Landen.

[Mr. Johnson]

I just realised Landen is also a town here in Belgium. huh.

Anyway, I'm talking about the one nearest you, the big smoke. London.
You see, after many bashes I decided to maximize my stay in England by staying a few days in London extra after Grimbash, where Mrs. J will be joining me. Since I've only been to London on a real visit once years and years ago and it constantly changes I'd like to know if anyone has any particular recommendations for food, entertainment and places to stay. I know most of you just pass by the place every now and then (or pass it by entirely) but anything helps when planning our stay. We're both an a pretty sad budget so we can't exactly stay at the four seasons, but if possible we'd like to avoid hostels. That's pretty much my only criteria.

Thanks in advance,

Mr. J. XOXOXO

PS: I didn't really know where to put this so if it's more a thing for the disco board feel free to move it.

[Joose]

I can probably put together enough recommendations for free things to do that you would be able to stay in London for a month without running out. I am fucking knackered at the moment though, so I shall recommend some things when I can brain them.

[Mr. Johnson]

We're not going till June so there's plenty of time.

[Grimmie]

Big red bus tour is always a winner. You get to see a bit of everything and somebody smart points out interesting bits along the way. You can hop on and off along the way if you see something that catches your eye and get on again when the next one arrives.

[TheJockGit]

The War Rooms are good, don't know if it costs or not, probably does, but if you like Military History its a fascinating insight into Churchill's War Time Bunker.

[Joose]

Free things to do in LANDENS, off the top of my head:

Museums. There are many. Do them. I find the fact that they are free means I don't feel like I have to see every single thing in there. This is good, because otherwise you would die in the V&A, there are too many god damn things in there. Just go in, find a map and head straight for the first thing that sounds interesting. As soon as you get bored, leave. I can personally recommend:

The British Museum: Properly old things. Mummies! Good times.
Science Museum: Science, bitch! Aww yis. Personally, my favourite bit is right inside the front door; big old engines. If you feel like splashing out they have a pretty good exhibition about the LHC at the moment, but its not super cheap.
Natural History Museum: Dead animals being all scary! Earthquakes! LOLCANOES!
Museum of LANDEN: Went to this for the first time this year. Its ace: its all about LANDEN right from the time when it was just a bunch of pre-roman houses up to the present day. The bit about the plague is harrowing. You know, in a good way.
Wellcome Collection: Bit less well known than the above, but it has some brilliantly weird shit. You can go have a look at Napoleons toothbrush, or a light up transparent body that shows you where your organs are. Really nice food in the Cafe too.
Royal Institution: Home of the brilliant Christmas lectures, go see the place where scientists you have probably heard of made things go off bang.
Bank of England: They have a museum, and unless you are really interested in taxes and inflation you will probably walk straight through it. Worth popping in if you are in the area though, even if only for the chance to lift up a real bar of gold. For reals. With your actual hand. Its in a funny case so you cant run off with it. Do this and then laugh at every film that ever has people handling bars of gold. That shits heavy, yo!
V&A: This place is bastard huge. We go every time we visit LANDEN and I think the entrance is the only thing I have seen twice. If you only get to see one bit make sure it is the room with the cast of Trajan's column in it. Holy shit.
Guildhall Art Gallery: Some really rather lovely old paintings upstairs, but the bit that got me all excited is that they recently stumbled upon a Roman amphitheatre in their cellar. Like you do. It turned out to not only be an amphitheatre, it may well be the first one in LANDEN. You can go down and stand in it. Its quite disconcerting.


Also some notmuseums!

Skate park on the South Bank.: Some cockbags want to turn it into moar shops, but many people are upset so that might not happen. Go look just in case. Also look at the rest of the South Bank, its a nice thing to walk up, gives you good views of famous bits of LANDEN and often has a bunch of weirdos doing weird street acts. Its also one of my favourite bits of brutalist architecture, but I am weird so you might just see it as some horrible concrete rectangles.
Barbican Centre: Even if you don't go there to see a thing, its an amazing bit of architecture. Again though, you have to be a weirdo like me to enjoy it, its all big bits of confusing concrete.
Tate Modern: A lot of modern art is pretentious toss. Not all of it though! Some will make you go ooooh. Go here and say ooooh.
Monument to the great fire of LANDEN: Its just a big monument. BUT OH YOU CAN GO INSIDE AND LOOK OUT THE TOP! Ace. Its the only thing on here that's not free, but its only a couple of quid.

I'll pester the Mrs for eating recommendations. There's a few good places we go to, I cant remember the details of any of them. I just follow her then push food into my maw.

[Mr. Johnson]

Ooh, some excellent suggestions there. I visited the science and natural history before but I forgot most of it (except the stuffed dodo) so I wouldn't mind doing them again. We'd be super grateful for eatery places too, but if you can't remember I'm sure we can work that out for ourselves. And if you don't mind me asking, where did you guys stay? Was it any good?

[Joose]

And if you don't mind me asking, where did you guys stay? Was it any good?

It was excellent. Good food, comfortable bed. It's our friends house.

[Grimmie]

There are some incredible restaurants just outside the entrance to the Natural History and Science museums.
https://goo.gl/maps/k5DpU

We went and has pasta and crepes. Good times.

[Mr. Johnson]

It was excellent. Good food, comfortable bed. It's our friends house.

[shot2bits]

Camden market is worth a walk through, far to expensive for what it is but its something different to see

Also your more than welcome to come down to Brighton (not too far on the train from London) and i can show you around and possibly offer you somewhere to stay (and train tickets might actually work out cheaper than getting a hotel in London)

Reminds me that i keep meaning to look at doing some kind of Brighton bash if there's any interest in that sort of thing before i end up moving in the next year or two, but i *think* most of you bummers live a bit too far for it to be viable