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Thursday ? Decided to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament after lunch. First we went through the Jewel Tower opposite which is the corner section of the original Palace built nearly 1000 years ago. We bought our tickets for the 4 pm tour of the Palace of Westminster ? which is the correct name for the Houses of Parliament. The tour commenced at the entry where the Queen arrives in her coach to open and close Parliament. You pass through several beautiful rooms before entering the House of Lords and the throne where the Queen sits. Again huge paintings on all the walls. The House of Commons was bombed in May 1941 and rebuilt. The only other part of the original Palace left is Westminster Hall . This was the original Palace and the Courts of Justice where Charles 1 was tried and more recently where the Queen Mother's coffin rested for the public viewing.

At 6 pm there was a power failure in the business sector of the city causing chaos to the tube commuters. Trains were stopped in the tunnels and people were escorted out the back exit of the trains and had to walk back to the nearest station.

Friday ? There are many organised walking tours of London and we chose to go on the Hidden London walk commencing at 11 am from Monument Station. The guide June was very informative and theatrical and we were told lots of little interesting things along the way which you would normally not know about. The tour commenced at the Monument ? a huge column with a gold flame commemorating the London Fire in 1666 which destroyed a large part of London. Then off to a Wren Church , a street housing the original Guild members and the Church where Dick Whittington was married. I would highly recommend this tour. After the tour we bought lunch and sat in the St Bride's Churchyard under huge tree off Fleet Street. We walked up to the Old Bailey but it was closed for refurbishment until September.

We walked down to Lincoln's Inn Fields and went to the Sir John Soane's Museum. Sir John Soane was one of England's greatest architects and died in 1837. This is a fantastic museum which lots of people don't know about. It was John Soane's London home and is left with all his collections as it was when he lived there. In 1792 he bought and rebuilt No 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields as his home, in 1813 he moved next door into No 13 as his new home and museum. His wife died in 1815 and he lived here alone constantly adding to his displays. In 1823 he bought No 14 and opened his museum to the public while he lived there. It is such a different house ? lots of space, light and also lots and lots of Roman and Greek artifacts. The amazing thing about this museum is it is free ? but we gave a donation.

We had wanted to go to the Portobello Road Markets and thought that this was a good day weather wise? not too hot to walk around. So on Saturday we caught the train to Notting Hill Gate and walked down the full length of Portobello Road . At the top of the road are shops and stalls full of objects d'art, jewellery, antiques, curios etc and further down the road the stalls mainly contain fresh food eg fruit, fish, meat including Halal butchers, then bric-a-brac and second hand clothes and the usual tacky market stalls. Lots of very interesting shops and stalls with one shop down a lane way specialising in old swords and military uniforms etc. There are supposedly over 2000 stalls so it can take a while if you like to browse. In the afternoon we walked back up to the main road (Notting Hill Gate) and stopped at a nice little pub The Champion for a drink. We then continued walking down the main road to Queensway ? so named because Queen Victoria had ridden down as a Princess - and it is reported to be one of London's most cosmopolitan streets and the having the most eating places outside Soho. We headed for Whiteleys Department Store said to be the world's first department store dating from 1911. The building is a white 5-storey with giant columns and arched leadlight windows. It has 3 huge glass dome atriums and now houses a shopping mall ? but still is worth a visit. Walked back to Bayswater Station for a train home.

On Sunday we headed off for Canary Wharf ? a very modern part of London developed in 1991. The Canada Tower is a 50 storey office tower which is the tallest in Europe. The area contains a big shopping mall, tall blocks of office buildings and apartments. Walked around to the Traffic Light Tree which is a collection of traffic lights designed to look like a tree with 75 sets of flashing red, amber and green lights. We caught the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) to Limehouse and walked around Wapping, a very depressed area of London and went into the St George in the East church. This church built in 1726 was badly damaged during the Blitz in WWII and a modern glass smaller church is now built within the old walls. Very interesting concept. Down Cable Street to the Town Hall with a large mural commemorating the battle that took place in October 1936 between the Black Shirts (Fascists) and the Jews. We had lunch at the oldest riverside pub the Prospect of Whitby , Wapping Wall, which dates from 1520.

Further down the road is the Captain Kidd pub where the pirate was hanged in 1701. This area is known as Execution Dock where pirates were hanged and their bodies chained to a post at low tide to be left until three tides had washed over their bodies.

Tonight we are going on the Jack the Ripper walking tour . Caught the train to Tower Hill and met the guide. This is a very popular tour and there were more than 200 people for the tour and luckily there were 2 guides that night. We went with Donald who had written a book about the murders and who was recommended as the best authority on Jack the Ripper. The first murder was on 31 August 1888 ? which is exactly 115 years ago tonight! Five prostitutes were murdered ? quite brutally in the area. The walk took about 1 ½ hours and was very interesting although most of the buildings were either destroyed in the Blitz of WWII or just knocked down since then. The tour finished near Liverpool Street station and we caught the train home from there.

Because we hadn't been in the area we walked around last night we decided to go back and have a better look in the daylight. So Monday saw us back at Tower Hill Station . We stopped at Petticoat Lane and found beautiful fabric shops as well as shoe and other shops in Wentworth Street. Went into the Old Spitalfield Markets and just walked around the surrounding streets. (the Spitalfield markets were originally buil t on the site of a Hospital)

The City of London Annual Flower Show is on today and tomorrow only at the Guild Hall in Gresham Street . So we decided to walk down and see it. The actual Guild Hall is worth a visit itself and is 800 years old and was used for many famous trials. We then walked down to see the Bank of England built by John Soane in 1788 (we saw his museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields). We then crossed to road to the Royal Exchange built in 1844 which now houses designer jewellery shops and bars/cafes in the centre of the building. Walked down to see the modern building of Lloyds of London built in 1986 a most interesting building with exaggerated stainless steel external pipes and glass lifts ? looks like it is inside out. We both really enjoyed the day just taking our time walking around parts of London we would normally have not seen.

Tuesday 2 September is our last full day in London. The best part about spending 4 weeks in London is that you can take your time exploring. The flat at Willesden Green suited our purposes and as it was close to the tube station and within Zone 2 it only took 25 minutes to be in London's CBD. So today was spent washing and ironing and cleaning the flat and packing for our next trip ? the Eurostar to Paris and 5 weeks in France?.

Marcelline.