Mercury silhouetted in Picadilly Circus, London. I tend to avoid this area because it is a tourist mecca, but on this December night it was reasonably uncrowded.

The Great Westminster Clock, better known as "Big Ben," though Big Ben is actually the name of the bell that sounds the hours, not the clock. I actually had the unique opportunity to climb the clock tower and see the bells and the clock in 1995. (You would think that noon in Westminster's belfry would be especially painful for the ears, but it's actually not that bad.)

Fountains at Trafalgar Square, with a rathe tiny view of the clock in the background. Trafalgar Square is the location of a few landmarks, including Nelson's Column, which is currently under scaffolding. It is named after the Battle of Trafalgar, which in 1805 more or less ended Napoleon's aspirations of conquering Britain.

London ha sa lot more in it than you might initially think. The more time you have, and the more willing you are to walk around the city, the more random things you will find. Case in point: London has a canal system. Most visitors probably have no idea this is the case. But if you go to the north end of Regents Park you'll find this lovely view of the Regents Park mansions over Regents Canal. The canal goes east to join the Thames in the Docklands, and along the way passes places like Camden Market. It also goes west, through a tunnel underneath Maida Hill, to an area called Little Venice (see below) where it joins the Grand Union Canal, which I pass on the train every morning on my way to work.

Another view of the Regents Canal near Regents Park, this time from along the footpath.

This is Little Venice, on a visit about a week later. The area is filled with canal boats and water fowl like this one.

Do you think Transport for London put their roundel outside the new Westminster Station specifically so people could take this photo? It does seem a rather contrived juxtaposition, but who can resist?

Victoria Tower is on the south side of the Houses of Parliament, where the House of Lords sits, and balances the building with the clock on the north end. The queen enters this tower each November for the state opening of Parliament.

Another view of Victoria Tower from Victoria Tower Gardens, just south of the Houses of Parliament.

St. Thomas Hospital on Thames from Victoria Tower Gardens. I have always wanted to take a daytime photo of a tower, an airplane, the moon and a frog. I'm three for four.

Off Fleet Street is the very unique St Bride's church, designed by Sir Christopher Wren to replace an older church that was destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666. Most of the church is typical of the Wren style, especially the windows, but the spire is famous because a local baker based the design of a wedding cake on it. The design caught on, so St. Bride's is the inspiration for tiered wedding cakes everywhere.

Another view of St Bride's. You can vaguely see some of the arched windows that are typical of the Wren style, and many New England churches are based upon it, including Old North in Boston.

Andrea and I at Westminster Station. This bit of the station was opened in 1999 for the Jubilee Line Extension, which was under heavy construction while I lived here in the 1990s..

We've paid a few visits to Borough Market since we've been here. Borough is a food market in Southwark, across the Thames from the City, that runs on Saturdays. We really enjoy it. It's not as crowded as some of the other markets, and the food selection is fantastic. This is a view of Southwark Cathedral from the market area: it was originally a Norman church and has some bits dating to that period. Shakespeare went to this cathedral and his brother is buried inside. The Globe theatre was only a short walk from here.

Neals Yard Dairy has a store in Borough Market. Yum.

Olive merchants. Yum again.

We went to Canary Wharf in late January to walk around and visit Greenwich. The tower behind Andrea is Canary Wharf Tower, which was built in the early 1990s. Most of the rest of the area is much newer. The tube station is on the Jubilee line, and opened in 1999 as part of the Jubilee Line Extension.

More of Canary Wharf's buildings behind a pedestrian bridge.

The area around Canary Wharf is called the Isle of Dogs. Until the 1960s it was heavily industrial, and was a major shipping area. These cranes attest to that, though the area is now a mix of residential and business.

The Royal Naval College in Greenwich from the Isle of Dogs. Conveniently, you can walk under the Thames via a pedestrian tunnel ...

... that emerges near the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. This is the last tea clipper in the world. My grandfather built a model of it many years ago, which we used to keep in our house in Rochester.

Looking up out of the drydock in which the Cutty Sark is kept, Andrea and the stern of the ship look down at me.

A view of Docklands from the Old Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The original observatory was in the Tower of London, in the only one of the four tower turrets that is round. However the astronomer royal asked the yeoman warders of th Tower to remove the famous tower ravens because they were making a mess of his equipment, and they removed him instead. Greenwich hill was the site of many important astronomical discoveries in the eighteenth century and has always afforded a great view of the City and docklands.

Me at the Old Royal Observatory. I am about thirty feet from the Prime Meridian, which was placed here because Greenwich was at the center of the effort to establish a reliable means of determinig longitude at sea (more on this below). The tall buildings behind me are in the Docklands, particularly around Canary Wharf.

Looking up the hill ar the Old Royal Observatory. The red ball on the pole was lowered every day at 1 PM as a means of helping ships docked within sight of it to synchronize their chronometers with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Though the observatory was devoted to astronomy as a means of navigation, ultimately it was the reliable chronometer that best helped ships determine their longitude.

Another view of the Cutty Sark at Greenwich.

I interviewed at RIM in late January and early February. While looking at maps prior to visiting the office I noticed that it was close to Runnymede, and prior to my second interview there I decided to walk out of Egham to find it. This is it: the birthplace of modern democracy, where London aristocrats forced King John to sign a charter granting power to Parliament in 1215. Since I expected to never again find myself there wearing a suit, I activated the timer on my camera and posed.

I went back to Runnymede a few days later in more casual attire and explored the park, which is full of hiking trails. This is the Magna Carta Memorial, which was placed in Runnymede by the American Bar Association.

A more detailed view of the Magna Carta Memorial ...

... and another. There is also a statue of King John in nearby Egham, where RIM is located. Which is funny, because King John hated the Magna Carta and tried to have the Pope nullify it.

At the top of the hill at Runnymede there is an Air Forces Memorial, dedicated to the Royal Air Force. It's quire a nice memorial, and you can climb to the top to get a good view. In the other direction you can see both Heathrow Airport and Windsor Castle, though it was such a gray day that the photos aren't worth posting.

Another view of the Air Forces Memorial.

On the same day I stopped in Richmond and wandered around. It's a very nice town, kind of in London and kind of in Surrey. It was formerly named Sheen, but the monarchy built a palace there and renamed it. Richmond Green is still owned by the monarchy as a former part of the palace, and this gate is all that remains of the palace, where Queen Elizabeth I actually died.

A lamp post in Richmond. There seems to be quite a number of nice walking trails around the town.

The top of Richmond Hill has one of the few views that is protected by law. It takes in the Thames looking upstream toward Hampton Court Palace. By Act of Parliament, if you want to build a big ugly concrete building somewhere, you must look elsewhere.

Richmond Bridge is a rather pleasant structure. Because the river is tidal, this area often floods, and a nearby pub even has a high-tide entrance for when its main steps are covered by water..

On a path along the river there is a good view of the King's Observatory, which is in the center of Richmond's Deer Park. The transit of Venus was predicted to occur in 1769, and people were sent far and wide to observe it from different parts of the world in an attempt to determine Earth's distance from the sun. Captain Cook went to the Society Islands (Tahiti), taking a new Harrison chronometer with him to help him keep his longitude sorted out, and famously discovered Australia in the process. Back in England, George III (not America's favorite king) had this observatory built for the spectacle. He was actually a very intelligent guy, and was very interested in science. In this photo, the observatory is the white building directly above the gap in the memorial. The obelisks to the left allowed the king to determine the line due south - effectively setting the position of the meridian. This meridian predated the establishment of the Prime Meridian at Greenwich.

If anyone knows what these green birds are, let me know. I found a group of five or six of them flying back and forth across the Thames in Richmond. They look like parrots to me.

I went for a long walk in London one day and got a few nice shots of Telecom Tower, a BT transmitting station that dominates the skyline of the West End.

I ended up in Highgate and found a suburban street with a spectacular view of the city.

A more zoomed view down Hillway. You can see the London Eye (the wheel) quite well.

I walked across Hampstead Heath, a massive park north of London, and took some nice photos of a stately home called Kenwood House.

Hampstead Heath's Parliament Hill has some really spectacular views over London. To the left of the center clump of trees is the Docklands with the pyramid-capped Canary Wharf Tower (this is taken from the opposite site as the photos from Greenwich, above). To the right of the trees is the City with Tower 42 (formerly the Natwest Tower) and 30 St Mary Axe (the building shaped like an American football commonly called The Gherkin). To the right of those buildings you can see the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, and then Telecom Tower near the far right. This was done by pasting a few photos together.

Right, don't tell anyone about this. London is full of pubs, but there are a number of good ones that if discovered could end up being a bit too popular - especially the ones off the high street that are difficult to find. This one in Hampstead is possibly my favorite. Great atmosphere, local crowd. No television to be found anywhere, and no loud music. Decent selection of ales, and quite good pub food. But shhhh ... don't tell anyone where it is.

Christ Church near Spitalfields market. The market tends to get rather crowded, so while Andrea shopped I wandered off and took some photos.

A reflection of Christ Church in a nearby store.

This is the Ten Bells, the pub next door to the church, where some of Jack the Ripper's victims drank on the night they died.

This is 30 St Mary Axe, a new building in the City that is very recognizable on the skyline and is regarded as one of the most well-liked new buildings in Europe. It is nicknamed "The Gherkin" by some, after the style of pickle. Others call it "the towering innuendo." It is a rather nice design.

Another, closer view of 30 St Mary Axe.

From the same standing position as the above shot, I turned around and pointed my camera up at the Lloyds Building, a very unusual structure for a financial institution. It was built in 1986 with the idea that it should look like it was built from a kit of parts.

More of the Lloyds Building.

Leadenhall Market is right next to LLoyds. As this was a Sunday the area was completely dead.

The ironwork of the market is really spectacular. This is a dragon, the symbol of the City of London.

Another view of Leadenhall Market.

This is Tower 42, formerly the Natwest Tower. Same general neighborhood. It's the tallest building in the City, and from above it looks suspiciously like the Natwest logo.

I happened upon John Harrison's grave in Hampstead a couple months ago, and returned to snap this photo. No, John Harrison is not one of The Beatles. He won the Longitude Prize in the eighteenth century by building a clock that could keep accurate time at sea, thus allowing sailors to compare Greenwich Mean Time with local solar time to determine their longitude. Actually he built four clocks, and they were rather incredible for their time. Astronomers didn't like him because they wanted a stellar cartographic method of determining longitude. It's well-described in Dava Sobel's book Longitude, which I read a few years ago, and recently re-read only a few weeks before discovering this grave entirely by accident. As mentioned above, Captain Cook used one of the chronometers on his famous trip to Tahiti.

On the way to Cambridge with Andrea's parents we caught a train at Kings Cross Station, and I decided to seek out Platform nine and three quarters. I had been to the station years ago but it was before JK Rowling's Harry Potter series was popular and in the intervening years the station added this nice tribute on a wall between platforms nine and ten. Andrea is holding the back of a standard luggage cart, the front of which appears to be embedded in the wall.

Another view of Kings Cross Station. Paddington, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and other old rail stations around London are wonderful examples of Victorian industrial architecture. In the US we had similar stations, but most were replaced with ugly concrete structures years ago (Grand Central being a nice exception).

Another view of Kings Cross.

We tried to go to Kew Gardens on a Saturday and had train problems due to engineering works, so we went for a walk in the City instead. On the Strand are the Royal Courts of Justice, a rather flamboyant Victorian structure in white stone. This dragon in the middle of the street represents the entrance into the City of London from the City of Westminster. At this "Temple Bar" the Queen must stop and get permission from the Lord Mayor if she wishes to enter the City.

Looking down towards the Royal Courts of Justice ...

... and looking in the other direction along Fleet Street to Ludgate Hill, on which stands St Pauls Cathedral. The signs in the foreground are for the Cheshire Cheese, a sixteenth century pub, and the old home of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who wrote the world's first comprehensive English dictionary.

Outside the Cheshire Cheese in Wine Office Court, where we stopped for lunch. They do Samuel Smith beers, which are quite good.

Andrea and Mom in Lincolns Inn Fields. This is right outside a great musem called the Sir John Soane Musem, which I highly recommend. Soane was an architect who designed a number of public buildings, including the Bank of England. His house on Lincolns Inn Fields is a wonderful collection of odds and ends that I like to compare with Boston's Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. (A bit more on Soane below.)

This is the Palm House at Kew Gardens in Richmond, which we actually did manage to visit the next day.

And here are Andrea and her parents in the Temperate House, not far from the Palm House. This particular glass house is the largest surviving Victorian glass house in the world.

More of the Temperate House, this time looking out from a window on the second level.

The steelwork is really fabulous in and of itself.

After we left the gardens the sky covered over with clout, rained heavily, and then went blue again in the space of about twenty minutes. Yes, it's like that a lot in London. We had to huddle under a tree to keep reasonably dry. The nice thing about all this is that we spotted this rainbow over the Temperate House shortly after the rain ended.

The pagoda. Surprisingly this was built in the eighteenth century, though it looks much newer.

Another view of the Palm House with a rather pretty fountain and, characteristically, an airplane flying into the busiest airport in the world, Heathrow. There was a plane overhead every couple minutes while we were in Kew Gardens, since the area is along a common landing path. I've actually spotted the pagoda from the window of a plane once.

St Pancras Old Church in a part of Camden that used to be the Boroouch of St Pancras. Most of the church is Victorian, with a few Norman bits here and there, but this church was originally built in the fourth century, when London was still a Roman city.

This is the tomb of Sir John Soane and his wife in the St Pancras churchyard. Supposedly the classic red British phone booth, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (and increasingly rare on the streets these days), was based upon Soane's tomb. Enlarge the image to compare.

I walked south from St Pancras to the City and came to St Paul's Cathedral after dark. This is the state of Queen Victoria at St Paul's. I took quite a few photos because the slow shutter speed on my camera causes motion blur in dark settings.

Another view of St Paul's at night ...

... and next to the cathedral is a gate that once stood on The Strand not far from the Royal Courts of Justice, but due to traffic concerns was removed. It was moved back to the area only a couple years ago.

And here's another view of St Pauls at night ...

... and another.

The Thames, as I mentioned above, is tidal. Sometimes the waters recede enough that you can walk down from the embankment and encounter a muddy beach. This is the view of London Bridge from the City. Along the shore you can see the wooden pilings on which old wharves were once built. London is actually full of wharves that pushed the boundaries of the city into the river in a process known as "wharfing out." Boston underwent a similar process. Some recovered wharves further inland date to the Saxon and Roman periods, and have been well preserved because of the wet earth.

The Tower Bridge at night. This bridge is commonly known as London Bridge among tourists.

I took another walk in London a couple days later, from Westminster along the river to the west. I wasn't sure how far I could go. I considered trying to go all the way to Chiswick or even Richmond, but I underestimated the length of the Thames and the extra distance added to any walk by the river's winding, serpentine path. This is the view looking northeast, with Charing Cross Station on the left and the London Eye on the right with spokes like a big bicycle wheel. The next bridge along the river is the Hungerford Rail Bridge with two pedestrian bridges built onto its side in the late 1990s.

If there is a better photo of the Houses of Parliament I'd like to see it. I pieced this together from two separate photos, and because of the angles involved I had to pincushion both images to correct the alignment. All done in The Gimp. I am most pleased with the outcome.

Another view of the Houses of Parliament, this time from near Lambeth Bridge. Interestingly, Lambeth Bridge is painted red for the House of Lords, and Westminster Bridge green for the Commons. I read that recently but had never noticed before.

Along the south side of the river I encountered the Battersea Power Station, one of the largest brick buildings in Europe, taking up an area about the same size as Trafalgar Square. It was made extra famous by its appearance on a Pink Floyd album cover. This station was designed by the same Sir Giles Gilbert Scott who designed the famous red phone booth (see above), and there has been talk of redeveloping it for years.

The Albert Bridge, which leads from Battersea to Chelsea and Fulham.

I noticed this rather nice view in Wandsworth Park and snapped a few photos of the large overhanging trees. The trees are a hybrid of the American Sycamore and the Oriental Plane Tree, and are called London Plane Trees. They're the most common type of tree in the city, and were introduced in the ninteenth century because they help to clean the air. The bark absorbs carbon particles and sheds regularly to reveal new bark, so it was a particularly useful tree to have during London's smoggy industrial days.

This is one of my personal favorite bridges, Hammersmith Bridge, where I ended my walk from Westminster. It's painted a pleasant green with gold trim. While I was having a pub lunch I noticed that the tide in the river had risen by as much as much as four feet. And I didn't stay long in the pub - honest.