London is the UK capital city and with a population of almost 14 million in the Greater London area you'll rarely find anywhere quiet despite the large number of parks throughout the city.
There are untold numbers of attractions in London and we'll be just skimming the surface in this article to give you a feel for the things that you can see and do in your stay there. We'll cover many of these in more detail in later articles.
The Houses of Parliament are where the British parliament sits from around September to June. Security these days is tight but it's still possible to see the proceedings; if possible ask via your local MP as you'll get a much better tour that way. Westminster Abbey is in the same complex.
If you're into James Bond, you can see (but not visit) the real-life headquarters of MI6. This was a relatively nondescript building just down the river a little from the Houses of Parliament until it featured on the opening sequence of one of the Bond movies (apparently they were none too pleased at the publicity!). Anyway, if you'd like to see it, continue on down the road seen in the photo here and it's just over the second bridge that you come to (don't miss MI5's headquarters which you'll walk past as you come to the first bridge).
Nearby is the London Eye which is probably the best place to start your visit to London as it gives you by far the best overview of London that you can get and will set the various locations in context.
Around 1/2 mile from the Houses of Parliament will take you to Trafalgar Square where you can still take the "pigeons all over you" photo that is still popular with many tourists. On the same square is the British Museum which is well worth a visit. Supposedly Ian Fleming wrote several of the James Bond books whilst working in the Admiralty Building which is the big arch that you'll see from the square (it's not possible to visit this).
From there you can see Buckingham Palace in the distance. The best time to see that is in the morning when they do the changing of the guard. Along the way, you can visit Winston Churchill's bunker.
You could cover all of the above in a very long day if you started early enough but it's probably better to spread it over two days.
Other sights that we'll cover later are Madame Toussauds, the Tower of London (still housing the Crown Jewels),...
London airports include Heathrow (LHR), Stansted (STN), Luton (LTN) and Gatwick (LGW). All three are outside the city limits and it takes about an hour to reach the centre from any of them. The fastest way in (about 15 minutes) is via the Heathrow Express or Stansted Express. Heathrow is served by all the major airlines, Stansted mainly by discount airlines (Ryanair, Easyjet, etc.), Luton and Gatwick are largely served by charter airlines.
The London Underground railway covers pretty much the entire Greater London area. This is by far the fastest way to get around but if you're mainly travelling around the centre, try the bus instead.
