It was a rainy day in London when we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, the British Museum, Covent Gardens Market, Trafalgar Square and the Gherkin.

After travelling up from Swansea yesterday, we had a bit of a lie in before going out in the elements.

Monument to the Great Fire of London

With much of the London Underground closed, we walked from the hotel to the Moment to the Great Fire of London.

The monument, not surprisingly, commemorates the Great Fire of London. It is 62 metres high and is located not far from Pudding Lane, where the fire started on 2 September 1666.

The wife reliably informed me that she once drew the Great Fire in school. Sicko!

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Continuing to brave the rain, we made our way down to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

An interesting fact for you! St Paul’s Cathedral can be found on the highest point of London and was built in 17th century, by Sir Christopher Wren.

We decided against going up to the top of the dome as we were planning to visit another viewpoint this evening. More on that later!

British Museum

With the rain getting worse we decided to seek out some shelter – the British Museum was the perfect choice.

The British Museum boasts a collection of around eight million items. This means the museum has one of the largest collections known to man.

All the exhibitions here tell the story of human civilisation from its beginning to the present. It includes items from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Assyrian empires.

Hayley asked in the Roman Britain exhibition if Romans actually came from Rome. Bless her!

The Freemasons Arms, London

Being big football fans we made a stop in the Freemasons Arms. 

In this pub the original leaders of the Football Association met, over six evenings in 1863, to finalise the rules of the most popular sport in the world

The pub celebrates this fascinating bit of history with a small display of FA memorabilia.

Covent Garden Market

It was only a short walk for us to get to Covent Garden Market. This is one of London’s famous markets and history suggests it started in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House.

Nowadays the market specialises in arts, crafts, food and drink. There were also a number of outdoor performers, including one gentlemen who was limboing under a pole of fire.

Trafalgar Square

With the afternoon drawing to a close we walked down to Trafalgar Square. This famous square in London commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British victory in the Napoleonic Wars.

There was quite a gathering in Trafalgar Square as the protest group Extinction Rebellion had amassed there with their tents and marquees.

Iris Bar, The Gherkin, London

For our final (touristy) stop of the day we made our way to 30 St. Mary Axe, more commonly known as the Gherkin.

After going through security we navigated two lifts to take us to the 40th floor, home of the Iris Bar.

We sipped some wine up here while taking in the tremendous views of London. Even the bad weather didn’t really affect the views. It reminded me a bit about the CN Tower in Toronto.

This was a great place to end our day in rainy London. We have one more day to visit the city before heading home.

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