my original plan was to figure out all the venueswe would be going to and find a hotel central to them.  I did this but didn’t realize just how BIIIIIIIIIIG London is.  What I thought might be a 10 minute walk was a 30 minute walk and even with Uber, it was 15 minutes drive (traffic is pretty bad).  Lucky for us, Uber had not yet lost their license but that might happen if their appeals run out. I say lucky, because cabbies are pretty expensive in comparison (fast forward to 2023 and Uber is alive and well in England.) 

Speaking of the hotel, I had picked King’s Cross Royal Scot’s Travelodge.  This place is a dump but it was cheap at £130 a day.  Lucky we’re just spending our bed times there though it is for 3 days.  Radisson Blu in Malmö, Edinburgh and Glasgow spoiled us, but in London, the Blu costs £600 a night.  Even for Mr Moneybags here, way too high.  So we live with the motel6ness of the place.

Madame Tussauds had the usual wax figures but they also had a 3d theater which was fun:

Big Bus and Sights

One of the tickets we had was for the Big Bus.

We hopped on and went across the river to a really big tourist trap area. Here are some pics from the ride: