Mooching around London

Today was my last full day in London.  We didn't have anything  booked so we just spent the day wandering  around looking at random things wherever  we happened to be.  London  is great for that. Wherever you go there'll be something  interesting to see.   We got off the tube at Monument  station.  Showing my ignorance  here - I didn't know what the Monument  was even for. So you learn something  new every  day and I now know it's a Monument  for  the great fire of London, which began  near that spot.  You could walk up the 511 spiral stairs and get a good view from the top, but I wasn't ready to take on that much exercise  that early in the day. 

After  that  we walked  a short way to Leadenhall market. I'd tried to come to this market on a weekend  once. But being in the city it was only open during the working week.   I've heard that this was one of the locations  used in the filming of the Harry  Potter movies. 

From here it was a short walk over to Trafalgar  Square to  visit the National  Portrait gallery.  We didn't bother with the more modern stuff but had a good look at the portraits of all the past monarchs and famous people  like  Shakespeare,  Brunel and Mary Shelley.   

By this time we were flagging, so we took a break in Leicester  Square to  watch a movie  (Dune 2) and finished off the day with a very nice meal in the Bear and  Staff just off the Square.    Steak and ale pie which Becky followed  up with  sticky toffee pudding with  clotted cream  while I had the apple and  blackberry crumble with hot custard.  I'll  diet tomorrow...