London, By Foot

We decided to take a free walking tour. Free? What's the catch? It seems that most major historic cities have these free walking tours. The tour guides are hired by the Sandmans company that does many of the free walking tours throughout Europe, the most famous one being Berlin. They are not paid hourly or a salary, but are rather compensated by tips from the people on the tour. Other advantages of working on tips is that it is a workaround for people that are not suppose to have employment within the country as well as not having to report wages for taxes.

The tour started around 9am and we all gathered near a sun dial monument. This sculpture was commissioned by the transportation system of London. Along the outer edge of the sundial a depiction of London history is crafted in bronze. A motif of the Thames River and rats run throughout the entire historical representation. It seems that these two items both play important parts of London's history.


The tour guide takes us along the busy streets of the city. We travel along the Thames River to view all the famous bridges starting at Tower Bridge, to London Bridge, to Southwark Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and finally stopping at Blackfair's Bridge. London Bridge is actually not that impressive. Most people mistake London Bridge for Tower Bridge which is depicted below. In fact the original London Bridge was purchased and moved to United States. It was rebuilt brick by brick before the buyer said "Where's the rest of it?" and realized that he had mistaken London Bridge as Tower Bridge. One of the originals of the London Bridge is now located in the great state of Arizona.

Tower Bridge


Blackfair's Bridge

Millennium Bridge
There is a funny story about Millennium Bridge. London commissioned x million pounds for this bridge to be built for the celebration of the Millennium. Well, it didn't get finished in time and furthermore when it was finished it had a defect. The bridge swayed so much that people got sick walking across it. So another x million pounds was spent to stabilize it. It is interesting the many parallelisms one can draw between this saga and the field of software engineering.

The tour continued to the heart of the city. We stopped by Temple Church. This is the establishment of one of the most ancient society of lawyers. It was mentioned in the DaVinci Code and actually does indeed exist. After crossing a parking lot full of exotic cars we come to the church.

The exterior is nothing impressive but the view from the inside is spectacular. There are stained glass windows all around and small statues lining the edges on the walls, each with a unique face and expression. Our guide tells us that Lawyers here are not only required to pass the bar but also sit through 12 formal dinners.

We walk pass a Griffin statue situated in the middle of a street. These statues face outwards and mark the borders to the City of London, which is separate from area of Greater London. The City of London has a population of roughly 7 thousand compared to Greater London's 7 million. The size of the City of London is roughly one square mile and her borders have stayed consistent since the Middle Ages, thus earning her the name of Square Mile.

We exit the city of London, walking past another outward facing Griffin. This street is full of dress clothes stores. I look into a window and see a typical sold long sleeve dress shirt is 75€ (~$115) with a "on sale" sign next to do it. Across the street is the Royal Court of Justice. The tour comes to an end. We are now in a new unfamiliar part of town and wander around aimlessly.