Places To Visit In Edinburgh

London is an ideal location. London as a major capital deserves respect.

London, like every major city had its good moments and bad moments and that I was there for most of them.

From the ecstatic heights in 2005 to be told it was the home of the 2012 Olympics at depths of breaking the terrible news of the bombing of Harrods and Hyde Park in London has had the experience and severity to treat both with equal respect.

I remember traveling through London to return home to Northern Ireland where I live now is the day the news broke that Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris. The almost hypnotic way blindly mourners made their way to Kensington Palace to lay flowers was terrible. Then at the other end of the spectrum you have London the day of the "Live 8" Festival in Hyde Park, where the downtown was paralyzed blaring rock music belting through the entire downtown .

There is so much history in London. Real live, vibrant history of London life that sometimes when you live there you just pass by and you take everything for granted.

If we use as an example, the changing of the guard. One event per day instead of Betty and Phil at the end of the mall. Maybe I should be a little more serious at this point because most onlookers will realize this point, I am of course referring to Buckingham Palace and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Perhaps the most remarkable of the Changing of the guard in recent years took place shortly after the horrific events of 911 when instead of playing God Save the Queen group of guards made what turned out to be quite an emotional performance (certainly for those visiting American tourists in the audience) of the Star Spangled Banner, National Anthem of the United States of America.

It is important to note the importance of this event because it was the only time that any other national anthem was played at the changing of the guard instead of God Save the Queen.

One could argue that it is incidents like this that will sum up exactly what a rich variety of tradition and history exists in London. Unlike other major capital cities, London may not perhaps the historic grandeur of the Parthenon in Athens or the Coliseum in Rome but throughout London, you will find examples of perhaps a more modern architecture ( but no less splendid and impressive) as the mother of all parliaments, the Houses of Parliament in Westminster or the serenity of St Paul's Cathedral is a survivor of many centuries and in many ways just as impressive today as it was during design under the architect Sir Christopher Wren.

The construction and existence of St Paul's Cathedral is a wonderful example if someone needed of how history, living history can survive major national and international disasters such as the Great Fire of London, then 400 years later the Blitz in the Second World War.

Perhaps the existence of the life history as St Paul's Cathedral in the heart of such a modern and vibrant city of London sums up the overall appeal of London where there is such an amazing and historic blend old and new.

There is absolutely no way a visit to London disappoint