Wonderful London...

The Buxton Memorial (emancipation of slaves in the British Empire) with the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

Before heading off to Paris, we spent the best part of a week in London as a jet-lag cure. This city never fails to amaze, so large, so vibrant, and so diverse. History that is so awesome to Australians for whom anything older than 200 years is inconceivable! Buildings of such beauty. The pomp and ceremony surrounding the monarchy. The superb underground public transport system that works so well!

Not all Scots agreed with the result of the recent referendum?

Our hotel was the Hilton Doubletree in Westminster, easy walking distance to the Abbey, and a good central location. It was a modern building, but built in London hotel style, with small but functional and adequate rooms. Ten minute walks could get us to any of Westminster, Pimlico, St James Park or Victoria tube stations, so we had lots of choice.

Attractive chessboard architecture on this large public housing estate in Westminster.

They say walking in daylight is the best remedy for jet-lag, and we did that in spades from the moment we arrived. It seemed to work, although our skies were more grey than blue. The weather was warm, and although some rain was predicted every day, we only saw two or three very short showers the entire time.

Buckingham Palace as seen from St James Park.

As a pedestrian in London, we were impressed with how relatively light the vehicular traffic is. We don't know if it's the congestion tax or what, but London seems to avoid the traffic gridlock in every street which afflicts inner-city Sydney. (We said the same about Boston earlier in the year.) Sometimes, the only vehicles in sight are buses, taxis and commercial vehicles.

Stunningly beautiful Leadenhall Market arcade, very popular with business people at lunchtime.

Lean pickings for a fossicker along the banks of the Thames.

The 87 storey Shard is the tallest skyscraper in Europe.

Guitars for "free strumming" are scattered around London.

Amazingly, our Oyster Cards from 8 years ago still had their value, and all we had to do was top them up. Tube travel in London is not cheap, but using Oyster Cards is half the price of buying tickets.

Closing time at Thomas Farthing as seen from The Plough in Bloomsbury.

The new Canary Wharf station on the Docklands Light Rail.

Our travels are usually in Winter, so we were unprepared for the hours of daylight here! It's full daylight at 5:00am and not dark until nearly 10:00pm. Even then, the twilight is so bright. Frankly, we did not see much "night-time"!

The start of Regent Street seen from Piccadilly Circus.

A very relaxing place to have lunch just out of the incredible hustle of Oxford Street.

For us, it's always a high priority to find good coffee every day. This activity is not as straight-forward as it is in Sydney, but wherever we were at coffee-o'clock, we looked around (part of the adventure) and managed to find somewhere, and the quality and taste were always excellent. And you can easily avoid those accursed take-away cups too.

Good coffee was quite easy to find in London, this in a very unpretentious cafe at the Barbican.

July 7 was a sober day in London, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the underground and buses. About 50 people were killed. The anniversary featured strongly in newspapers and TV news, there was a ceremony at the memorial in Hyde Park, and a minutes silence was observed in the city at 11:30am.

We enjoyed the Bow Bells at noon on Cheapside.

Getting your shoes cleaned here is GBP4.5 but includes conversation.

We didn't attempt anything adventurous in food. The Hilton had an excellent buffet breakfast, so lunch was an apple from a roadside stall. We were usually too tired for a serious dinner experience, but, missing them now in Sydney, we were determined to find a Wagamama one night. Yelp gave us out-dated information and bum steers. We had two failures before successfully finding one quite near our hotel, in Victoria. Delightful to enjoy Wagamama's approach to fresh produce, now lost to our home town!

Brightly enamelled buckets and cans are a historical characteristic of London Canal boats.

Heavy traffic at a bottleneck on the Regents Canal near Kings Cross.

An artist captures an idyllic scene at Little Venice in Paddington.

Public art and white swans in front of Kensington Palace.

Selfie at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Garden.

The Albert Memorial, a truly beautiful monument in Knightsbridge.

Our love affair with the London Underground collapsed on the last day when they went on strike, the crews resisting rosters associated with proposed 24 hour operation. We always planned a taxi to St. Pancras Station, but with no tube, taxis were in short supply, giving us a scare for a while. Getting the 5km to St Pancras in the morning peak took almost an hour - the traffic was heavier than usual due to the strike, and the roads were clogged with cyclists, joggers and pedestrians.

No public transport system is more impressive than the London Underground, except when it goes on strike!

Cobbled lane and converted horse stables in Kensington.

Wimbledon fans lounge on patriotic cushions before this large screen at Victoria.

Late afternoon bright sunshine and spin bowling at Vincent Square.

Public piano at StPancras Station.

A very grey dawn greets Big Ben from Westminster Bridge.