There’s palaces, parliament and prisons to see in London, but there’s also cathedrals steeped in history and some of the finest museums in the world. Travel advisors at GetAway Travel can help tailor your adventure to include all the points of interest you’ve been dreaming about seeing.

Awe-inspiring cathedrals and churches

 St. Paul’s is an architectural masterpiece that towers over Ludgate Hill. This 300-year-old marvel is recognized as one of London’s most magnificent buildings. Inside, the imposing dome is supported by eight huge columns. If you are feeling particularly fit, take the stairs to the walkway around the dome which was inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

More stairs up takes you to the Whispering Gallery, more stairs and the Stone Gallery, still more stairs to the Golden Gallery. There, you will be rewarded with amazing views of the city.

The crypt area has memorials to 300 of Britain’s famous residents including Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

St. Bartholomew the Great is the city’s oldest parish church. Built in the Norman Romanesque style, it might look familiar. It was used as a backdrop in the films “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Shakespeare in Love.”

One of the city’s oldest churches is Temple Church. It was the English headquarters for the Knights Templar. The round nave was inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Temple Church is one of only four round churches left in the country. There are effigies of medieval knights on the floor and it was one of the locations used in the filming of the “Da Vinci Code.”

St. Etheldreda’s was built around 1290 and is one of the few buildings left in London from the reign of Edward I. It is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in London.

Sir Christopher Wren is the architect responsible for the rebuilding of many of the churches in London. St. Stephen Walbrook Church was a rebuild where he tested some of his techniques that he would later use at St. Paul’s. It has an incredible dome.

St. Bride’s is another of Sir Christopher Wren’s rebuilt churches. It has a beautiful steeple that is said to have inspired tiered wedding cakes in the early 1700s.

Inside St. Bride’s is a museum about Fleet Street and the history that makes it the heart of the country’s printing industry. The first printing press with moveable type was set up in the church courtyard in 1500.

Artifacts from around the world in the city museums

 There are fabulous museums within walking distance to the South Kensington station as well as other options.

The British Museum has artifacts dating back millions of years from civilizations all over the world. Here you can see the Rosetta Stone, key to deciphering and understanding hieroglyphs, sculptures from the Parthenon and the golden helmet found at a burial site in Suffolk. The permanent exhibitions are wonderful, but the museum hosts amazing traveling exhibitions from all over the world.

The world’s largest collection of decorative arts is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum. You can experience a combination of old world elegance and contemporary design. The eclectic collection of art and design includes textiles from 2000 BC, sculptures from the 4th to the 19th century and Tipu’s Tiger, a life-sized wooden automaton of a tiger eating a man. The exquisite “3 Graces” marble sculpture by Roman artist Antonio Canova is here.

The design of the Natural History Museum drew inspiration from Italian architecture. You can check out stuffed dodos, preserved bats and the awesome central hall with its display of dinosaur skeletons. A research facility as well as a museum, the Darwin Center has 22 million insect and plant specimens and there’s a Human Evolution gallery. Save some time to take a stroll through the Wildlife Garden outside.

More than 250 years of scientific and technological advancements are part of the 300,000 item collection in the Science Museum. Charles Babagge’s early computer, Crick and Watson’s model of DNA and the Soyuztma-19M descent module are just some of the interesting items at the museum.

Britain’s emergence from an imperial power to its involvement in modern military conflicts are explored at the Imperial War Museum. An actual Sopwith Camel as well as a Spitfire are hanging from the ceiling in the exhibition hall. The National Maritime Museum is the largest museum of its kind in the world. Located on the banks of the River Thames, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can explore the history of all things nautical here, from Admiral Horatio Nelson’s jacket, ship figureheads, ancient navigational instruments and a giant ship in a bottle.

Have you ever thought, gee, I wonder what that person was thinking when they invented that? The Design Museum can help answer that question. Set-up to pay homage to creative thinking, the museum exhibits explores every day items — from their initial concept, to manufacture to how they influence modern life.

Don’t skip the National Gallery. There are paintings from every European school of art. There are paintings from the Italian Renaissance including old masters like Giotto, Leonardo da Vince and Raphael as well as Impressionist painting from Cézanne, Renoir, Monet and Degas.

Listen up! London’s calling…. And GetAway Travel has the answers to a great adventure in this historic city and beyond.