Once we managed to get passed the complicated code system to enter out room, we tried hard not to wake up the hairy man who was in the top bunk on the left. Things went okay.

In the morning, things were a bit better. All of London's major sites are a must. Westminster Abbey is beautiful and much larger than I'd anticipated, and the same holds true for St Paul's Cathedral. The Tower of London is absolutely huge. The Dali Universe has an excellent collection of (guess!) Dali's work. There are naturally tons of other things to do, and we went to several other museums and on a river cruise and a canal cruise.

And you should wander through the various tourist shops that abound, as you never know: you may see one of Britain's former Big Brother stars, as I did (Josh, last season, if you're wondering).

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Still, you may wonder what kind of things the museum might have to offer visitors. Basically, it's two concepts. First, the building has been maintained to look like an authentic late 18th to early 19th century townhouse, and especially decorated as described in the stories. Second, there are numerous items integral to the solving of many of the crimes in the novels, such as weapons and other clues. There are also some models of humans from the stories.

The ground floor is the shop and that's where you purchase the tickets. Up one flight of stairs is the study, and you can even sit in Holmes's armchair for a photo moment, as almost everyone passing through the room did. Holmes's bedroom is also on this floor and contains a variety of his belongings. The next floor up has Dr Watson's and Mrs Hudson's (the landlady) bedrooms and many personal effects. The next floor has several wax models, depicting scenes from the stories.

Although I have read several of the stories, I am not a die-hard fan of Holmes by any means. Consequently, I didn't remember many of the details from the stories, and so didn't recognize many of the artifacts in the museum. I think the museum would be great for someone who is very interested in Holmes or just enjoyed reading many of the stories, but for the rest of us it's a bit over-priced.

The museum is open daily 9:30am-6pm. Admission is £6 for adults and £4 for children. For more information, visit the website (www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk), or call at +44 (0)207 935 8866. You can buy your tickets online with a credit card and avoid the line, if there is one.

The nearest underground is Baker Street.

The museum will not be accessible to people in wheelchairs, as there is no elevator. Most of the displays are hands-on, though, so people with visual impairments should still be able to enjoy them.

We weren't exactly sure if we'd buy them until we started looking through the guidebook, and had checked out the website (www.londonpass.com). It appeared amazing: the London Pass gives free admission to all of the sites in the book. Now, this may not seem amazing to you, if you've not seen the book, but here is just a small list of the available sites:
*free travel on the tube, buses, and trains in zones 1-6 (most everything you'll want to see is actually within zone 1)
*Tower of London
*Westminster Abbey
*Dali Universe
*Windsor Castle
*Kensington Palace
*St Paul's Cathedral
*London Aquarium

Just to see how much I actually saved, I've shown here the things I did on the first day, and how much they would have cost if I had paid full adult admission.

Day 1
*Travelcard (zone 1 only): £4.10
*Westminster Abbey: £6
*Jewel Tower: £1.60
*Dali Universe: £8.50
*Namco Station, 6 tokens: £3
*Florence Nightingale Museum: £4.80
*Catamaran Cruisers circular cruise: £7

So the total I would have spent is exactly £35, more than half the 3-day London Pass’s value. That’s a pretty good deal in my book — plus there is the added convenience of not having to carry too much cash or dig the money out at all of the sites. It’s true that I didn’t get as much out of it the next two days, because the Westminster area is quite packed with attractions on the London Pass, as well as Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, but it still more than paid for itself.

Admittedly, there are some major sites that are not included in the Pass, such as the London Eye. I know, shock, shock, horror and all that. But what you can do is buy a pass valid for only some of your days in London (we were there for fours days and bought 3-day passes). Then you work everything out so that you only do London Pass things while it is valid, and only then start visiting non-London Pass sites. You can be really clever and save all the free museums for your non-London Pass days. That's what I did (hence my conclusion that it's a clever thing to do, right). I think in all honesty the only things I paid anything for (besides food) were the Sherlock Holmes Museum (£6), my ticket for A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (£5), and my Travelcard for the underground for the one non-London Pass day (£4.10 for zone 1 only). Now, that's how to see London as efficiently as possible.

There are different types of London Passes available, at different rates. You can buy either the adult or child pass with or without travel. With travel included, a 1-day pass is £30/19 (adult/child price), 2-day pass £52/32, 3-day pass £68/43, and a 6-day pass £107/56. Without travel, a 1-day pass is £25/17, a 2-day £39/27, a 3-day £49/32, and a 6-day £69/37. So, depending on your itinerary, it may be more cost effective to buy the pass without travel. I think for me, it would have been, because I hardly ever traveled outside zone 1.