Travel Guides: London Part 2

London

London is among the largest and most important cities in the world. Evidence of its rich history can be found everywhere.

The city is the center of Great Britain and it is a major global financial center. London is a magnet for actors, artists and designers but also a city that sets trends in art, architecture, fashion, design and technology. In the past 20 years, London escaped the reputation of a city that does not eat well, even becoming one of the culinary capitals of the world.

London has evolved from a patchwork of villages and fairs governed separately. Today in London neighborhoods may still be seen different styles and personalities. City Centre London is the oldest neighborhood and it is today the city’s financial district. It hosts some of the most important monuments and tourist attractions in London such as Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The latter serves as a place where the British Crown Jewels are kept.

In Central London are found important churches such as St. Paul (St. Paul’s Cathedral), built by Christopher Wren. Objects in the ancient town, discovered after archeological excavations are exhibited at the Museum of London. Central London also hosts more modern buildings such as Lloyds building, Swiss Re building known as “The Gherkin” or the Millennium Bridge, nicknamed the “sword of light.”

Underground Subway Station

Tourists can learn a lot about the history of money from the Bank of England Museum. Central London would be a visiting the area during the day because there are too many restaurants and night life is completely absent.

Other parts of London are different between them, each with its own specificity. Bloomsbury district for example is a serious and quiet neighborhood. West End is full of restaurants and an entertainment center. Here are famous theaters and cinemas such as Covent Garden and Royal Opera. Soho, theaters and entertainment district of London, it is in heart of West End. Also in Soho are found most interesting and lively bars and clubs in London.

London Thames

Westminster is the neighborhood gathering all government institutions and a lot of historical monuments and tourist attractions. Tourists can see here Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square where you can walk through or visit the National Gallery. Palace of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey Whitehall are found in the street that goes from Trafalgar Square. Along the street there are the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum as well as 10 Downing Street, residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Many other areas of London are full of tourist attractions and historical objectives. Mayfair, Piccadilly and St. James’s and Kensington or Chelsea are among the interesting areas of London.

As one of the most important capitals of the world for both business and leisure, London can be visited at any time of the year. People from different parts of the world have different preferences when it comes to a favorable time to visit London. This makes the flow of tourists to be relatively constant throughout the year and keep prices high enough. But many tourists prefer the summer because of warmer weather.

Panoramic View Of London

Spring is dominated by traditional Japanese tourists who come in vacation in April and May. Winter is the season that London is the least visited because of frequent rains and relatively low temperatures. The exception is December when London is flooded even the British come to shop or to attend various shows organized during the holidays. In conclusion, July, August and December are the busiest of the year and the month of January is ideal for those who are looking to save money and buy something smaller.

Most London tourist attractions, museums or historical objectives, are crowded in July, August and during school holidays. But as London has plenty of tourist attractions such queues at the ticket entry or not an issue in general. In London you can be reached easily by plane, because the city is served by no fewer than five international airports used by most airlines in the world. London is also the main railway junction of Great Britain and a starting point for European train travel.

Due to the abundance of tourists worldwide who choose to visit London, appeared offers for unlimited flights and accommodation and various discount packages. Heathrow and Gatwick Airports are still the main gateways in London and the UK, but with the increasing popularity of low-cost airlines and other airports are becoming more widely used. All airports are well connected to the city by public transport making it very easy to move from city to the airport and vice versa.

Those who travel on business are becoming more attracted to smaller airports: City, Stansted or Luton. They are used by low-cost companies, are less crowded, delays are rare but are equally well connected to the city by means of transportation as two major airports of London. Although it is classified as an expensive city, London remains a top holiday destination amongst European cities with nearly six million tourists annually. With careful planning it can be a location for a vacation.

Transport is one of the four policy areas administered by the Mayor of London. However, the mayor’s financial control is limited, and he does not control the heavy rail network, although in November 2007, he assumed responsibility for the North London railway, and many other lines to form London Overground. Public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL) is one of the largest in the world, but faces congestion and reliability problems, which is a large investment program in an attempt to address the £ 7 billion pounds (10 billion euros) assigned to planned improvements to the Olympics.

London was acclaimed as the best city with public transport. Cycling is an increasingly popular to ride around London. The centerpiece of public transport is the London Underground-commonly referred to by locals as “tube”, which shows eleven interconnected lines. It is one of the oldest, longest and most expansive metro systems in the world, dating from 1863. The system was home to the first power line underground world, City & South London Railway, which began services in 1890.

Hilton Docklands Riverside

There are more than three million passengers per day and more than 1 billion passengers every year. The longest subway system runs on 244 miles below the streets of London. London Underground – or the tube, as known to the locals – carries about 1.1 billion passengers every year. The first city in the world underground railway opened in 1863, and today operates 500 trains and 275 stations. Busiest subway station is Waterloo, which serves about 46,000 commuters during the “rush” in the morning.

Over the subway system, there are 412 escalators and 112 lifts that are in constant motion due to congestion in stations. Underground serves the central area and most suburbs to the north of the Thames, while those to the south are served by a suburban railway network surface, due to unfavorable land for underground Metro railway line south of the river.

London

Docklands Light Railway is a second metro system using smaller and lighter trains. This system was opened in 1987, serving East London and Greenwich on both sides of Thames. The intercity rail, generally do not cross the city, but are scattered in terminus fourteen stations around its historic center, except Thames-link route which is operated by the First Capital Connect, which is from Bedford to Brighton and Luton to Sutton. Eurostar high speed trains, which start from St Pancras International station, with direct links with Lille and Paris in France and Brussels in Belgium. Duration of a trip to Paris and Brussels is 2h 15 min. respectively 1h 51 min.

With Eurostar services, London is closer to continental Europe than the rest of Great Britain, recently completed under the High Speed 1 which makes the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Since 2009, this line will enable high-speed domestic rail traffic from Kent to London. Redevelopment of St Pancras station was key for the London Olympic bid, serving as station also has two international airports through Thameslink, and will provide also direct rail links to the Olympic site in Stratford using British Rail Class 395, which operates trains as the Olympic Javelin; they will be based on Japanese Shinkansen high-speed trains.

Big Ben Clock Tower

London’s bus network is one of the largest in the world that runs 24 hours a day, with 8,000 buses, 700 bus routes and over 6 million passengers who use this means of transport every working day of the week. In 2003, network revenue was estimated at over 1.5 billion per year, more than the subway. One came around £ 850 million is collected annually. London has the largest wheelchair accessible network in the world and, since the 3rd quarter of 2007, it has become more accessible for passengers with hearing and visual impairments and audio-visual content, including advertisements were placed. Distinctive red double-decker buses are internationally recognized and they are a mark of London with black taxis and the “Tube”.

While most journeys involving central London are made by public transport outside London is dominated by cars. Inner ring South and North Circular road (the suburbs), and outside the orbital motorway (M25, outside built-up area) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes-highway, but very few penetrate inside the iPhone. M25-ring is the longest highway in the world of 121.5 miles (195.5 km) long. A plan for a network of motorways throughout the city (Ringways Plan) was prepared in 1960, but was mostly canceled in early 1970.

Panoramic View Of London

In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce the volume of traffic in downtown. With few exceptions, motorists are asked to pay £8 a day to drive in a defined area that includes the most crowded area of central London. Motorists are defined area residents can buy a discounted season subscription, which is updated monthly and is cheaper than a charge to provision for a bus. London is famous for its traffic congestion, the M25 motorway, is the busiest in the country.

London is a major international aviation hub of the airspace in the world’s largest city. Eight airports use the words “London Airport” in their name, but most traffic passes through one of the five largest airports. London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic, and is the main hub of the country’s flagship carrier, British Airways.

In March 2008, the fifth terminal was opened to consider opening a sixth terminal. A similar type of traffic, with the addition of low-cost flights and short haul flights is handled at London Gatwick Airport. London Stansted Airport, the main point of access and Aeroporia Ryanair London Luton flights serve mostly low-cost, short. London City Airport, the airport’s smallest and most central, is focused on business travelers, with a mixture of short-distance regular services and business traffic. London Southend Airport is developing new services in 2009, to expand the business traffic and freight services. There has been controversy about the expansion of capacity, such as building a third runway at Heathrow airport and build a new airport.

London is an international center of art, music, museums, and many others. London is home to five symphony orchestras: London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonica and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Symphonic concert halls are the main Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Public Phones In London

In London started work famous rock bands like The Clash, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, The Libertines, or Pink Floyd. Meeting rock concerts are famous at Brixton Academy, Astoria and the Hammersmith Apollo. London hosts the famous carnivals and parades, such as the Notting Hill Carnival, and parades of St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) or St. George (April 23). In London there are over 30 theaters, mostly concentrated in the West End. Most are commercial, and put on stage musicals and other popular songs.

Non-commercial theatres are the National Theatre, The Globe (the old faithful reconstruction of Shakespeare Theatre), Old Vic and Young Vic. British national collection of old western art (before 1900) is hosted by the National Gallery. Tate Modern contains collections of Western art after 1900, and Tate Britain houses the national collection of British art. National Portrait Gallery has a collection of portraits of famous British personalities of all time.

London Eye

London hosts no more than 240 museums. The best known are the British Museum (antiquities from around the world), Victoria and Albert Museum (decorative and applied arts), Imperial War Museum and the Museum of Natural History and Science Museum, both of Kensington, or the Museum of London. British national media is concentrated in London, and is often accused London covers better than the rest of the country. Here are edited all the national newspapers, which until the 1970s, had their headquarters on Fleet Street, which became famous as a street journalists.

There are three local newspapers in the London Evening Standard, Metro and Standard Lite, distributed free in the past two each morning in the subway and railway stations.
London is one of the four major fashion capitals, along with Paris, Milan and New York. Famous supermarkets as Harrods, Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, are present here, with lots of boutiques and top designer stores. London has always been the center of religious life in the United Kingdom, despite the primacy of national Anglican Church has its headquarters in Canterbury.

New Buses In London

London’s two Anglican bishops are the Bishop of London, whose seat is the imposing Cathedral of St. Paul, the Bishop of Southwark, in whose obedience is faithful to the south of the Thames. Major religious events take place either in St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral. Catholic Archbishop of Westminster is head of the British. Also, London is the largest center of Islam in the United Kingdom; the London Central Mosque is a famous goal from the edge of Regents Park.

Hindu Temple in Neasden is the largest Hindu temple outside India and an outstanding example of modern building constructed in traditional style. Over two thirds of British Jews live in London. A number of universities, colleges and schools, London has a population of approximately 378,000 students and being a center for research and development. Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system for the comprehensive school, like the rest of England. With 125,000 students, University of London is the largest contact university professors who teach in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Velopark Hopkins, Olympic Games

It comprises 20 colleges, as well as several smaller institutes, each with a high degree of autonomy. Constituent colleges have their own admission procedures are effective and universities in their own right, although most degrees are awarded by the University of London rather than individual colleges.

London has hosted two Olympic Games, those of 1908 and those in 1948. In July 2005 London was chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, becoming the first city that hosts three editions of the Games. In London there are annually the largest and oldest all-time tennis tournaments at Wimbledon. In the history of this tournament have left names such as Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and today and write a history of Roger Federer.

One of the most popular marathons in the world is the London Marathon, which runs every spring. The most popular sport in London, the number of spectators, is football, two of England’s most famous football clubs are in London: Arsenal FC (in Highbury) and Chelsea FC (in Fulham).