London feels old, but not unchanging.

During World War II, Nazi bombers caused great damage to the warehouse dictrict at St. Katherines Docks.

Today it's a nice place to moor your big flashy yacht.

To explore the city, you get around on The Tube. The different subway routes have different names, like the Jubilee Line and the Docklands Light Rail (DLR). System maps show the different routes in different colors. Within minutes on my first day in town, I was cruising around easily.

These pictures are from an early Sunday morning. A weekday Rush Hour offers a very different ambiance!

Riding the DLR east from Central London, the stations bear names evoking the maritime merchant past: East India Quay, Sugar Quay. But today the old warehouses and wharves are turning into high-density housing.

Near the Excel Center, the old derricks still stand where they once unloaded cargo ships.

The new developments contrast sharply with the mature neighborhoods. Londoners love their trees and gardens.

I sometimes forget that cities weren't built simply for me to visit. People live here.
Sometimes it's pretty, sometimes it's grungy.

London's age still hasn't given it enough time to solve every problem.

The city seems dirty, and the swirling winds pick up the grit to send it into your eyes and throat. London is a very expensive city, and with the resulting job displacement, an anti-immigrant resentment smolders everywhere.

And true to stereotype, its food manages somehow to be both rich and bland; perhaps the taste can be acquired—over London's own timescale of millenia.

But what city is perfect? London's charm is that, around every corner, lies yet another detail to make you happy you're here.