Approaches to That London

[TordelBack]

So I'm over in England for a week's sailing in September, have to hire a car and pick up a mate at Stansted on a Monday morning. It occurred to me that I could go over myself a day early and spend the Sunday in the fleshpots and vice dens of That London (oh alright, morning in the British Museum, afternoon in Natural History Museum with Gosh! in between, as usual). 

So I'm looking for some advice: I can pick up the car in Stansted on Sunday for basically the same price as picking it up on the Monday, as well as get all that hullaballoo sorted in advance so we can hit the road bright and early.   BUT... what do I do then?

Can anyone suggest (1). a best plan for getting into London with car starting at Stansted on a Sunday morning, in the mode of park-and-ride; (2). somewhere cheap as feck to sleep that's easy to get back to from London and handy for an 8am Monday Morning pickup back at Stansted. 

I appreciate that the simple answer is 'don't get the car until Monday morning and just get the airport express in', but I fancy a bit of flexibility in finding somewhere outside of London to overnight, and avoiding the stress of picking up a car in the morning.

 

[Supreme Pizza Of The DPRK]

Been a while but I believe Epping is the farthest station out of the city on the red line. M11 from Standsted to there. And the red line takes you to St. Pauls which is a quick jog to where you want to go. So assuming you can find somewhere cheap to sleep in Epping that's what I would do.

But I'm not a Londoner nor have I visited for a fairly long time so maybe mines not the best advice.

[Professor Bear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX9KSxEZhK0

[Jim_Campbell]

We don't hold with your sort in Brexit Britain, coming over here with your fancy Euros and your human rights. Piss off back to foreign-land where you belong!

Sincerely,

T. May

[radiator]

Been a while but I believe Epping is the farthest station out of the city on the red line. M11 from Standsted to there. And the red line takes you to St. Pauls which is a quick jog to where you want to go. So assuming you can find somewhere cheap to sleep in Epping that's what I would do.

But I'm not a Londoner nor have I visited for a fairly long time so maybe mines not the best advice.

Yeah - used to live in Epping and it's a pretty handy location. Very close to Stansted (maybe a 30/40min drive?) and you can take the central line all the way into central london in around 45 minutes (best of all, as its the end of the line you'll always be able to get a seat even at rush hour, and most of the journey is actually above ground).

[Colin YNWA]

Come to Sheffield instead and we'll put you up and Sheff's like 80 gazillions times better than London ... well tourist attractions aside.

[TordelBack]

Come to Sheffield instead and we'll put you up and Sheff's like 80 gazillions times better than London ... well tourist attractions aside.

The London thing's just a fanciful dalliance, I'm actually going to Norfolk for the week, so the bright lights of Sheffield will never win that contest of titanic thrills. Although a chance to visit the mancave of my dreams is a temptation and I am heading over to Hull in June...

Thanks for the advice all (except Jim, who suckles at the orange teat of Trump), Epping sounds doable.

[The Legendary Shark]

It's only a six or eight hour drive from there to here, which is further than Sheffield but better as it's in God's own Lancashire rather than Satan's own Yorkshire...

I'll even let you sleep in your hire car, which you can park next to my shed. Here is also quite close to Liverpool, which is worse than anywhere else because it's infested with Bread and Beatles and in the disowned by all deities' Merseyside, but there is a ferry to Irelandshire.

Seriously, though, hope you have a good time!

[sheridan]

Although a chance to visit the mancave of my dreams is a temptation and I am heading over to Hull in June...

Go to the Deep, and visit the museums in Hull (can't remember the exact names of them, but there was one devoted to streetlife, another to Wilberforce, Maritime History, plus the Ferens Art Gallery.

[TordelBack]

The Deep and the Maritime museum are already top of my Hull list, must look into the others.  This is shaping up to be a year of travels for me (albeit of the the NW Europe variety), so I'm taking notes.   

Must say that the notion of one day visiting both the Shark Shed and the Colin Cave has a huge appeal, with a possible sidetrip to Centre of the Universe (Northhampton): I can't decide if it could form part of a modern recreation of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, or Dante's Inferno (if the latter I'd take Buttonman along as my Virgil, his detailed knowledge of the culinary heritage of these islands would be invaluable, and his head-tilt and invisible hand are bound to impress the natives).

[The Legendary Shark]

You're always welcome at Chez Shark, Tordels!

[Colin YNWA]

Must say that the notion of one day visiting both the Shark Shed and the Colin Cave has a huge appeal, with a possible sidetrip to Centre of the Universe (Northhampton):

Yep if you ever fancy just say.... though I think the entertainment value of the nerd cave might be over stated. That said there are some glorious views from our garden and we've close to what is hoped to be Sheffield's first zoo (fingers crossed!)

[TordelBack]

Don't fight over little ol' me ladies, plenty (and I mean a genuine surplus) of indigent Tordel to go around.

Cheers guys, adding these to the List.

[TordelBack]

Quick necro-post to thank everyone most sincerely for their advice here, and in Atreides' What to Do in London thread. 

I did indeed stay in Epping, which was both unbelievably handy (a Central Line stop in what is essentially a rural village? Brits be crazy!) and rather pleasant  Add that to an off-peak Zone 6 One-day Travelcard for £12 and I had a fantastic day of complete indulgence in the V&A and the Tate Britain, with an eye-opening walk through what appeared to be the post-Chaos rebuilding of MC-1 along the Thames between the Eye and Vauxhall, topped off with bits of sight-seeing of medieval wotsits in Westminster, liberal browsing of Gosh!, FP, Foyles and the Charing Cross Rd secondhand bookshops.  Alas Orbital was closed when I got there, and the Orcs Nest doesn't open Sunday, but as these were my only disappointments I'm calling it a complete win. 

Major highlights were the nerdvana of the Harryhausen exhibition at Tate Britain (reader, my eyes may have moistened a tad to be a few inches from that skeleton), and the incredible Plywood exhibition at the V&A (the moment of epiphany where I finally embraced just what a boring old man I am),

I was doing this solo and on the ultra-cheap, so it was homemade sambos and a monster sausage'n'chip supper (£3!) rather than any cultural noshing a la Buttonman, and I substituted some amusing people-watching for the Matilda ticket I had contemplated buying.  But thanks to the contributions here, I had a stimulating and downright economical day.  And for the first time ever, I didn't even get to the British Museum!

Some observations from my trip, by way of reciprocating:

- Englanders, your country is very far from full.  Flying over it, and then driving from Epping to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, it's basically uninhabited outside of the cities.   

- The 14th C Jewel Tower, just at the west side of Westminster, is a neat little treat I've missed before: nice benches in behind for sambos too.

- Norfolk people are as friendly and helpful a folk as I've met anywhere, and I won't hear a word against them.  Steve Coogan should be ashamed.

- Great Yarmouth is one of the finest medieval towns I've visited anywhere, why didn't I know this before?  Come for the kitsch, stay for the walls and cloisters.  Although while there I was surprised to learn that Jimmy Tarbuck is still alive.

- The seal colony on the beach at Horsey is just magnificent.  Also: kingfisher, marsh harrier and barn owl, all in one day?  The Broads are spectacular.

- The Blake room in the Tate Britain is excellent.  The Turner galleries you have to slog through to get to it are rather less so.  An artist best in small doses, I think.

[Spikes]

Sounds like you had a grand time T. I was there myself only last week, and attending similar places, so I wonder if we passed each other unknowingly?

But damn,

"Major highlights were the nerdvana of the Harryhausen exhibition at Tate Britain (reader, my eyes may have moistened a tad to be a few inches from that skeleton)...."

I had made a mental note for this to be included in my itinerary, but then completely forgot about it, so never attended. Damn, again!