Travel Planning

[notte0]

I suddenly have a trip to Hong Kong on Wednesday LOL. So what happened is my bestie was going to Hong Kong for two days with her sister to visit family and such. They were going to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition with her sister's friend, but the friend has now suddenly stood them up, so they had an extra ticket. My friend decided to ask me, and I

Comments

[ganimede]

How fun for a random day trip to Hong Kong!

The Harry Potter studio tour is quite a way out of London, just so you know. There's loads of good museums and art galleries in London itself, lots of which are free. What are you planning to do with the old pound notes? Only certain Post Offices will exchange them, otherwise you have to go to the Bank of England itself which requires a lot of waiting and two forms of ID.

[notte0]

Yes I figured I’d have to reserve a whole day for the exchanging the pound notes. I didn’t know certain post offices did it. The info I got was the one particular Bank of England on thread needle street. I’m aware of the IDs (heck I’ll give them 4 types of ID lol) and they need a proof of address as well, so if the trip works out I’ll need to bring a file folder with the documents and it’s going to feel like a work trip *rolls eyes*…… I’ve got 1000 gbp notes so that’s something I do need to do.

Oh yeah the HP studios will be a day trip. I’m planning the trip to be a solo trip so I’m not too worried about queuing and waiting. I did ask a friend that was an HP fan and she says she’ll have to think about it as she didn’t renew her passport yet. (Covid no travel so she let it expire).

I’ve been to London a couple times already so I’ll be looking up some info for exploring outside of London. If there’s any day trips you’d recommend I’d love to hear them! (Been to Stonehenge, been to Bath, been to Windsor)

[ganimede]

The Bank of England itself is only open until 3pm and you may be waiting for over an hour. If you've got so much money, you may find there's some extra security to go through, in particular saying where it has come from. There's information on the Bank of England website about how to exchange old bank notes here. It specifies what ID they will accept as well

[notte0]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll look into them and see. I have a colleague that just went to get some cash exchanged as well and she warned me about the long wait, but I was expecting that anyway. In my draft plan in my head I've reserved an entire day just for that. I'll still probably go to the HP thing, it's not exactly a "bucket list" item, but then I guess it's something that I can say "I've finally done it!". I'm also going to check out some west end shows and see if anything catches my eyes. I've been to Phantom of the Opera (standard but not jaw dropping) and Les Miserables (I was impressed by the stage techniques).

I was thinking about Oxford! I've just read a random book that's set in Oxford and that a mode of travel is "punting"? Sounds interesting! There's still quite a while away so I'll continue with the research while I wait for the results of the plane tickets.

[ganimede]

Depending on what West End show you want to see, you may need to book well in advance. There are some options to get last minute discounted tickets though.

Punting isn't really a mode of transport, it's just boating on the river. Like the gondolas in Venice, but with a more limited distance.