Anyone visiting the UK for the first time?

Sounds like a great trip, curefantastica. I haven’t been to Edinburgh, but hear it’s a fab city.

Where are you travelling from?

Nice. Great to do the trip to Edinburgh by train as you’ll see loads of different bits on the way. I drove up to the Lake District at night once so saw nothing til the morning, and couldn’t believe how dramatically different it was to home when I saw it the next day. Hope you have a fantastic trip.

curefantastica holds the coveted title for ‘Most Miles Covered to See The Cure in 2018 in an Outdoor Venue’....any other contenders?!

Oh no...I have a horrible feeling that Big Ben is being repaired and is covered in scaffolding at the moment
I may be wrong, but I think it was last time I saw it, blackbird. steve, did you take a picture of it last weekend, or am I mis-remembering?

Still, I hope you have a great visit. You’ll have the infrequent experience of hot, sunny summer weather here!

A pity... I've been thinking about some sightseeing...

The Elizabeth tower is indeed encased in scaffolding at the moment & the bell (Big Ben) is silent while the tower is being refurbished



Plenty of other stuff to do though.
St Pauls, Albert Hall, Buck House, Marble Arch, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, the museums.
A top tip is to get yourself an Oyster card. You should be able to buy one at any railway or tube station. Wrks like a pay-as-you-go phone card in that you top it up to use on the tubes & busses & it'll calculate the best fare when you tap it on the scanners.
It's a massive help that eliminates the need to queue up for tickets & if you're not familiar with the currency (coins especially) you don't need to worry about it.
In fact, if I recall correctly, the night busses in London don't even take cash anymore, so the card is the only way you can pay the fare.
I'd also recommend putting the Tube Map London Underground route planner app on your phone.
Should be easy to find on your app store of choice & it's free.
If you are travelling on trains to get to airports & stuff on the journey home, be sure to leave loads of time.
I booked tickets on TheTrainline.com for the Curaetion trip, but they have an app too which you can use to get mobile tickets & again avoid queues. 
But, the train services in the UK are not the most reliable & services can be cancelled without warning. If that happens, keep your tickets, as you can get a refund.

Even easier