Even having been living in London for almost six years, there are still places I haven't properly seen and things on my 'to do' list I haven't yet done. So having had these few days off it seemed the best time to get them ticked off. Top of the list was a visit to St Paul's Cathedral and a bit more knowlegable and sightseeing around the original City of London, or commonly referred to as The City or The Square Mile, which back in the medieval period constituted most of London, but now is more the heart of the UK's financial services industry. So with that in mind, on Wednesday Sizi and I headed off into town which was terribly quiet, seemed like everything and everywhere was shut for the Christmas period. There were still a few bankers and tourists around though, but nothing anywhere near what it would be like during a normal working week.

We missioned around the city for a few hours, past the Royal Exchange, the new building site of the Pinnacle, the Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe), the Lloyds Building, through the Leadenhall Market and down towards Canon Street. Most of the buildings I had only seen from a distance, so it was good to get a proper close up view of them and a few photos for the collection.

From there we headed over the bridge and onto St Paul's Cathedral, which wasn't all that busy (yet) so it seemed the best time to make our way up to the dome at the top. The stairways up there weren't for the faint-hearted and I certainly struggled (took it slowly) at a few of the sections along the way. But eventually we got up to the base on the inner dome, which was three galleries, on of them being the Whispering Gallery, which gets its name because of the acoustic effects peculiar to domes; a whisper against its wall at any point can be heard at any other point around the gallery with an ear against the wall. From there, we climbed more steps to the top where we could walk outside with views over the city.

The view from the top was stunning, a full 360 degree panoramic of London. After snapping a few shots and admiring the view for some time we decided to head back down, where the crowds had picked up massively from the morning when we first arrived. So it was good timing on our behalf to head up when we did.

Outside St Paul's we passed through the Occupy London campsite who had now been there since October. Idiots - surely they have something better to do, or somewhere better to go. For lunch we made our way over to Katzenjammers by London bridge, certainly can't beat a decent bratwurst and German lager in the afternoon :)

After an easy day at home yesterday, I embarked on another sightseeing day out today at the V&A Museum in South Ken. The Victoria and Albert Museum is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852, and has since grown to cover 12.5 acres and 145 galleries - seriously massive. And free to get in, which is even better. That's one thing that London does well, is museum, especially free museums.

It may have taken me a good few years to get around to seeing some of these, but as they say, better late than never! A good cultural, or more rather touristy sightseeing day out in London :)