They have several bus tour groups available in London. We picked one that had multiple tour lines with an all-day pass, get off and on as you like. There was a Thames boat ride included. It was generally a pretty good deal if you want to see the big landmarks and have a chance to get off and wander around at some of them.

Our hotel was fairly near Hyde Park, so we saw this a lot.

Monument to the London Fire.

St. Paul's. One of the things we used the big bus tour (also a Big Bus Tour) for was to see which landmarks we wanted to go back to. We returned to St. Paul's on our last day there.

Queen Victoria at St. Paul's. We never did see anybody selling birdfeed, though, much less for tuppence a bag. I would have probably had that song in my head if "Evita" hadn't trumped it: "We wouldn't mind seeing her at Herrod's, but behind the jewelry counter, not in front." I was singing that for the entire first half of the week we were there.

We talked about going back and seeing Trafalgar Square on foot, but I'd been last time we were in London, and it was a major location for the London Olympics Bid, so it was swarmed with people. And then, well, you know what happened after that: there were the bombings, and we just didn't have the same time and flexibility as we'd hoped for. Still, I enjoyed peering at the Lord Nelson stuff a lot more than I would have if I hadn't been reading Patrick O'Brian this year.

More of Monday....