In 1995 and 1997-1998 I lived about mid-way down this Victorian street, in a student residence facing the Courtfield Gardens (the buildings have since been converted into luxury flats). Like most gardens in South Kensington this is a "key garden" to which only local residents have access. Rumor has it that Hugh Grant lives across the gardens.

On our first day in London Andrea poses before the gates of Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens. The Palace was once the home of William and Mary, who were hopefully the only king and queen of England to be cousins (they weren't married). It was more recently the home of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The Albert Memorial, also in Kensington Gardens, honors Prince Albert. Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria, England's longest-reigning monarch. The memorial was built at her bequest after his death in the 1860s - a death that launched her many years of mourning. The monument, which spent years under scaffolding as part of a restoration project that ended in 1998, is situated just yards from the site of the Crystal Palace of the Great Exhibition of 1851 - the very first World's Fair, conceived and organized by Albert.

Umbrellas in hand, Andrea and I pose in the lovely St James's Park, which lies between Westminster and Buckingham Palace. Behind us is the British Airways London Eye, the largest wheel in the world, which was built over the River Thames in 1999 for London's Millennium celebration.

The British Airways London Eye was constructed over the River Thames in 1999 for the Millennium celebrations, and is now a major attraction offering great views of the city.

Each pod on the London Eye's wheel can comfortably hold up to twenty-five disgruntled, drowsy tourists.

The view from the London Eye, looking southwest. In the foreground are the Houses of Parliament; behind it is Westminster Abbey.

Andrea poses in front of Buckingham Palace, the London home of the Queen. She spends part of her time here, and much of the rest at Windsor Castle west of London. The statue in the centre of the circle is of Queen Victoria, the first royal resident of Buckinham Palace (she hated it because it was too drafty).

The umbrella, or "brolly," comes in handy in London, particularly in the Spring. It rains about every day, but it's also sunny part of the time as well. Andrea poses in the rain in Trafalgar Square; behind her is the National Gallery on the left and St. Martin in the Fields church in the right. The gallery is free, and home to a considerable array of art. The church, named "in the fields" because it was built before the rest of the square, is the home parish of the royal family.

The British Museum is the home to one of the largest collections of other countries' national treasures in the world. This statue of Ramses was borrowed from Egypt.

The central Atrium of the British Museum was the former home of the archives of the British Library. In 2000 it reopened with a new glass dome stretching from the outer walls to the central reading room, which had been inaccessible to the public for years. The British Library relocated to St. Pancras.

Another view of the atrium.

The central reading room of the British Museum, restored to the the way it appeared in the nineteenth century, was once perhaps the best source of knowledge in the world. To study here a person had to demonstrate that he or she could not do similar research elsewhere. Despite the British Library's strict policies many famous people read and studied here, including Karl Marx.

The most famous artifact in the British Museum is the Rosetta Stone, which allowed Egyptologists to decode hieroglyphics by comparing them with similar inscriptions in Greek.

One of the largest rooms in the museum contains the beautiful marble freizes that originally adorned the Parthenon in Athens, but apparently the Athenians didn't want them. "Why don't you put them in the British Museum?" they suggested to the Brits, and they've been there ever since.

Andrea explores the many statues that fill the British Museum, including one that acts as a support column in a stairwell.

There are a lot of Asian treasures in the museum; this green man from China was a guardian in the underworld who kept track of people's sins in the books he carried around with him. You can tell by the expression on his face that he's having a particularly busy day.

We visited St. Paul's cathedral; this is it from the London Eye. London's cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the previous cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1666, along with much of the rest of the city. Originally the cathedral was the tallest building around.

Andrea amid tourists in St. Paul's Cathedral.

In the upper gallery of the dome you can whisper to the stone wall on one side and the sound will travel perfectly to the other side. This caused by the shape of the stone wall. Christopher Wren did it unintentionally, and was never able to duplicate it in other buildings.

Andrea poses in front of the Tower of London, the city's castle. At over 900 years it's among the oldest buildings in London, built by the Normans after their successful invasion in 1066 and gradually enlarged over the years.

Our guide at the Tower was a Yeoman Warder, also known as a "Beefeater" (they supposedly get their name because the first yeoman warders were paid in beef). The Beefeaters know a great deal about which people built each building in the Tower, as well as which people were beheaded there.

The oldest part of the Tower is the White Tower, and the round tower of the white tower was once the location of the Royal Observatory. The custodian of the Observatory asked the king to remove the ravens from the Tower, as they were messing up his observational equipment. But the ravens are an important part of the Tower, and a prophecy says that if they ever leave the monarchy will fall. So the king sent the Observatory to Greenwich; thus if it weren't for the Tower ravens the Prime Meridian would pass through London rather than Greenwich.

From the south side of the Tower there is an excellent view of the Tower Bridge, the nineteenth-century bridge that most tourists think is London Bridge. London Bridge is actually much less interesting, and is further upriver.

Windsor Castle, west of London, was another Norman castle built around the time of the Tower of London. It is the home of the queen for a couple weeks each summer, as well as during most weekends. The central Round Tower is the oldest part of the castle.

We pose in front of the Royal residences at Windsor.

Brighton is the Londoner's getaway by the sea. Situated on the English Channel, it's awash with beaches, piers, carnivals and other seaside sights.

Brighton Pier is a long carnival that stretches out into the Channel, possibly most of the way to France.

In Brighton, the Royal Pavilion is probably the biggest tourist attraction. It was built in the eighteenth century as a farmhouse, then enlarged with an Indian palace theme in the nineteenth century by George IV. Queen Victoria hated it, and sold it to the city council.

The minarets of the Royal Pavilion.

A final view of the London Eye towering over the Houses of Parliament.