London - Off the Beaten Path

As always it depends on her and your interests. There is so much in London. I would walk on Hampstead Heath to Kenwood House and have a drink at the Spaniards or the Old Bull and Bush follwed by a walk in Golders Hill Park and a visit to the gardens but that might not be to your taste. Also a stroll along the South Bank is worth while.

my usual day trip recommendation is Hampton Court palace - pricey but easy to get to and well worthwhile.

Thank you, I will look into it. Yesterday I asked my wife if she was tired of seeing castles (we spent two weeks driving through Ireland) and she said she loves castles and never tires of seeing them, so here is another potential to add to the list. :)

Leeds Castle and Warwick Castle are both easy day trips (Warwick more so than Leeds as it's closer to a train station).

Churchill's underground bunker is good for about 60-90 minutes. I've been and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you haven't been to John Soames Museum, do that. The Jack Ripper tour can be good, the one that leaves from Tower HIll.

If you get a sunny day and feel like a green walk that might take a few hours then look into the London Loop. Section three of the loop takes you to where Pitt sat and listened to Wilberforce and decided to bring forward the abolition of trade in slavery in Britain. The path is well marked and takes you from train station to train station. It is about 16km.

There are lots of other very nice loop walks - a shorter walk is Loop 5, do it in reverse from Coulsdon South and you can break it at the very nice Fox pub after an hour so stroll and get the bus back or do the whole 10km after a break (but the second half in reverse is not as pleasant).

No one has mentioned an Angus Steak house yet!

Thank you all for your advise! I especially appreciate the recommendations on places to eat!

Walk across the bridge from Windsor to Eton, turn left at the first opportunity, keep left and you will e on the Thames path. It's a beaten path, but it's a nice walk.

Take a boat tour on the Thames.

A day on the train to Oxford and return - we pre-booked the fare and it was incredibly cheap. Cambridge is good too, but Oxford is probably a more classic one-day experience. Good to combine a trip to Salisbury Cathedral with the trip to Stonehenge - it's superb.

There are also a lot of gardens in London, if they are of interest. Greenwich Observatory is a nice trip in good weather. Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral are a nice walk, and you can do a very good loop walk there (over both London Bridge and Tower Bridge, and along both banks).