Originally Posted by #10
To put this reply in perspective, I am not a particularly cultured person. In my travels, I prefer to spend time in grocery stores and bars (pubs) where the locals hang out.
You can learn more about a culture, and quicker, in a supermarket than from any guidebook. Wherever I travel, I always make it a point to visit a supermarket and to buy (and eat) some food that I have never had before. Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose are 3 of the big chains. ASDA, also a major supermarket/discount chain, is the UK arm of WalMart and even has the same annoying smiley face in their adverts.
All of the many comments about Boots are spot on. The stores are everywhere and are uniformily clean. The products are displayed more like the cosmetics department at Bloomingdales than what you would find at a US drugstore. No lawn chairs. No styrofoam coolers. No toy department. Just a really great place to buy cosmetics and toiletries.
Finally, if you are a history buff at all, the Imperial War Museum is free and is the definitive museum on World Wars 1 & 2. I was particularly intrigued by the "1940 House" exhibit which was used in a television series similar to the "Prairie House" that ran in the US. It was very interesting to read about the civilian aspect of World War 2 and the ingeneous ways the British stretched their resources. ^