Observations on Travelling in 2019
We found that major tourist sites are overrun by tourists. This may be a good sign that people from all over the world are travelling but we found it overwhelming. You now need advance reservations to see many great sites and tour groups are making the individual experience difficult. These groups stick together and basically run you over if you are on the sidewalk or or path where a group is headed. It also appears that people are more interested in bucket list checkoffs and selfies than the actual art or place that is being visited.
The NY Times has devoted a large article to this phenomenon and the article offers alternative places to visit that avoids crowds.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/travel/traveling-europe-summer-crowds.html?auth=login-email https://www.heathrowexpress.com/?CMP=PS-GG1-PRK001&gclid=CjwKCAjw36DpBRAYEiwAmVVDMA3VoJJtX3zDXqdRwDcprFJsXwm2PuBhHzqGDIu1yA4h5ntPrwrs2RoCYBoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
We found the Vatican to be impossible and we had a tour arranged through the Vatican. The crowds were worse than Penn Station on a holiday weekend. The Sistine Chapel was like a cattle pen. Florence was equally challenging. I had made reservations at the Accademia and the Uffizi and it still took some doing to figure the correct lines to wait on. There is a reservation line, entrance line, security line on the top of the non reservation line etc. Also the rules change every few months so experts like Rick Steves https://www.ricksteves.com/ can be wrong, even on their websites which should be up to date. BTW Rick Steves is generally very good for discovering a major city just don't follow his food suggestions.
Things worked but the crowds diminished the experience and they certainly diminished viewing the art. Not sure what the answer is but we now need to ask ourselves when planning a trip -- what do we really want to do? Do you need to see the world's greatest with crowds and lines for everything or is a small beautiful old city or town with a small church and some of Michelangelo's lesser works more of what will appeal to you. Do you need to check off your list if you have one - Michelangelo's David, the Eiffel Tower, the Vatican etc. or can you have a great time seeing other things.
Another tip, when you are in a great city use public transportation. The ubiquitous hop on and off buses are generally very expensive. Hop on any bus in a city and see where it takes you. Get lost in great cities and you will be rewarded.
London
Day 1
We took a morning United flight to Heathrow from Newark. Leaves 8:30 and and arrived around 8:30 pm. We took the Heathrow Express https://www.heathrowexpress.com/?CMP=PS-GG1-PRK001&gclid=CjwKCAjw36DpBRAYEiwAmVVDMA3VoJJtX3zDXqdRwDcprFJsXwm2PuBhHzqGDIu1yA4h5ntPrwrs2RoCYBoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds train to Paddington Station. The train is fast and if you buy tickets in advance, not that expensive. We then took a cab to our hotel, the Maida Vale Marriott https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lonwh-london-marriott-hotel-maida-vale/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2. It was refreshing to have a comfortable cab with a driver who knew where he was going and was very friendly and polite.
I picked the hotel because it was reasonably priced $159 and Marriott treats me well because of my elite status. Maida Vale is about 15 minutes by underground from central London. There was a station 3 blocks away. We did not know that the hotel was near Abbey Road and was in the middle of the Middle Eastern section of London, which is very large. We checked in, found a pub across the street and had some beer and pub food.
Although London has a reputation as being a very expensive city, we found that since the pound is now equal to $1.25, things were reasonably priced. The Underground https://www.londontoolkit.com/briefing/oystercard.htm is very reasonable as they have the Oyster Card. This is an electronic card that you prefill with money from a credit card. The good news is that if you stay within Zones 1 & 2 on the trains, there is a maximum charge of 7 pounds. This includes buses as well. This pricing makes getting around London cheap and easy. The trains run very frequently and buses are everywhere.
Buses can be tricky. Most bus stops have a map of the stops buses make. You can check these maps to see if a bus goes to someplace that you are familiar with. Then just hop on the next bus. They have double decker buses so sightseeing on a public bus is fun.
Buses are also great if it starts to rain as they are a great place to take shelter from the storm. This is especially helpful in London where it can rain at anytime.
Day 2
We went to the Tate Modern. https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern There is a pedestrian bridge from the City of London to the museum.The museum is free and it is very big. The galleries are spacious and they very modern and large works of art many with socially conscious overtones. It was a fun place. The top floor is open and you get wonderful views of St Paul's.
The Victoria and Albert Museum https://www.vam.ac.uk/ interesting place. A good place to wander for few minutes. The Science museum is down the road. We did not visit it on this trip but it a fun museum.
Something to note, although museums in London tend to be free, special exhibits are very expensive. We skipped the special exhibits as we were not terribly interested in them. Remember that if you have never been to these museums, their regular exhibits can be fantastic.
Our hotel was near the Little Venice section of London. London and all of England has canals that go everywhere. You can take boats on the canals. We took a boat from Little Venice to Camden market. https://www.londonwaterbus.com/ You can obtain tix on line. The boats are long and thin to fit on the canals. The trip was about an hour and was fun.
We enjoyed London. It had been a while since we had been there. The city is very large and spread out and you can spend a number of days exploring.
Florence and Rome coming next time.
Enjoy.
