Perhaps the best idea I had when I was visiting Italy was to get up really early in the morning (5am) and go walk around and re-see the sites when no one else was around. My friend and I walked the entire time, and we saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum (from outside, but you go there for the architecture), and the Pantheon (also form outside) in about 2 and a half hours. We were done before the Pantheon even opened! I got tons of good pictures of just the attractions, without tons of tourists clogging up my shots (the Trevi fountain was especially bad during the day).

I would like to recreate the London version of this while I am there, but I am less familiar with the city and the attractions. My questions are: What things are impressive/worth seeing just for their exterior (in other words, when they aren't open)? What groupings of these things can I realistically walk between in 2-2.5 hours? I have maps, but as it always goes, the distances on maps always look smaller than they feel when you are walking

Thank you all in advance!
Alison

Something like Westminster Abbey / Parliament / Whitehall / Trafalgar Square / Buckingham Palace would be one small loop - though Parliament is best viewed from the middle of Westminster Bridge.

"tons of tourists clogging up my shots" is NEVER a problem if you walk along the Thames southern embankment from Lambeth Bridge to Tower Bridge.

Along the South Bank, Waterloo to Tower Bridge: views from Hungerford and Waterloo Bridges, Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge/St Paul's, the Tower and Tower Bridge.

Per Alan's advice, try also to cut through St. James Park for some green shots. I think it's very pretty.

I was going to suggest exactly Alan's route- it's my favorate London walk!

I would start at the glorious Trafalgar sq, walk down toward the houses of the parliament/ big ben/ westminster abby, then turn left and cross the bridge toward the London eye, take a few shots of the houses of the parliament from the other side of the river, then walk along the aquarium passing by the London eye, then taking the second bridge to the left back to the other side of the Thames river. Then continue walking towards St James Park, which is one of the most beautiful parks in the world, and as you walk through St James park, you will find yourself walking toward the Queen's residence in London, Buckingham Palace for a perfect ending of your morning walk without the crowds!

Have you tried the walkit.com website? The London section is rather fun!

The above suggestions are great. Definitely the Trafalgar/Westminster area, the Tower Bridge/Southbank area, and/or all the Parks, especially Hyde and St. James.

wow, thanks for the replies! I will definitely follow Alan's suggestion since everyone agreed, and then I'll use walkit.com to plan some daytime walks.

I have found the <i>City Walks London 50 Adventures on Foot</i> card set to be useful for stand alone and cobbled-together walks, with the occasional reference to a detailed map.

PS I'm reminded that a folding map I had in London - a Benson's I think - also included a number of fairly straightforward marked walks.