Slept amazingly well last night. Went to sleep early about 7pm, woke up at 12 and thought that was that. Had a drink and a chat and went back to sleep waking up about 6am. And managed to keep going all day even though we are still jet lagged.

First thing today was to get our old money changed. Got the tube from Lancaster Gate to Bank on the Central line and showed up at the Bank of England Threadneedle Street in the heart of the financial district. After getting through the security check we were put in a line of fellow tourists trying to ditch old pounds. A lady came round and advised if we had less than 300 pounds to change then go to the Post Office as they would do it much quicker and only needed passport i.d. If more than 300 pounds then the bank would do it, but it was a slow process requiring two forms of i.d, proof of address and filling out of forms. She even had a map for everyone showing how to get to the City of London Post Office about 10 minutes walk away. We each had 160 pounds so headed off to the Post Office. Sure enough it was a quick and easy process. Just show your passport and they handed over nice new clean plastic money.

From the Post Office intended to head down to the river and walk to The Tower of London and walk over Town Bridge. Quite by accident we came across The Monument.  This is a huge Doric column erected in 1667 as a memorial to The Great Fire of London of 1666 when tens of thousands of Londoners were left homeless and much of the city was destroyed. The column is 60.6 metres tall, the exact distance it stands from the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire reputedly started. For £6 you can climb the 311 spiral steps to the top for a fine view. We didn’t. At the base of the column are some stone seats with the words of the children’s nursery rhyme engraved in them:

London’s burning, London’s burning                                                                           Fetch the engines, fetch the engines                                                                         Fire fire, Fire fire                                                                                                                   Pour on water, pour on water.

From the Monument we walked to the Tower of London. The absolute icon of London, with a history as bleak and bloody as it is fascinating. Begun during the reign of William the Conqueror, 1066 – 1087, the Tower is in fact a castle with 22 towers and has expanded greatly over the centuries and has served as a palace, observatory,, storehouse, mint, home of the crown jewels, a zoo but most famously as a prison and place of execution. We didn’t go inside as we had been there before but did walk around the perimeter.

Right next to the Tower of London is one of London’s most recognisable sights, Tower Bridge. We had been driven over the bridge a few times before in busses but had never walked across it so that was on our “to do” list for this time. Built in 1894 the great neo-gothic towers and blue suspension struts are quite enthralling. The bridge was equipped with a for then revolutionary bascule (see saw) mechanism that could raise the centre spans for oncoming ships in 3 minutes. You can pay to enter the Tower Bridge Museum and walk across between the two towers 42 metres above the river.

We were now on the South Bank and walked through the very modern Hays Galleria, full of boutique shops, eateries and a fabulous steam punk ship, all under a soaring glass arched roof.

After the Galleria we made our way to Borough Market. A market has been located her in some form or other since the 13th century and is known as “London’s Larder”. It is always overflowing with food lovers, inveterate gastronomes and wide eyed tourists like us,  It is a large sprawling area located under the overhead railway and every few minutes you here and feel the rumbling of a train passing overhead. There are sections for every appetite, exotic vegetables, quality fresh fruit, organic meat, sea foods, cheeses, home-grown honey, homemade bread, craft beers and wines etc, etc. And dozens of takeaway stalls with gourmet sausages, chorizo sandwiches, quality pizzas, exotic burgers etc.

From the market we passed Shakespeare’s Globe. This is a replica designed to resemble the original as closely as possible, painstakingly constructed with 600 oak pegs (no nails or screws), specially fired Tudor bricks and thatching reeds from Norfolk that pigeons are not supposed to like. The plaster contains goat hair, lime and sand, as it did in Shakespeare’s time. The theatre, like the original is open air, and standing spectators are exposed to  London’s fickle weather.

Then for me the high light of the day. The Tate Modern. An enormous modern-art gallery housed inside what was the Bankside Power Station. Converted in the year 2000 it has been phenomenally successful, 50 million visitors in the first 10 years and now has a equally enormous modern addition  (2016) at the rear. I was as interested in the building itself as much as the mostly modern art on display. The cavernous 6 storey high turbine hall has been kept as a dramatic entrance foyer, the 99 metre has been kept with a lookout at the top (closed when we were there!), and there are galleries in the three vast subterranean oil tanks. There are dozens of galleries all with interesting, fascinating, challenging, humorous and demanding works in all forms. It would take many, many visits to see everything that was going on there, and as well they have special exhibitions. At present there are exhibitions on Gustav Klimt and Piet Mondrian. The latter a favourite of myself and many architects.

It was now mid afternoon and we were pretty tired and still not adjusted to local time so headed over the Millennium Bridge (nicknamed the Wobbly Bridge after it swayed alarmingly when first opened in 2000) to the St Paul’s station to get the tube back to our hotel.  I think we did pretty well to last as well as we did today, hopefully we will get a better sleep tonight.