If planned properly, it is possible to see a good deal of London in a day. This I proved to a colleague who was visiting from Chicago. She had been here for almost a week and except for a bus tour, she really hadn’t spent much time exploring my new home city. As such, I told her I would show her around. We started the day two Saturdays ago promptly at 9:30am at Westminster Abbey. After spending an hour touring this magnificent church, we then headed across St. James park for the 11:30am Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, there was a special celebration for the Queen’s birthday that day, so we didn’t get to see the Guards do their thing. We then headed back towards The River Thames stopping briefly to admire the House of Parliament and Big Ben. We then walked along the river, passing the London Aquarium and London Eye along with other attractions. In that we were walking for some time, we then stopped for lunch at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Once we had rested adequately, we continued on and then spent about an hour at British Tate Modern Museum. Unfortunately time constraints didn’t permit us to check out the Frida exhibit which was really crowded. After a bit more walking, we ended up at the Tower of London around 3pm. There we spent time touring the buildings and then gawking at the crown jewels. Feeling a bit tired, we then hopped a bus to my colleagues hotel in Covent Garden. After a brief rest there, we were on our way to Harrods department store — a must see for anyone interested in high fashion. Once the store closed at 7pm, we then headed back to Piccadilly Circus for dinner and drinks at a local pub. All in all, a long day, but definitely lots of fun! London is a really cool city.