LONDON Yes, London is a top city to visit in anybody’s book, and hearing English, even if it sounds funny, helps. Vertis and I have always enjoyed London. Of course, we can get carried away in the British Museum for hours on end, and if you have visited London, and have never been to the British Museum, you are no traveler. You are just a tourist. A traveler would be one who would venture down a dark alley in Florence following the smell of lasagna, and would certainly have been in the British Museum, which has a great collections of…loot. Uh loot? Well maybe I’m being a little severe in my description, but don’t ask the Greeks. Yes, the Greeks are pointing fingers and saying bad words about the Brits because as the British will tell you, “We saved one of the great treasure of ancient Greece from being destroyed.” If you haven’t guessed it by now, one of the great treasures of Greece are the Elgin Marbles, taken from the frieze of the Parthenon by Lord Elgin. That’s not quite the way the Greeks tell it, but one way or another the Elgin Marbles have ended up as the star attraction of the British Museum. So, on your London Bucket List put at the top, “See the Elgin Marbles.” If you are a Museum freak, like my brother-in-law, who reads every card description on every item in a museum, a trip to the British Museum will be your total trip, and you will need a service animal when you return home. However, just a couple of days in the various museums in the city will do most of us, and in those two days you will be exposed to some of the great collections of art and antiquities on earth, including the National Gallery, which is right off Trafalgar Square. There are more museums than I could list in this column including the Fan Museum and the Vagina Museum. Something for every taste. Okay, the total trip London is a lot more than a trip to the museums. On one of our first trips back in the early 80s I made a reservation to tour the Churchill War Rooms. Vertis didn’t like the sound of that tour so she spent her morning in Harrods Department Store. Harrods is the ultimate department store and not only will the ladies enjoy it, but I’ll guarantee you, it will be one of your top attractions, and the food court is enough to write home about. Harrods not only has almost every type of merchandise and food imaginable, it has a neat restaurant, and if you are a fan of former Princess Diana you can go to the lower floor where a memorial is set up to pay your respects. The son of the store owner was dating the Princess when she was killed in the tragic accident. But back to the Churchill War Rooms. During the Second World War, when the Germans started the bombing of London, the British Government decided to construct a series of underground bunkers to protect the heads of state and the War Council. They excavated a series of tunnels and rooms in the center of the City, and Cabinet meetings and other War related gatherings took place there. I was in a group of about 10 for one of the tours and after going down some 60 feet below one of the downtown parks we entered a series of tunnels with connecting rooms. Toward the middle of the tunnel system we entered one of the largest rooms, which I would estimate to be around 30 to 40 feet in diameter. This room is noted as the Map Room, which was one of the meeting rooms for Churchill’s Cabinet. It’s as if someone had just locked the door and left. Churchill’s pen and note pad were still there and the wall maps showing various European armies and Atlantic convoys were on the wall. I actually sat in Churchill’s chair. (That’s probable not allowed now.) It was a breathtaking piece of history still preserved intact. The tour guide made a chilling comment I still remember, “These men and women who gathered here did so thinking they were perfectly safe, but they weren’t. If one of the larger German bombs had made a direct hit, they would have all been killed. One of the other must dos, in addition to the British Museum, if you are a traveler, is to head for the West End, which is London’s Broadway plus the best shopping in the city. We always take in an English comedy and one of the many musicals. Only the English can get away with the over-the-top comic presentations, such as, currently, Only Fools and Horses. They also have a wide range of Broadway musicals including Hamilton, Momma Mia, and Back to the Future. The West End will be one of the highlights of your trip, and the tickets will be a lot less than on Broadway. When you are in the West End you are in the shopping Mecca of England. There are 80 flagship stores just on Oxford Street, and with that much shopping, quality restaurants are on every corner. If you like to poke around in a flea market or a bit more upscale, an antique market, visit Portobello Road in the Notting Hill District. This antique market area that stretches for several blocks is one of the best in the world, and there is something for everybody, if you will just dig deep enough. There are around a 1000 dealers and they carry everything from vintage fashion to folk art. Saturday is the big day when extra dealers come to display their wares, and it will be very crowded, but it’s busy nearly every day. I managed to find four full size Audubon Wildlife prints for only ten pounds ($15.00) apiece. They weren’t from the original print edition, but when I framed them, they looked great. One of my hobbies is collecting antique Arkansas-Gulf Coast maps, and of all the stores I know, the Map House in the Knightsbridge District of London is the best place to find them. You can visit the store, which just around the corner from Harrods Department Store, for a great selection of not only American maps but world maps. Its inventory of maps is the best I have ever encountered. We’ve stayed in everything from a bed and breakfast to the Capital Hotel. The B & B was fine with a full English breakfast, and the Capital Hotel is great and well located just a few blocks from Harrods, but the Capital will put a pretty good dent in your wallet. Of course, I’ve just scratched the surface of things to do in London, but that’s the real pleasure in visiting the city. With just a little research and poking around, you can uncover a world of great vacations pleasures. As with all travel to other countries, check with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to learn if there are health notices in effect at your destination. Visit travel.state.gov for more information.