Crisscrossing the city center - A week in London - 2
St. Paul's Cathedral and other destinations in the city center
The rain takes its toll
Canary Wharf
Kew Garden
Southwark
One last morning and back home
Sun, Aug. 31, 2025 - Crisscrossing the city center
This morning, we go separate ways. While Jürgen gets up to take photos, Freya rolls over and goes back to sleep.
The reason for the early start is Leadenhall Market [↗]. A few small, covered alleys in Victorian style, which served as the backdrop for the shops in Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. During the day, they are completely overcrowded and filled with tables from the local bars. Shortly after 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning, it looks completely different. Although there are three young women walking around putting some kind of markings on the floor and a few tourists are also visible, at this time of day it is still possible to take the photos of the market that Jürgen had in mind.
The second photo opportunity of the day is also nearby: the Lloyd’s skyscraper [↗]. Unlike the newer office towers, which are often covered in glass, this one is more reminiscent of an industrial plant. It's also worth looking up to the sky.
Back at the hotel, Freya has already showered, and we can quickly make our way to the breakfast room. The selection, including an egg station, is good. Only the coffee machine is set up so weak that you have to boost the coffee with an espresso. England is a tea nation, after all.
Back in the room, we grab our things and head for Trafalgar Square. Jürgen has noted a few spots of interest in the immediate vicinity.
The first one doesn't work as planned. There should be a photogenic escalator at Charing Cross station. But we can't find it. Probably it leads from the platform upstairs. To get there, we would have to go through the barrier, and since we can't leave right away, we would have to take the train somewhere. Well, that's not worth the photo to us.
Our second destination, the St. Martin in the Fields church, is also unwilling to cooperate. A service is taking place here and we don't want to disturb it, of course. To make matters worse, it starts to rain.
So, we take refuge in the National Gallery [↗]. This wasn't actually on our agenda, but it's a good place to kill some time. Like many of the major museums in London, there is no admission fee and the queue at the entrance is not too long.
The reason it wasn't on the agenda is that it mainly contains classical paintings. Freya spends some time with the Old Dutch painters, while Jürgen is more interested in the building itself. After 1.5 hours, we've had enough, even though Freya could have spent more time there.
Meanwhile, the service in the church [↗] has ended and we can take a look at the interesting window design. A priest comes over for a little small talk. He is not actually from London and is still trying to understand the contexts. There are Hebrew and Asian symbols to be found on the ceiling and walls. There are also regular services in Cantonese.
In the church's catacombs, there's a café. But that's all there is to see. Since we're not hungry, we quickly leave again.
Trafalgar Square itself is partially closed off with construction fences, so we just take a quick look around and then head back to the metro station.
For the afternoon, we have planned a visit to the embassy district. The American embassy has its flag at half-mast. However, the facade is more interesting. The actual reason for our visit is a swimming pool that spans between two buildings across the street. Thankfully, it is also in use.
We drink a coffee and take a look around the neighborhood. Freya is particularly taken with the small park with its forest asters, white scabious, and white autumn anemones.
When we arrived, we noticed that most people were walking towards Covent Garden Market. We want to take a look at that as well. As it turns out, there is a flea market today. But we are obviously not the target audience.
As it is still reasonably early, we decide to walk from here towards our hotel. There is nothing really interesting to see, but we do pass Waterloo Station. In the immediate vicinity, there is an underpass covered in graffiti. Jürgen had actually planned to visit the Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel [↗] on Saturday, but since we are already here, we decide to take a look. The tunnel has long since stopped being an insider tip, and if you really want to take photos here without being disturbed, you probably have to come very early in the morning.
From here, we walk towards the Thames and take the subway back to the hotel. Once there, Freya visits the spa area and, despite all the criticism of the hotel, she really likes it. For dinner, we have classic fish and chips.
