Enough of drooling over goodies you can't afford; time to enjoy London's many free offerings. Head to Buckingham Palace to see the 11 a.m. changing of the Queen's Life Guard; arrive early for a good view of the guards in their big, black, fuzzy hats.

Then make a beeline to one of the hundreds of museums - they are stuffed with treasures and don't charge admission. So you can dash in during a spare half hour without feeling you've wasted money on a ticket.

The Tate Modern is one of the most fun. This former power plant is an architectural masterpiece - a cavernous structure turned into a giant open space surrounded by inviting galleries displaying works by such masters as René Magritte, Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein.

Sail into the British Museum to take in highlights such as the Elgin Marbles - those highly disputed sculptures and odd bits carted off from Greece's Parthenon - and the Rosetta Stone, with inscriptions dating to 196 B.C. To thoroughly investigate the museum's trove of artifacts from every continent, you could spend days there.