THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411190040
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, TRAVEL EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 261 lines
CHARLES DICKENS invented Christmas, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Just before Christmas Day in 1843 he published a work of less than two months: A Christmas Carol in Prose, he called it, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.
Through Scrooge and Marley, through Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, Dickens introduced us to the Christmas we have come to love: smiles all around, gifts and happiness, good cheer, good will and good food, surrounded by loved ones and with a fire blazing on the hearth.
``God bless us every one!''
This comes to mind, with Christmas just over a month away, because I was in Mr. Dickens' town the other day . . . and are they ever getting ready for the season. London has been called the greatest Christmas city of them all, and I'm inclined to agree.
Harrods and Harvey Nichols have their immense displays up along Knightsbridge; Oxford and Regent streets are ablaze with lights. Hotels, restaurants and pubs have put up signs that say, ``Holiday Bookings Now Being Taken.''
Before long they'll be singing carols around THE Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. Great setting: Lord Nelson sneaking a peek with his good eye from high above, the floodlit National Gallery and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields forming a backdrop.
This has become a tradition of a half-century. Since the king of Norway spent most of World War II in exile in Britain while his own country was under Nazi occupation, the people of Norway have sent the British a tree to display in the square. Carols are sung nightly Dec. 8 through Christmas eve.
There are at least two other good reasons to consider a visit to London - or perhaps London and the English countryside - this time of year.
One: It's the ``off'' season. Far fewer tourists. That means it's much easier to see, and maybe actually enjoy, the traditional sights of the city such as the changing of the guard, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and the British Museum . . . or, if you're up for a daytrip, Oxford, Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.
(I've actually ``done'' all of the above in less than a week, but of course not properly. For example, to do the British Museum properly, allow two years. The point is, it can be done.)
Two: Because it is the off-season, the price is as good as it is going to get - even though the U.S. dollar has declined in value by about 10 percent against the British pound since summer.
In June, the cheapest Norfolk-London roundtrip airfare was well over $600. On Thursday British Airways announced a ``London Bargain'' package that includes roundtrip air from Norfolk, hotel (the New Barbican), continental breakfasts and London airport transfers for $679 for three nights, $739 for six nights. This package is available through Dec. 15 and resumes Dec. 31 through Jan. 31.
I doubt that you can get a comparable deal in New York at those prices.
Here's a tip on how to live inexpensively once you get there: Eat in some of the thousands of sandwich and tea shops throughout London; or try the inexpensive eateries at Victoria or Euston stations. And go Underground. If you're going to make more than three tube (don't call it the ``subway'' - that's something else over there) trips a day, it's a good idea to buy a daily TravelCard, good for all-day transportation (after 9:30 a.m.) on the tube and buses, for 2.70 pounds (about $4.75). A one-week card also is available for 13 pounds (about $23). The latter requires a passport-type photograph.
I was unaware of just how many deals there were until I made a whirlwind tour to London with British Airways officials recently. BA is the largest tour operator from the United States to the United Kingdom, and it is aggressively marketing its off-season packages, most of which extend through March 31.
BA officials are particularly pleased with their ``code-sharing'' partnership with USAir that makes what the airlines call ``seamless'' travel to BA overseas destinations from domestic USAir airports such as Norfolk.
(Generally, partners such as British Airways and USAir coordinate connecting flight schedules, so international passengers switching from one airline to the other do not face a long wait or a day's layover, and passengers can earn and use frequent-flier credits on either airline. Checked baggage may be less likely to disappear when shuttled between partners.)
Here are some more examples of off-season packages offered by British Airways (all prices are per person, based on double occupancy, from Norfolk; for additional info call a local travel agent or 1-800-FLY VP BA):
London Shop 'Til You Drop is $789-969 for three nights, depending on your hotel selection, $869-$1,139 for six nights. Included are 25-pound-sterling shopping vouchers from both Harrods and Marks & Spencer, afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason's and your choice of a tour of one of the city's street markets or a half-day sightseeing tour of the city. This package has a blackout period of Dec. 16-24. It expires Dec. 31.
Scenes of London and Paris - three nights in each - is $1,139 to $1,549 depending on hotel selection. Included are continental breakfasts and several sightseeing options in each city.
Byways of Britain is for those ready for the initially disconcerting experience of driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car. British Airways adds a new twist to the traditional fly/drive experience. Included in your Hertz rental car are custom-designed TripBuilder maps and an audiocassette tape featuring the voices of local characters as they tell tales from history and folklore in each of two regions - Heart of England or South of England. The seven-night trip (two in London, five in the countryside) costs $1,049-$1,109 depending on choice of car and date of departure.
Ghosts galore are the feature of Ghosts of London and Yorkshire in February (for $1,149) and March (for $1,299). Participants will dine, visit and stay at places said to be haunted, including Newstead Abbey, the former home of Lord Byron (``mad, bad and dangerous to know''), and on the final night will take a guided tour of London graveyards with an ``18th century funeral director.''
Now, how's this for value? If you are interested in doing London in Style, fly one way on the supersonic Concorde, the other way on Club World business class and have a three-night stay at one of six elegant hotels. The package includes daily breakfast and private car transportation from the airport to hotel. The price? About $5,000 to $5,300, depending upon hotel. Expensive? Not really, when compared with the regular round-trip price of a Concorde flight, which is $8,584. And, should you wish to fly the Concorde both ways, it's just $600 more. A Paris add-on is also available. For the particulars of this one call your travel agent or (800) AIRWAYS.
If you haven't seen anything you fancy yet, pick up a British Airways London Plus brochure from your travel agent and build your own customized package. It includes hundreds of mix and match options to be used in conjunction with any published roundtrip BA trans-Atlantic airfare for travel through March 31. The brochure offers:
A selection of 64 hotels in London, priced from (an amazing) $30 per person, double occupancy, plus townhouses and private apartments.
Another 62 hotels throughout Britain, starting at $48 per person, double, as well as 102 hotels in 18 European cities, plus apartments in Paris and Rome.
Hertz rental cars in Britain from just $16 a day with unlimited mileage.
Sightseeing expeditions throughout the English countryside.
Theatre, dining and evening entertainment options.
I've stayed at two of the London hotels at the no-frills, low end of the scale, the Tavistock and the Royal National. Both are rather institutional but perfectly adequate accommodations, located near the University of London and the British Museum and a short stroll from the Russell Square tube stop.
I've also stayed at two at the high end ($124 per person, double), the Langham Hilton (see story, Page E3) and the London Hilton on Park Lane. Need I say that upscale is nicer?
The London Hilton on Park Lane is the chain's 28-story flagship hotel overlooking Hyde Park and the exclusive Mayfair area. From my room I looked down on Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington's townhouse. The address is simple No. 1 London. In his day hardly anyone looked down on the Iron Duke. It was Wellington, by the way, who looked down his big nose at his own troops, calling them ``the mere scum of the earth.'' But with them he beat Napoleon at Waterloo, nonetheless, and there are many trophies from that battle you can see at Apsley House.
To the left I could see the lake in the queen's backyard at Buckingham Palace, and off in the distance was Harrods, that very British institution (owned by Mohammed Fayed) where you can see every American who ever comes to London. In spite of that, its food halls (ground floor) and the china department (second floor, third floor to Americans) are legendary and worth fighting the crowds to visit. Incidentally, if you'd like to make plans for the ultimate shopping frenzy, Harrods' after-Christmas sale runs Jan. 4-28.
Shepherd Market was my discovery this time. I love to wander London's streets on my own private walking tours, although there are more than a half-dozen companies offering professional guided walks all over the city.
Shepherd Market is a quiet and tiny, not-easy-to-find enclave just a block or so behind the Hilton on Park Lane. On the side of the Chesterfield Pub a plaque says that in 1735 Edward Shepherd Esq. obtained a grant from George III for a market on the site of the May Fair, which had been celebrated here since about 1532 - and which was, basically, a 15-day bash of riotous behavior.
There's not really a market here today, but there is Letts, a supplier of luggage by royal warrant to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, a cobbler and a fishmonger and poulterer, an off-track betting parlour, Bendicks chocolate shop, a fruit stand, a liquor store and Gigi's espresso bar.
This too: The area has a lingering reputation as a discreet rendezvous for expensive prostitutes. That's what I hear, anyway.
There's also the L'Autre Wine Bar, next door to the Chesterfield. A handwritten note on the window reads: ``Yes! This is the famous Polish-Mexican bistro with the French name. The owner is Canadian, the cook is Polish, the Waitresses are Mexican and Polish. Weird!! But so what?''
And there's Tiddy Dols Eating House, offering English food with a French touch plus costumed Elizabethan players performing the history of British song from Henry VIII to Andrew Lloyd Webber. Dinner and music here are one of the options in BA's London Plus package - $40 for adults, $30 children.
Tiddy Dols? Well, of course you'd wonder. The name comes from an 18th century itinerant tradesman, a celebrated vendor of gingerbread, who always dressed as a person of rank. His harangues to gain customers always closed with this ending of a popular ballad:
Tid-dy ti, tid-dy ti-ti,
Tid-dy, did-dy, dol.
Hmmm. It's really better when you hear it to music.
I also sampled one of the escorted coach tours to the countryside offered in the London Plus brochure - a day trip to Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle ($59 adults, $50 children.)
This was the first time I've done one of these escorted tours, although I had visited each stop on my own. I was apprehensive - I don't do well in a herd; I prefer to graze on my own - and curious. This tour, operated by Frames Rickards, was quite well done. The guide was very informative and, because she was lecturing in both English and French, talked almost constantly.
The down side is that not enough time is available in any of the three stops to see things properly.
One hour at Oxford just doesn't get it. I never got a chance to look for Chief Inspector Morse.
We did manage to see the insides of Brasenose College, one of the few at Oxford University that occasionally opens its ancient doors to visitors, and the outsides of the Bodleian Library and Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre. And we saw the cross in the middle of Broad Street where, in 1555, Catholic Queen Mary, Bloody Mary, had Bishops Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer burned at the stake - basically for being Protestant, although Ridley also had made a very bad decision to support Lady Jane Gray's flawed claim to the throne.
Latimer said, as the smoke curled, ``. . . we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England as I trust shall never be put out.''
It was a big enough flame at least to scorch the curbside doors of Balliol College, and they remain today as the only tangible reminder of this religious madness.
What I missed was - and I really hate this - that Kermit the Frog addressed the august Oxford Union student assembly the day I was there. Others who have spoken to this body include Mother Teresa, Ronald Reagan a host of British prime ministers and just about everyone else who is famous except, I think, Andy Warhol. Kermit warned women not to kiss frogs hoping to find a prince because ``the royals have enough problems as it is.''
Stratford is a shrine to William Shakespeare for reasons I do not fully comprehend. He was born there, true enough, but his birthplace is largely a collection of reproductions. He returned there when he retired, but the house he bought and lived in then was pulled down by a subsequent occupant because he became so annoyed by tourists.
I always feel close to Shakespeare in London. It was there that he did the work that makes him one of the most remarkable men of any age. Remarkable, indeed, for a fellow with the equivalent of a sixth-grade education.
Warwick Castle is what a castle really should look like: basically a 14th century fortress with the living quarters updated to the slightly more comfortable style of the 17th and 18th centuries. It's now owned by Madame Tussaud, the waxworks people, and they haven't done a half-bad job in making it both entertaining and educational.
There are towers you can climb, a knight in shining armor you can't have your picture taken with, a dungeon that will make even the most ill-behaved child straighten up, and a couple of areas filled with very lifelike wax figures.
One, filling 12 rooms of the former private apartments, portrays a 19th century house-party weekend; the guests include King Edward VII and young Winston Churchill and his mama, the former Jennie Jerome. The other is a series of displays depicting Richard Neville, Richard the Kingmaker, Earl of Warwick, getting ready to go off to battle in 1471 to make someone or the other a king. Good show, really.
Same could be said for the coach tour, I suppose.
Two ladies sitting in front of me from ``Macon, Jaw-jah, where yawl from?'' said they had made seven of these excursions in the last two years and ``honey, we just loved 'em all.''
Well, shut my mouth. ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN
In the off-season, it's easier to see sights such as the Tower of
London.
An escorted coach tour from London will take you to Shakespeare's
birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Above: a ``knight'' guards Warwick Castle, an easy day trip from
London.
The Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon in Athens, can be seen
at the British Museum.
Photo
BRITISH TOURIST AUTHORITY
Before long they'll be singing carols around the Christmas tree in
London's Trafalgar Square.
by CNB