City

City of London is a tax haven in the middle of London. Suit-wearing businessmen walk around these streets in a hurry. Old bank buildings and tall skyscrapers dominate the architecture. During the evenings and weekends the streets are empty, because there aren't that many places to really spend time in unless you're working here. City is also full of historic attractions and old churches. This was the whole of London for a long time, so you can find the oldest sights here, although, many of them were destroyed in the London fire.

Sights:

• City has plenty of old churches you can visit free of charge. These include St. Katharine Cree, St. Olave's, St. Dunstain-in-the-east, St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Stephen Walbrook. They're all beautiful and you can just walk in. St. Ethelburga the Virgin is also an interesting sanctuary for all religions. There's a bedouin tent in the inner yard, where you can meditate away from the noise of the city.
• Guildhall art gallery has an impressive collection of large paintings. In the same building you can look at the ruins of an old London amphitheatre. Both for free.
• You can find ruins of old Roman Wall in few places in the City. Near Barbican, there are the biggest pieces of it. Some parts you can find near the Tower of London.
• The Tower of London is an expensive and crowded tourist attraction, but if you want to pick one costly attraction, this is the one to pick. A lot of history inside these walls. Try to catch one of the tours and you'll get a lot more from your visit.

  

  St. Paul's Cathedral

• St. Paul's Cathedral is City of London's biggest and fanciest church. It looks quite amazing on the outside, but it's even nicer on the inside. The problem is, that it is quite expensive to visit. You get quite a lot with your money though. There's a lot of history within these walls and the audioguides are really good. You can also climb to the dome and get quite an amazing view of London. The tickets allow you entry for a year.

 Parks:

• Postman's Park is a tiny park area near St. Paul's station containing a fountain, some benches and flower arrangements. What is interesting though, are the plaques on the wall. The plaques honour heroic deeds by random people since the 19th century. One example says "Inspector, aged 31, saved a lunatic woman from suicide at Woolwich Arsenal Station but was himself run over by the train. Jan 11, 1878". 

Markets:

• Leadenhall Market is not exactly a market place aymore. It mostly has expensive boutiques, pubs and cafés. On the other hand, the market is really beautiful, so you might just want to take a look around. Parts of this market were used in the Harry Potter films as a set for Diagon Alley. 

Drinking:

• Blackfriars Pub is a beautifully decorated pub with cave-like rooms all decorated with fancy carvings. Quite a good beer selection and laid-back atmosphere seal the deal. This was the site of old monastery before Henry VIII got rid of them, so maybe the monks were brewing beer on the site even then. Apparently there's an ancient beer cellar in this place, but it's not normally open to the public.
• The Banker is an apt name for a pub in City of London. This Fuller's pub has a fantastic terrace right by the Thames, where you can take in the sights and boats going by.
• If you like German beer served in huge 1 liter glasses served by Bavarian waitresses Bierschenke is great for that.

Cafés:

• Bea's of Bloomsbury has one of their cafés near the St. Paul's. This is a great place to try out traditional English afternoon tea. The place is not cheap, but you get good quality cakes with your tea.

Areas around City: Borough, Spitalfields, Shoreditch, St. Luke's, Holborn