It hit me this week that my time here in London is running out. After this realization, I promptly made a list of the things that I still wanted to see before I leave. Thankfully, I have been able to do and see many things in London and the UK already, but if I leave without accomplishing these few more things, I may regret it.
All week I had been working hard on my various papers, so I figured Saturday was a great day for a field trip to check out a couple more London sights on my list.

I started by taking a stroll to The City, which is basically the financial/business district, kinda like the Loop in Chicago. The City is the sight of the original Roman settlement of London and from there the rest of the city grew. The whole area is pretty quiet on the weekends, and there is not a ton to see since it's mostly buildings with big corporations. But there was one thing I wanted to check out: The Monument.
The Monument commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666. (I wonder how many cities have had a 'Great Fire'?--Chicago had one, so did Holland and probably many more!)
The fire broke out at the king's baker's house on Pudding Lane in the early morning hours. Over the next four days much of the city burned to the ground.

The pillar is 202 ft tall.

311 steps up a very narrow staircase to the top.

Finally made it!
There's an open air observation deck at the top with views of London.

See the London Eye in the distance?

Looking west at Tower Bridge.

Not a magnificent view, but it is crazy to see all the construction cranes!

Looking down. Yipes!


From The City, I took the Tube to Regent's Park.

I had heard there are beautiful rose gardens there and thought it would be a perfect
time to see them in bloom. I was right!

A short video of Regent's Park--you'll see
black swans and herons along with some of the rose gardens.

And finally, the London Central Mosque has a nice view of the park.

:)