Ride high on the London Eye, smell the flowers at Kew
Must see: See the exotic flowers at Thames-side Royal Botanical Kew Gardens, examine the rich and famous at Madame Tussauds waxwork museum, or wonder at the treasures in the National Gallery. See the glistening Albert Memorial in Kesington gardens and view contemporary architecture at Sir Norman Foster’s ‘Gherkin’ Building in the financial district.
Must do: Take a flight on the London Eye and walk across the Millennium Bridge from the Tate Modern to St Paul’s Cathedral. Take a London Bus past the Houses of Parliament and eat your way around the world at Spitalfields Market. Pick up bargains in Petticoat Lane Market or buy the latest designer gear in Knightsbridge. Walk through leafy Green Park to Buckingham Palace or catch an open air performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
Fame and fortune: Eminent eighteenth-century writer Samuel Johnson, famously said “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” Charles Dickens explored some of the less savoury aspects of the city in his novels. Samuel Pepys documented London life in the seventeenth century and the real life Dick Whittington was Mayor of the city no less than four times. Shakespeare debuted his plays near the replica of the Globe theatre on the South Bank. Sir Christopher Wren designed St Paul's cathedral and his pupil Nicholas Hawksmoor designed the West towers of Westminster Abbey. Notorious gangsters the Kray Twins ruled the East End with an iron fist, just round the corner from where Alfred Hitchcock made his most famous films at the Gainsborough Studios.
