This is The Monument, erected by Christopher Wren to commemorate the Fire of London.
This is The Monument, erected by Christopher Wren to commemorate the Fire of London.
The Hung Drawn and Quartered pub. Gotta love those pub names.
No, this is not a power plant or a chemical factory. It's the headquarters of Lloyds of London. Sort
of an inside-out building with all the plumbing and pipework on the outside. I think the architect must
have been a big fan of the movie Brazil.
This market served as the set of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies.
Another view of Diagon Alley.
They don't come much smaller than this pub.
This Roman Temple of Mithras was discovered during excavation for a new building. It is now on display in
front of the building.
We finished the tour at the Guild Hall, where the guilds meet to run the City of London. We went on to visit the Guild Art Gallery. The gallery wasn't all that impressive but in the basement, the ruins of an ancient Roman ampitheater are on display.
We found a vegan chinese buffet near Leicester Square for lunch, then did some souvenir shopping. Then tube to the Mansion House station, from which we walked across the Millennium Footbridge to the Tate Modern. Our visit to the Tate was cut short by a fire alarm that forced evacuation of the building - we never did learn what caused the alarm.
On Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and put our baggage into storage there, then took the tube to Kensington High Street. We walked around the grounds at Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived. We then walked around the neighborhood, seeing how the other half live.
Then back to Victoria, lunch at an Indian buffet, pick up our baggage, cab to Victoria Station, tube to Heathrow, jet to Dulles, drove home, and then to bed.
I really enjoyed London. It's now at the top of my list of favorite cities. I hope to return in the not-too-distant future and take my wife. Until then, I have my memories and these amateurish photographs. I hope you enjoyed them and this narrative.
