I was in the Dungeon once, and I enjoyed it. Mind you, I was about 14 at the time. I remembered it as having a really spooky character, and the exhibits were quite good. But I don't know if I've changed so much during the last 18 years, that I would feel much differently now.
I like the Tower, been there almost every time I've been in London. I especially like the Armoury, lots of nice waepons and armours. I also found the Science Museum interesting, that time 18 years ago - but since I've ended up as en engineer, I'm sure I'd enjoy it today as well.
The British Library had some fantastic medieval manuscripts - european, arab and indian - last time I was there.
I think St. Paul's is a cursed place for me. Every time I go there, it is closed off, under repairs, behind scaffolding. One of these day though...
The issue with the Dungeon, is much like the Jorvik centre in York. It is designed for kids. If you like being groped by an out of work student in a Jack the Ripper costume and are amused by waxworks of gibbets and victims then its fine. I would say though, it is heavily designed for kids.
If you are in the UK you truly must make the effort to go up to Edinborough. You can combine you castle viewing. its castle is magnificent and very well organised a museum, with some fine eating, nice walks and generally a completely different experience of a capital city compared to London. It is a beautiful city Edinborough (I say this as an Englishman) and it has so much less hustle and bustle than London; which gets a bit tiring after a few days. Aside from all that though, it obviously has all the amenities of a major european city whilst still feeling quite 'cozy'. Also, taking the east coast mainline train from London to Edinborough is probably one of the best ways to see our fine country.
If you've got some time to spare and you're in the vicinity of London Bridge, then the Clink Museum ("the prison that gave its name to all others") is worth a visit. It's not big - you can easily see everything in half an hour - and there are no flashy, modern interactive displays, but it gives an excellent insight into mediaeval legal and penal affairs, and has a lot to say about the regulation of prostitution and brothels (particularly the famous 'Southwark stews'). Entry is £5.00.
Sorry not to get back to you on the London Dungeon before but others have summed it up rather well - plastics heads and out of work actors - Disney does it better. There's so much to do in London - Greenwich is great - maritime museum, observatory, park.
Yes, it did, the night stops were London, Bath, Chester, Stirling, Loch Ness, Edinburgh, York. London was one week, and the rest two weeks.
While I was there I photographed a heap of Ars Magica stuff.
For me the highlight of London was the Enlightenment Hall in the British Museum. I'm a librarian and its kind of the place where we started the social movement. We also went to the Tower, the Natural History Miseum, St Pauls, Westminster Abbey (some conwomen tried the Lucky Heather con on us out the front. It pleased me to a remarkable degree.). The Globe, Mousetrap, Love Never Dies (don't bother: it retcons the characters so that the Phantom's a coward and Raoul's a child abuser, if you accept neglect as abuse.) Tour of the sites...
Bath for Austen, and architecture. Chester for Romans. Stirling for...well Stirling Castle, even if its still being tidied up. I like that it was, historically, painted marigold yellow. This will happen to an unsuspecting covenant in Ars, when I get the chance. Loch Ness because I love confidence tricks. Edinburgh for Mary King's Close, ghost stories, proper porridge. York for vikings, the Minster, more ghosts, and Hungate.
Also, Alton Towers for coasters, Glastonbury and Stonehenge for Neolithica, Cambridge for punting. The Lake District for gingerbread.
Oh, it's an old gypsy con. They did a more modern variant.
It's a thing where they give you, or the woman you are walking with, a piece of lucky heather and, in this case, try to hit you up for a donation to a children's charity, because you are walking with a woman, and so can't say "No, dash the children on International Childrens Day."
When you try to give them change they try to wind you to a higher amount with traditional lines like "Give paper sir. Give paper for the lady (who is the woman with me, who also watches Hustle and Leverage and knows the con is on, and knows I'm going to give them money because I've never seen a classic con pulled in real life, and this has pleased me more than countless buskers I've given a few bucks to. And so she starts in with "Which children, exactly?" "Oh, all the children ma'am. Sick children." "Which sick children?" "All of them.")
When you reach for a small note, suddenly a well dressed woman behind you reaches past you and hands her a fifty, saying "Put that in. It's for the the children." and looking at you like you're scum. She is, of course, a shil (which is why she's wearing a scarf and sunglasses). At this point, Linda and I both quickly check that she wasn't a pickpocket, since I, at least, didn't know she'd been behind us.
So, I gave them a..was it a fiver or a tenner?...enough for a coffee each, and went off laughing. I was ridiculously happy for the rest of the day...I can't explain it. It's not that I -want- to be the target of conmen, it's just that I've read so much about con games, and have never seen something so detailed. This was a two person team, with double wind up. I still find I'm grinning madly thinking about it now. It's like street theatre...say you'd read a lot about Punch and Judy but have never seen Punch and Judy (which is actually the case, with me)...would you give a tenner to the doctor? I certainly would.
Ah, no, Timothy. I fear you fell for the "Classic Con Game Con", where you make the victim think that he's been targeted by a particularly pure form of a traditional con game, ideally one that has been well-publicised in the literature, so that he will happily give you money, and, assuming that you were trying to con him, not even think about going to the police. Why, he might even enjoy the experience.
I won't go into the stories about what happens to con-men who try to use the Classic Con Game Con as the con imitated in the Classic Con Game Con, but I really hope they're all made up.
There actually -is- a classic long con based on this, where you send the mark out sure he is going to steal your convincer, but manage to pull a different con on him. In terms of a short con: that's why Linda and I checked our possessions: it's an obvious short con is great for keeping the attention of the mark while someone takes their handbag.
(I was working on rules for an RPG based on conmen at the time. Then I heard Leverage was coming out and gave up.)
Level 6 regio. Really weird stuff starts happening at this level. Or level 11 (magic realm). Depoends on how many "con" levels you count. In the later case it is definitively a multibotch twilight episode
Ah, no. see, David's one of the arbiters of ontopicness...so long as he's in the the fifth level of the regio, we're on topic. We are going deeper in search of Enlightenment. Much ,oreo f this and we shall speak in koans.
Sparkly vampire,
public face of hidden wisdom
deep wisdom hidden behind vapid romances
Sound thy bell, to let us know, thy meaning good.
