h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Quite likely we'll be touring Kew with MMF in the afternoon. No other plans have been made yet. Any suggestions/decisions made offsite will be brought over here. Frankly, at the moment, there's a lot more discussion going on offsite than here

Kew with MMF is always a great fun.
I've always wanted to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Kew is great, especially with nice weather, and nice people.
I would trust MMF blindly for any activity, he's amazing and so is his knowlege of the city.

Oo, I needed to start narrowing down museums, and the Victoria and Albert looks good!

Knew I recognized the name! http://kiddingherself.com/the-victoria-and-albert-museum/

Hm, maybe I can narrow down museums by going through the blog... or ?

'Twould probably be good to figure out an evening venue, as well... What was the place 2legs got banished from ages ago?

Good question. We need to avoid that place

Can I make a suggestion? It looks like you're in the London area July 21 to July 25, with the meet planned for the 22nd, and you also want to fit in somewhere like the V&A, during the UK school holidays and at the height of tourist season.

On Friday evenings the V&A is open until 10pm. Once all the families, tourists and school parties have gone it is much quieter and grown up. A few of the less popular galleries are closed after 6.00 but everything else, including the gift shop and cafe is open until 9.30.

The museum is free, but special exhibitions have a charge. On your dates you could book for Pink Floyd - if it's your kind of thing anyway! Last entry for that would be 8.15. http://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/whatson/index/view/id/3555/event/Pink-Floyd--Their-Mortal-Remains/dt/2017-07-21/free/2


(Although your date of the 21st isn't the last Friday of the month, for anyone else planning a visit that's when there are special events. http://www.vam.ac.uk/info/friday-late
Other museums have over 18 "lates" too of course, the Natural History Museum also the last Friday of the month and the Science Museum which are usually once a month on Wednesdays.)

mmm... I heard that the British museum has a statue of Hapy

(y Egyptians couldn't spell properly ..)

there is however no real need to go and see that statue I'll be there myself

I'm actually poking around online and asking Ag Elsewhere about feasibility (since I have no idea about London logistics), plus I found a free walking tour of London that has absolutely wonderful reviews http://www.neweuropetours.eu/London/en/sandemans-tours/tour-view/FREE-Tour-of-London?&date=03/03/2017&tour=607# ( https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g186338-d1747391-Reviews-SANDEMANs_NEW_Europe_London-London_England.html for reviews). I was told that Kew is far from central London, and should be an all-day thing in and of itself, and that tour+Kew might be a bit much in the walking department. So I'm thinking tour+Victoria and Albert--both free things, saving more money for the evening bit and accomodations. But I don't want to make unilateral decisions (I will if I must--I do enough cat herding at work), so I'd prefer to know if this sounds good to other folks, too. (Kew would most likely be moved to Monday--I really want to watch jousting at Hever Castle, and that's only on at weekends...)

The Sandemans tour isn't totally free, the guides are self employed and it's a "gratuity-based model". You'd have to be a very mean person not to pay something!

The most well respected company are London Walks and their charge is a flat £10. http://www.walks.com/ Their leaders are trained and qualified Blue Badge tourist guides and a lot of them are part-time actors or specialists in the topic of the walk. http://www.walks.com/about/

Did you consider the V&A late night? And although entry itself is free, you are strongly encouraged to make a cash donation in one of the many boxes.

V&A late night? I hadn't looked at that...

I'll look at that tour company, as well Though, if you book a tour with Sandeman's in advance, and have a group of 10+, it's 8 pounds per person, so not actually free anyway... (1-9 are free + whatever gratuity each wants to pay)

Ooohhh http://www.walks.com/our-walks/brunels-london-boat-trip-river-walk-tunnel-descent

The other one that looks good for the meet date is http://www.walks.com/our-walks/the-british-museum-tour

Looked up V&A late night--'tis the last Friday of the month, which will be the next Friday...

Though, looking at the British Museum's site, it looks like there are free tours offered by the museum--especially Friday night.

V&A, see my #8. The galleries are open until 10pm every single Friday, and you'll be here for the 21st. One a month there are additional "lates" special events, which you won't be around for.

V&A on 21st sounds very tempting to me.

good

I've got some real life obligations coming up starting next month that are going to make it difficult, if not impossible, for me to do much in the way of researching/planning. So I'd like to be able to get feedback/make a decision as far as meet activities by then.

Right now, for the daytime activity, we have 3 tours to decide between: the Sandeman's tour for gratuity (or book ahead to stay together for 8 GBP) that starts at 11, the Brunel tour that starts at 10:40 (I have to admit that I'm leaning towards that, even though there's an additional charge for the boa portion), and the British Library tour that starts at 2:15pm. Though, looking at times, and checking the transit times between the end of the Brunel tour and the beginning of the British Museum tour, it might actually be doable to do both... And the obligation that runs from April 10 to theoretically June 16 is one that earns money that this year is earmarked for the trip... Anyway, the other option for the British Museum is to take advantage of their free highlights tour(s) on Friday night, and then do the V&A Saturday. If we did the paid British Museum tour, then V&A could be Friday night.

What do you think?