London - the grand resonance of its very name suggests history and might. Its opportunities for entertainment by day and night go on and on and on. It's a city that exhilarates and intimidates, stimulates and irritates in equal measure, a grubby Monopoly board studded with stellar sights.

It's a cosmopolitan mix of Third and First Worlds, chauffeurs and beggars, the stubbornly traditional and the proudly avant-garde. But somehow - between 'er Majesty and Boy George, Bow Bells and Big Ben, the Millennium Dome and the 2012 Olympics - it all hangs together.

The city is so enormous visitors will need to make maximum use of the underground train system: unfortunately, this dislocates the geography and makes it hard to get your bearings. A ride on a red double-decker bus (a quintessential London experience) will help piece things together.

Area: 1,572 sq km
Population: 7.2 million
Country: England
Time Zone: GMT/UTC 0 (Greenwich Mean Time)
Telephone Area Code: 020