How many days is your trip, and how many of those will you actually be free?

If it's a really short visit with limited free time, will you want to spend the time travelling back-and-forth to Ireland vs. having those hours doing things in the London area?

If you've never seen an actual castle, you owe it to yourself to see the Tower of London. Yes, there will be other people there, but just take a guided walkiing tour (I don't think any charge).

If you have any historical interest in WWII, then you should visit the Churchill War Rooms, basically the underground bunkers/rooms from which they ran the war effort. Again, people, but you can walk through it at your own pace.

I'd think that if you're staying outside London, you should be able to find a local pub there that's not on the tourist lists.

Don't forget to smile and wave for all the cameras!

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
How many days is your trip, and how many of those will you actually be free?

Fly out Monday and arrive at 0630 (I sleep on the plane). Teach Wed-Friday. Free Friday afternoon through Monday morning. Teach Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon. Fly out Wednesday morning.

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:I'd think that if you're staying outside London, you should be able to find a local pub there that's not on the tourist lists.

Most pubs outside London are not on the tourists' list.

However, visit a place the relies on tourists and it's a different kettle of beer.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Oddball question on traveling to the UK. I know you can't carry a knife there like we carry in the US. But I always carry one when on the Continent. Would I get in trouble for having one in my checked luggage either on arrival or departure, since I'd like to spend some time in London before continuing on to Germany?

Why would you feel it necessary to carry a knife in London? A knife in your luggage might be ok, but remember that in UK any knife that you carry must have a FOLDING blade of three inches or less. No lock knives - not even the usual Leatherman that most of us out in the sticks who go to the range have. Do you look like the kind of person who might carry a knife in the first place?

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
How many days is your trip, and how many of those will you actually be free?

Fly out Monday and arrive at 0630 (I sleep on the plane). Teach Wed-Friday. Free Friday afternoon through Monday morning. Teach Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon. Fly out Wednesday morning.

Run that by me one more time - you were thinking of taking a ferry to Ireland? Wow. Just, well, wow.

Let's see, London Euston to Holyhead - six hours. Ferry to Ireland - three hours..............and then what?

From London you can be in Paris or Brussels inside four hours.....

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
flesheatingvirus, this Bud’s for you.

quote:

In the UK, it is illegal to carry any knife in public without a valid reason, unless it has a manual folding blade less than 3 inches long. However, non-locking pocket knives with a blade length up to 3 inches are allowed without any need for a valid reason. It is also allowed to carry a knife that exceeds these guidelines in public, but you will need a good reason to carry it. The maximum penalty for an adult carrying a knife or weapon illegally is either 4 years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both

Bud??? You must hate America!!

Interesting...but I still don't feel like rolling the dice, even though I technically am anyway by walking about unarmed . I honestly don't think I even own a non-locking folder.

In the last decade, the average (mean) number of homicides each year has been 607. In the year ending March 2022, there were 696 homicide offences recorded in England and Wales. There were also 52 cases of homicide recorded in Scotland and 18 recorded in Northern Ireland.

That's a busy month in Detroit...a slight exaggeration, but you get my drift.

Remember that the population of UK is almost 68 MILLION. I'd opine that you don't really NEED to be armed walking around here.

quote:

Originally posted by Rucker:
o Imperial War Museum
o British Museum

Here's my experience from a visit in June 2022.

Imperial War Museum in Lambeth - loved it. Got there almost when it opened on a Tuesday. About an hour later, it was filled with school children visiting the museum, with teachers doing their best to herd all the cats. By noon they were gone.

The British Museum - while I perused the IWM, my wife and her sister visited the British Museum. It was absolutely packed with school children and other visitors. They went to the specific places they wanted to see and promptly left.

Just be ready for extreme crowds in these intensely popular places.

For me, the IWM was worth it.

The Churchill War Rooms were interesting; our group got an after-hours tour and a dinner/talk with his youngest daughter.

quote:

RAF Museum at Colindale/Hendon

If I only had enough time....

Carry a knife in the UK or the continent? Mmmmm. Well, maybe a small Swiss Army knife for utility purposes if you think you might need the file for an emergency nail trim while watching the changing of the guard. For protection? Absolutely not. First, as has been pointed out, it is safer, particularly the places you will frequent. Second, and my experience is a bit dated, bad guys there tend to carry knives rather than firearms and the ones with knives are often expert in their use. I’m talking flick the eye out of a housefly expert. Try and pull a knife on one of these boys and you might end up with your own knife sticking out of your ribs. Better to travel unarmed and either run away or give up your valuables.

Just to say that I've lived here for about 75% of my soon-to-be 78 years, and I've not only never seen an incident involving a gun or knife, I've also never seen a robbery, a mugging, or a person-on-person assault/attack, let alone a shooting.

Not only that, but I've never encountered anybody who has undergone any of this stuff.

There has been ONE 'school massacre' in UK - ever - and it took place in 1996. The perp allegedly killed himself.

A couple of years back we had a shooting in my county - the first since 1926. That's not a time, that's a DATE.

Just my $0.02 based on going there for a week in 1993 while stationed over in Germany:

Some things you CAN do on a long weekend:

RAF Museum in Hendon, North London
The National Army Museum
Madame Tussaud’s
Highgate Cemetary
Day trip to Canterbury Cathedral, easy trip from London
A proper pint in a real, non tourist-trap Pub
A proper Fish & Chips from a place the locals eat, again not a tourist trap catering to Americans
Marks & Spencer food market
Ride The Tube, just get on and go somewhere

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:

Run that by me one more time - you were thinking of taking a ferry to Ireland? Wow. Just, well, wow.

Let's see, London Euston to Holyhead - six hours. Ferry to Ireland - three hours..............and then what?

From London you can be in Paris or Brussels inside four hours.....

Hmmm...looks like I was underestimating transit times and the general scale of the country. Even if I take an extra 2 days at the end of the trip, I may just fart around in the south, since I'll be staying in Reading. I won't be running out of stuff to see. Three-ish hours to Brussels is tempting...

Hey! I'm new to this international travel thing!

I'm not taking a weapon. Period. With my luck with government bureaucracies, I'll get hung up in customs or by LE for some BS reason. Fails the cost-benefit analysis.

I'm a London aficionado ... and I'm buying a house in Ireland... as much as I'd recommend places in Ireland for you to see, if you only have the weekend, you'll be much better off staying in London. Just the hours you'd spend getting on and off transit would be wasted and you'd rush through any experience that would take longer than a tube ride.

Take Samuel Johnson's advice: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. For in it, is all that life can afford." Still true today.

Lived in Europe half my life and although I always felt safer there than here, Things have changed over there and I have seen a few things happen where I wished I would have had something with me. Now that I have gotten older my go to is a very nice walking cane, do I need it for walking NOPE! but never looks out of place and against someone with a knife a cane will do nicely. Plus you can take it thru security.

While an Irish shillelagh would be nice, they look a little threatening. Here are some suggestions.

Self defense canes

Tac - you would know more than most on this forum about your country. Thanks for sharing!!!

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
Just to say that I've lived here for about 75% of my soon-to-be 78 years, and I've not only never seen an incident involving a gun or knife, I've also never seen a robbery, a mugging, or a person-on-person assault/attack, let alone a shooting.

Not only that, but I've never encountered anybody who has undergone any of this stuff.

There has been ONE 'school massacre' in UK - ever - and it took place in 1996. The perp allegedly killed himself.

A couple of years back we had a shooting in my county - the first since 1926. That's not a time, that's a DATE.

Well, I can say that for 42 years I was never accosted by a man with a knife intending to do me harm...until I was. That was a number of years ago that I likely wouldn't have been able to enjoy had I not been armed.

Seriously, you make a number of common gun/weapon control arguments.

quote:

Why would you feel it necessary to carry a knife in London?

Really?

Why not ask why would any of us feel it necessary to carry a weapon in any city?

I have to say that I'm rather surprised by some of your responses here.

Guys, take the weapon stuff to it's own thread. In America, I go nowhere without my Zero Tolerance, Malkoff, and P226 (where legal). That will not be happening on this trip. If there was no question that it wouldn't cause a problem, I'd bring all of them. Feel free to start a thread dedicated just to this topic.

While I can definitely see the usefulness of a cane in some situations, I would look weird as hell with a cane. I'm 40 and often get mistaken for a current/former:

cop
member of the armed forces
Nazi

London Eye is pretty cool, as long as you have no fear of heights, wide open glass you can see everything.

London Tower is good, get to see the royal jewels, Westminister Abbey we only had a few days and not much time to see everything.

You can fly over to Dublin for very little money have a pint of Guinness and back that night. I think our one way ticket was $50 but that was a while back.