Sightseeing Weekend in London

My friends and friends of friends frequently ask me what to see in London if you visit it just for a weekend or you have to fly through London and you have a day. My advice would be: do the same thing what you would do in any other European capital. Take a sightseeing bus. The ticket will give you both a bus tour and a river cruise. The river tour is fantastic in London. The Thames is wide, fast and you have plenty of sightseeing opportunities unlike in other European capitals.

The bus tour will give you a fantastic overview of London's iconic sites.

As for museums, V&A is an absolute favourite among most tourist however Tate Modern is the most visited museum in the whole world. Tate Modern has a fantastic marketing team which "made" the museum famous however the modern art is not for all so behave and check what is going on at the museum while you are in town. Currently its Matisse and Malevich along with Tate's collection. As to V&A its conveniently located next to Science and Natural History Museums, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park and South Kensington which gives you an opportunity to walk around and explore the affluent neighbourhood, one of the most famous parks in the world and potentially a Kensington palace. 

British Museum is probably number two in my personal list of historical museums after the V&A. Its website has a fantastic guidance "if you've got 1 hour for British museum", 3 hours etc 

Shard or Tower 42 will give you a possibility to see London from the sky while sipping champaign.

Do not pay for the Shard's viewing platform because a couple of floors below you can have a drink and a snack for the price of the "view from the Shard" ticket.

If you like art then Somerset House, National Gallery and probably the Tate Modern mentioned above. 

Also one must visit an old English pub for a real British experience. Here is a map and a guide to the oldest pubs in London. 

In case you have great stamina go to one of the iconic musicals like Phantom of the Opera.

That's about it what you can do in London in 2 days - take a bus tour, a river cruise, a view from the Shard or Tower 42, a little bit of museum experience and a pint. 

For an extra luxury the afternoon tea at Ritz would be a great extra. This month I had an afternoon tea at Shard and it did not live up to my expectations. So for the truly great however expensive treat go for Ritz.

Abellio Greater Anglia first class

We took an Abellio Greater Anglia trading from Liverpool street train statiom in London all the way to Norwich in Norfolk. It was Friday afternoon, we arrived at the station rather early and as a first class ticket holders sat down at the First class lounge. There was no one there to check our tickets hence there was a random elderly lady who was talking on the phone and drinking without being a first class ticket holder. There is a funny sign calling to people's consciousness. There were lovely fresh flowers, coffee machine with rubbish coffee and a water cooler. I would be actually quite ashamed to call it a "first class lounge".

The air conditioner was the most profound feature that we really appreciated in the summer heat. So seating in a pleasantly chilly room we were reading some periodicals and waiting for the platform number to be available. All the trains of Abellio Greater Anglia are conveniently located next to the first class lounge which was great as we did not have to walk literally any distance in 30 degrees C.

The train was called Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson. On a Friday afternoon first class was packed with elderly people whose generation lead to the credit crunch we are now experiencing and who blame bankers for tricking them into getting mortgages.

Seats were wide however the car was very old and everything inside was quote outdated. We had complimentary soft drinks, tea and biscuits. The wi-fi is complimentary for the first class but you have to register to use it (one-off but still rather annoying). The wi-fi was also not so stable. 

Having written that I have to say that the price of standard and first class is not that different. The price is huge anyway so it is slightly more pleasant to travel in the first class due to the less seats on a square meter. Other than that there is no difference at Abellio Greater Anglia train.