July 29 - The City and the National Gallery

We started the day off with a very good (finally) breakfast at Pret a Manger before taking the tube through King's Cross (we tried to find Platform 9 3/4 but it was too busy) and on to the City of London (which is administratively separate from Westminster). Our first stop was at the Monument, built by Christopher Wren as a memorial to the Great Fire of 1666. At the top of the 311 steps is a viewing platform with some fabulous views of the city. Here is a lovely shot of Tower Bridge.

And these here are the many towers of the financial district; the most recognizable is 30 St. Mary Axe, or the Gherkin (the one that looks like a pickle). In front of it is the Lloyd’s of London building, which looks unfinished but was in fact fully completed in 1986.

And here we have the dome of St. Paul’s with the British Telecom Tower visible off to the left (and yes, some very ugly construction sites).

We then walked over to Leadenhall Market for lunch. It was the site of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies (I can only sort of see it) and is a really cool place full of cafés and little shops.

We continued on to the financial heart of the city, located around the Bank tube station. This is the Bank of England, which as we all know was so important in the development of Canada as a British colony.

And here we have the Royal Exchange with its magnificent neoclassical façade; out front is the war memorial for the City of London.

We then took the underground to Green Park and walked to Buckingham Palace, which Julia, Mom and Aunt Val toured (they saw Kate's wedding dress, I should add) while Dad and I did a quick walk-through of the National Gallery. It has an outstanding collection, and you could easily spend a weekend there without being bored. We also got a better view of Trafalgar Square now that the media crews had cleared out.

We met the girls for ice cream, said goodbye to Aunt Val, and went to a neat little burger bar for dinner. This evening we decided to try a London By Night bus tour, which was fabulous and gives you a completely different perspective of the city. So many of the famous buildings - Harrods, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and the Tower of London, to name a few - are lit up at night and you can see them really well from the open-top bus. I would highly recommend one of those tours to anyone who is traveling to London, especially if they haven't been in the city before.

GWV