London is the administrative, business and cultural capital of the UK and has been influenced by invaders and immigrants ever since the Romans founded it over 2000 years ago as Londinium. As you’d expect from a city that’s been around that long, London has an endless supply of attractions for the visitor from the ancient and historical to the thoroughly modern.
The good news for travellers and tourists coming to London is that an extensive public transport system makes any attraction easily accessible and many of the most popular such as the fantastic museums and galleries are free to enter. From world famous cathedrals and churches, royal palaces, excellent parks to unique modern buildings and landmarks London has enough to keep any visitor’s schedule full during their trip. Here are some of the major and most popular of London’s attractions.
Museums London is blessed with over 200 museums of varying size and covering a wide range of topics, disciplines and human activity over the last few thousand years. Admission to the majority is free and most are open seven days a week so if you’re stuck for somewhere to go or the weather turns bad outside, there are plenty of terrific museums to spend a couple of hours wandering around.
Parks One of the side effects for London of Britain having a monarchy for over a thousand years is that while the city has developed and grown over the centuries the monarchs retained their hunting estates, which once outside the small city’s wall gradually over time became surrounded by the spreading metropolis, and eventually where handed over to the nation to become the Royal Parks which help to make London one of the greenest of the world’s major cities.
Places of Interest From the historic to the modern and the quirky to the inspiring, London has has a huge range of places, structures and buildings that fall into the category of places of interest and anybody on a trip to the capital can have an enjoyable time tracking them down. Monuments, memorials, unique bridges and buildings are all here for people who are interested in that type of thing, just remember the spare batteries for your camera because there’s a photo oppurtunity around every corner in London.
London Eye Opened in 2000 but already when of the most distinctive of London’s landmarks, the London Eye is a 135 metre high observation wheel on the banks of the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament. Its fitted with 32 capsules on the outside of the wheel and offers users excellent views all around London. One of the things every new visitor to London should try. Its been so succesful that many other large cities around the world are now building their own.
Changing the Guard Britain is known for its military ceremonial and probably does it as good if not better than any country in the world. There are daily guard changing ceremnies at Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace, the one at Horse Guards featuring mounted troops from the Household Cavalry, this one’s also the most accessible, you can get very close to the horses and riders. A good place for some souvenir pictures.
St Paul’s Cathedral The dome of St Paul’s is one of the instantly recognizable symbols of London. The site of a cathedral since 604AD, the current building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and used for many state occasions, is open to visitors all year round.
Big Ben and the Houses of ParliamentThe Palace of Westminster is the home of Britain’s House of Commons and House of Lords where Members of Parliament debate and pass the laws of the land. Big Ben is the famous clock tower on the north end of the palace that chimes every hour.
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