10 free things to do in London

by Jessica Festa on

While London, United Kingdom, is often thought to be one of the more expensive cities to travel to, it doesn’t have to be. If you plan ahead and add some quality, budget-friendly options to your itinerary, you can actually spend a vacation in London without going bankrupt. To help, here is a list of ten free things to do in London.

Visit a museum

Unlike many other cities, there are many top museums in London that are free to enter. The most popular museum to visit in the country is the British Museum, which was founded in 1753 and was the first national public museum in the world. It is a good idea to visit this museum not only because it will save you money, but also because it will give you comprehensive insight into the history and culture of the region you are visiting. Other noteworthy London museums that offer free entry include:

  • Imperial War Museum – See antique guns, tanks, artillery, and aircraft and trace the history of armed conflict, especially that which pertained to Britain and the Commonwealth.
  • Wellcome Collection– This museum is very unique, and sometimes even a bit disturbing, but is a must-see for those with a curious mind. The exhibits explore the connection between medicine, life, and art in the past, present, and future. Some interesting things you will see include Napoleon’s toothbrush, used guillotine blades, and naturally preserved mummies.
  • V&A Museum of Childhood– For something fun and whimsical, visit this museum and peruse an extensive collection of toys, games, costumes, and exhibits that explore the world of design through childhood.

Take in some art and creativity

As with museums, London also features numerous top-quality art galleries that are free to enter. One of my favorites is the Tate Modern, which features five floors of modern art including abstractions, pop art, cubism, minimalism, and expressionism. If you want to see paintings from the early Renaissance to the Post-Impression periods, the National Gallery features over 2,000 works. And, for the photographers out there (or those who simply like to look at pictures), the Photographers’ Gallery, which opened in 1971 as the first independent gallery in Britain devoted to photography, houses displays of themed photo galleries.

Laugh until you cry at a comedy club

For almost every night of the week you are in London there is a venue that can deliver free laughs. Here is a guide to a week of knee-slapping comedy:

  • Monday- Archangel features new material from established comics as well as up-and-coming comedians working on their first five or ten minutes of jokes.
  • Tuesday- The Source Below features Brooklyn-native Lewis Schaffer every Tuesday (and sometimes more) as he continuously adds new jokes to his already sharp act.
  • Wednesday- Comedy Cafe is one of the best comedy clubs in London and is where many big names in comedy first got started.
  • Thursday and Saturday- Camden Head is a pub, comedy, and music venue that brings in a mix of top-headliners, up-and-coming comedians, and first timers.
  • Sunday- Queen’s Head is a traditional English pub that features a mix of big name and beginner talent in an intimate and friendly setting.

Stroll through beautiful parks

London is home to some of the most beautiful parks in the world. Regent’s Park offers the Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens while Hyde Park is home to the Diana Fountain, a memorial to the Princess of Wales. Green Park is literally right next to Buckingham Palace and has the beautiful Canada Gate while St. James’s Park is the oldest park in London and is surrounded by three palaces. No matter what park you choose, you are sure to be surrounded by beauty on a budget.

Listen to some live music

From Monday-Saturday at 5:45PM and Saturday-Sunday at 1PM you can head over to the National Theatre on the South Bank for free performances of music styles from around the world. Furthermore, on Saturday afternoons at the Notting Hill Arts Club there are free live music concerts hosted from 4PM-8PM. If you’re into a more bar/club type vibe, The Old Blue Last often holds free shows. This is considered by many to be one of the best venues in London and artists like Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Florence and the Machine, and Mumford and Sons have all played here.

Peruse the street markets

While it costs money to make purchases at a market, it doesn’t cost anything to browse. Budget-travelers will especially love Borough Market, an enormous open-air food market that has everything you could possible crave: breads, soups, sandwiches, meats, cheeses, spreads, sauces, cookies, candy, granola, pate, polenta, and more. The best part of all is almost every stall gives out free samples, so you can literally have a free lunch. There is also the famous Portobello Road Market that features an expansive collection of antiques, and the Old Spitalfields Market which sells everything from arts and crafts to clothing to antiques. If you’re looking for a more funkier market in an alternative setting, head over the numerous Camden Markets in Camden Town.

See the changing of the guard

No trip to London is complete without visiting Buckingham Palace and seeing the changing of the guard. This is when a new guard replaces an old guard, kind of like switching shifts, but is a lot more complicated and involves a formal ceremony that must be performed. Click here for a schedule of dates and times.

Take in a street performance

When in London, there are a few places you can go to see the talented street performers of the area. In the West Piazza of the Covent Garden Market, right outside St. Paul’s Church, you can see acts that are just as good as if you went to the theater. In fact, the street performers actually have to audition before performing, and there have been some really well-known acts, such as “Beautiful Stu” Goldsmith, the Scottish National Busking Champion, the world-renowned comedic stuntman Sean Bridges, and Cirque du Soleil-style performer, Courtney Orange (pictured right). If you’re more in the mood to see a debate or live discussion, head over to Speakers’ Corner in the north-east corner of Hyde Park, which mostly takes place on Sundays.

Learn something at the London Public Library

The London Public Library not only offers a wealth of knowledge through their myriad books and publications, but also through workshops and classes. Learn how to research your family tree, practice Tai Chi, work on mixed media art, relax with Yoga, and even play the Ukulele. Click here for a complete schedule.

Take a SANDEMAN’s NEW Europe Walking Tour

SANDEMAN’s NEW Europe Walking Tours are a favorite within the backpacking circuit and can give you a quality tour for a budget-friendly (free) price. I have personally been on a few of their tours throughout different cities in Europe and can vouch that they are exceptionally run. Most, if not all, of the guides have college degrees and have studied and trained to be knowledgeable in what they are talking about. You will get to see major and less-known sites and learn all about the history and culture of the region. All of the guides I have had have also been extremely funny and entertaining.

Lincoln Cathedral quieter than usual as 176 year old bell gets repaired

by Sean McLachlan on

Great Tom, the giant bell at Lincoln Cathedral that has struck the hour every hour since 1835, has stopped ringing.

The clapper has almost shared off, a church official said. The last time the bell was silenced was during the filming of The Da Vinci Code in 2005.

Lincoln Cathedral is one of the great cathedrals of Europe. The original cathedral was commissioned by William the Conqueror and consecrated in 1092. Fires and earthquakes caused a few rebuilds over the years and like so many cathedrals, different parts date to different centuries.

Still, it’s one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in England. The soaring nave and the three tall towers make it a memorable landmark.

One odd little bit of decoration is the Lincoln Imp. This is said to be one of two imps sent by the devil to cause mischief. They smashed the furniture, tripped the bishop, and caused general mayhem until an angel floated out of a book of hymns. One imp became scared and hid, while the other threw things at the angel. The angel then turned the more aggressive imp to stone while the cowardly imp ran away. An imp is still the symbol of the city of Lincoln.

Smaller bells will continue to ring the quarter hours and church officials hope to have it up by the end of the year.

Imp photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Cathedral photo courtesy Geograph.

D*Haus’ dynamic new house transforms shape with the weather

by Jessica Festa on

When it gets stormy outside, I usually just close my windows. But with the new innovative design concept by D*Haus, homes may soon by able to simply morph when the weather changes.

The London-based company has come up with a eco-friendly house that sits on rails, allowing it to change its form into different configurations, pivoting open and closed, based on the weather. According to Daniel Woolfson of D*Haus, “The dissection of the square into four distinct shapes allows it to be rearranged to form the [equilateral] triangle. This concept alone is fascinating, but the possibilities are endless when applying this formula to the world of architecture and design.”

When developing the home, designers had the regions of Sweden and Lapland in mind, hoping to create something that would respond to the harsh climates of these areas. For example, when it’s chilly out and you need to conserve heat the house can pull itself into a tight square.

There is still some work to do before the house is perfect, as you can probably imagine there are a lot of technical issues that go into a project like this. To get a better idea of how this shape-shifting house works, check out this video:


D*Haus Dynamic from The D*Haus Company Ltd on Vimeo.

Five holiday cookies from around the world

by Laurel Miller on

I love good old American iced sugar cookies as much as the next person. Yet there’s a whole world of cookiedom out there, and the holdiays are the best excuse to do a little experimenting.

Whether you prefer your cookies buttery, spiced, crisp, or iced, there’s something to suit your…ahem, taste. Check out the following holiday favorites from around the world.

Springerle
These embossed, biscuit-like German cookies–usually flavored with anise–date back to the 14th century. They’re traditionally made using a wooden or ceramic mold (human figures are a common theme) or a rolling pin decorated with carved-out depressions. Think of them as edible art, especially if you have the talent and patience to ice them.

Shortbread
For butter sluts like me, few things beat a well-made piece of shortbread. True shortbread is Scottish in origin (the recipe we’re most familiar with today–flour, sugar, and butter–is attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots). Because the ingredients were considered luxury goods, shortbread became synonymous with festive occasions, including Christmas.

Shortbread has become ubiquitous throughout the UK, and similar (but inferior, in my humble opinion) cookies are found throughout Scandinavia. What makes good shortbread so special? The quality of the butter is paramount, but also the handling of the dough. Any baked good with a fat content that high is bound to be tasty, but overworking the dough–whether it’s rolled or patted out by hand–ensures a cookie the equivalent of a hockey puck. And I’m a purist: no crystallized sugar or fancy shapes for me, please. Just give me the cookie.

[Photo credits: Flickr user JeMaSiDi]Ma’amoul
These rich, Lebanese semolina cookie/pastry hybrids traditionally have their top half pressed into a decorative mold, while the bottom half is stuffed with a filling of chopped fruit and nuts such as dates, figs, walnuts, pistachios, walnuts, or almonds. Ma’amoul may be round or dome-shaped, or slightly flattened, and are categorically a form of shortbread due to their high fat (butter or shortening) content. They also contain rose and/or orange flower water, which gives them a subtle floral essence.

Ma’amoul are popular in the Levantine cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as that of the Arab Persian Gulf states. They’re a frequent site during religious holidays an festivals, including Ramadan and Purim. In Jewish communities, date-filled ma’amoul are a favorite Hanukkah treat.

Mandelbrot
Some liken these twice-baked almond cookies to “Jewish” or “Askenazic” biscotti, and it’s a fairly accurate description. The name comes from the Yiddish for “almond bread.” Like biscotti, they’re shaped into a loaf, sliced, and baked twice to achieve a hard texture. They’re traditionally dunked in tea.

It’s believed that mandelbrot may have found it’s way to medieval Eastern Europe via the significant Jewish population residing in Northern Italy. According to food writer and Jewish cuisine expert Joan Nathan, the durability of the cookies made them a popular Sabbath dessert, because they traveled well via merchants and rabbis. Mandelbrot are also served at Hanukkah, because they’re parve (made with oil, instead of butter, aka dairy).

Melting Moments
Although similar to Mexican Wedding cookies–those tender little shortbread domes dusted with powdered sugar–Melting Moments don’t contain ground nuts (the Latin versions–which have been traced back to medieval Arab culture–always contain ground almonds or other nuts, which were then a delicacy).

I first discovered Melting Moments, which rely upon the addition of cornstarch for their trademark disintegrating quality, while working for a Kiwi chef in London. Charmed by the name, I soon discovered that these Australian/Kiwi cookies are holiday favorites. They’re ridiculously easy to make, consisting primarily of butter, powdered sugar, and flour in addition to the aforementioned cornstarch (called “corn flour” in UK/Aussie recipes). They’re often made as sandwich cookies filled with icing (because you can never have too many Melting Moments).

There are literally dozens of other holiday cookies out there, ranging from the anise-fragranced wafers of the Nordic countries and soft amareti or macarons of Italy, to the spice cookies of Central Europe. An easy affordable gift idea: bake up a batch that correlate to your recipient’s ethnic heritage or favorite/dream vacation spot. Happy holidays!

[Photo credits: ma’amoul, Flickr user àlajulia;melting moment, Flicker user ohdarling]

The hidden gem museums of Paris

by David Farley on

The City of Light. The City of Love. The City of Museums? Why not. With the Louvre’s 30,000 paintings and the Musée d’Orsay’s thousands-strong art collection, it’s easy to forget that there are other museums in the City of Light. In fact, almost 200 museums-both plus-sized and petite, illustrious and obscure-are sprinkled throughout the French capital, featuring everything from Picasso to Edith Piaf, submarines to sewers, eyeglasses to medical implements.

I spent a few months in Paris and, after I grew tired of dealing with the crowds at the popular museums, I sought out the lesser-known spots, the hidden gem museums of Paris. What gems did I find? I’ve included them below, plus asked a few Paris-loving friends to chime in.

Rachel Kaplan, author of Little Known Museums in and Around Paris and owner of the Paris-based tour guide company, French Links, is enamoured with the Jacquemart-André. This small museum was founded by the wealthy Edouard Andre and his wife, painter Nélie Jacquemart who would travel annually to Italy on art-amassing trips. By the late-19th century, they had the best collection of Italian art in France, including works by Donatello, Bottecelli, Tieopolo, and Perugino. In Kaplan’s words, it’s “the only museum where you can have Sunday brunch under a Tiepolo ceiling after visiting the greatest number of Italian Quatrocentro masterpieces outside the Louvre.”

Another gem of a museum where you can also eat well is the Baccarat Museum, which Kaplan says “manages to combine the Surrealism of Philippe Starck with the beauty of Baccarat crystal and also boasts one of the finest restaurants in Paris.” The former home of Marie-Laure, Viscountes of Naoilles, the Phillipe Starck-designed space on the Place des Etats Unis is the perfect venue for the near-priceless glassware on display, including a candelabra that once belonged to Tsar Nicholas II and an ornate chandelier plunged into water. The piece de resistance, however, is in-house eatery, the Baccarat Cristal Room where, as you’d expect, diners nibble on haute French fare in a crystal-laden ambience.

If all this clean glassware has you yearning for something murkier, then head to the sewers. The Musée des Égouts de Paris, or the Paris Sewers Museum is a subterranean tour taking visitors through the bowels of the city in more ways than one. But you don’t necessarily need a proclivity for ancient plumbing to appreciate these former sludge-strewn pipelines. Located under the Quai D’Orsay (next to the Musée d’Orsay), the one-hour tour includes a film and educational and interesting displays on how the 19th-century sewers functioned. So, plug your nose (yes, it’s a tad aromatic) and take the plunge.


The Musée Dupuytren exhibits artifacts of a different sort of unsavory nature: anatomical oddities. Founded by famed 19th-century surgeon, Baron Guillaume Dupuytren, this “freak show” boasts deformed skeletons, jarred mongoloid infants, displayed brains, and formaldehyde-preserved conjoined animals. Truly hidden behind an unmarked wooden door on the Rue de l’Ecole de Medecine, the museum is only open in the afternoon on weekdays, after lunch.

For historical artefacts that you can stomach, be sure to stop by the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais, one of Paris’ most charming neighborhoods. Crammed into two adjoining Renaissance-era mansions, the Carnavalet is dedicated to the history of Paris, starting with the Gallo-Roman period through the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century. Edmund White, who penned several books while living in the neighborhood, including The Flaneur: a Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, says this is one of his favorite museums in the city. “There’s so much memorabilia of the history of Paris, everything from the crib of Napoleon III’s son to Proust’s bedroom intact, with its shabby furniture, the pile of notebooks that were next to his bed, the heavy awkward furniture his parents had bought.” This mishmash of historical objects also include the final letter French Revolutionary leader Robispiere ever wrote and an ancient recipe for frog leg soup.

Now that there’s a smoking ban in the City of Light, perhaps this museum is more apropos than ever: Musée du Fumeur. The Museum of Smoking is less kitschy and more interesting than you might think. Located in the 11th arrondissement, this diminutive museum boasts ancient toking instruments (including antique hookahs and 18th-century carved wooden pipes), illustrations and placards on the history of “lighting up,” and an intriguing picture gallery of famous smokers. If you’re suddenly inspired to light up, the gift shop sells plenty of smoking-related paraphernalia, including bongs. But before you get any wise ideas, it’s good to know there’s a police station next door.

If drinking is more your vice, put the Musée du Vin on your agenda. Located near the Eiffel Tower, the Wine Museum is part of a 15th-century stone query and displays historic viticulture artifacts. The museum’s frequent wine tasting events and two-hour wine-education classes in English help make this bibulous trip through wine making history a more sensory experience. Temporary exhibitions focus on history of vino producing such as the wine of ancient Egypt. The restaurant, housed in a medieval cellar, serves up classic French fare with, you guessed it, wine.

Model-turned-novelist Paulina Porizkova had a childhood dream of being locked in a museum over night. And, if she had to get shuttered in one, she’d most certainly choose the Nissim de Camondo, a mansion loaded with 18th-century decorative arts like fragile needlepoint chairs, paintings, and antiques. The Belle Époque-style kitchen is big enough to feed an army of aristocrats. “I’ve always loved visiting period houses that have been turned into museums; it’s like taking a time machine,” says Porizkova, a former Paris resident whose underrated novel A Model Summer takes place in the French capital. “I loved going to the Nissim and imagining myself living there.” Porizkova even liked the museum so much she had a smaller-version of the Nissim kitchen built for her New York townhouse.

The Musée de l’Orangerie may not have all the art of the nearby Louvre, but it has something you’ll never find at Paris’ largest art museum: rooms loaded with Impressionist and post-Impressionist works-from Monet to Matisse to Cézanne to Picasso-that you can have all to yourself. Or at least you’ll share them with far fewer art gawkers than you would elsewhere. The airy glass and stone building, formerly an orangery, is located between the Place du Concord and the banks of the Seine.

Ernest Cognacq and his wife, Louise Jay, may have become rich after founding La Samaritaine, the famed department store on the banks of the Siene, but their real legacy lies in the Musée Cognacq-Jay, their private art collection housed in the 16th-century Hotel Denon in the Marais. Go for the paintings by Boucher, Canaletto, Fragonard, and Tiepolo, but linger for the city’s best collection of 18th century decorative art, including Dresden China and elaborately carved snuffboxes.

After the popularity of the film Le Vie en Rose, interest in French singer Edith Piaf has never been greater. The eponymous two-room museum might not be the easiest place to find-it’s housed in on the fourth floor of a non-elevator apartment building in the Belleville neighborhood-but fans of the singer won’t regret the trek. Longtime Piaf friend, Bernard Marchois, runs the place and has crammed the two-rooms with many of Piaf’s possessions, including clothes, gold records, photos, and even a life-sized teddy bear. Admission is free, but visitors have to call ahead to get a security code.