london walks: walking through the city.

Today we took our first graded 'London Walk'! We walked through the area that use to be "Londinium" during Roman times. I really enjoyed this walk because we got to go through the downtown part of London (including the financial district!) This was very interesting because I learned that the "City of London" is different than London itself. What surprised me the most is the variation of architecture. There are buildings that are literally older than America itself, right next to brand new, modern buildings. These old buildings, however, house new businesses such as clothing stores and restaurants. Although there was a surprising amount of centuries-old buildings, it is still very apparent how greatly the Great Fire of 1666 affected what still stands today. One aspect of this walk really surprised me: everything was closed. We were not able to go into the churches and we even had a hard time finding a restaurant open for lunch. Overall, I loved it all! London truly is a majestic city. The streets are picturesque and the people are lovely.

I was amazed by how many grand buildings like this were in the City of London!

Cheapside street!

There were huge statues like this everywhere... all over the roofs of the old buildings

One of the alleys we wandered down

Great example of old architecture right next to new.

This was our first glance of the tower bridge, near the end of the walk. 

Every single building was so unique.

The streets are so narrow here! However, I don't think this causes a lot of trouble because there is not an excess of traffic (thanks to charging people to drive within this area during certain hours of the day, something I learned about in Econ 110 last year!)