How to introduce yourself to a city

One of the reasons I've always enjoyed running and cycling is that it's a quick way to familiarize yourself with a city. London, a city of labyrinthine streets that change names on a whim, can get you easily lost (I did this, briefly, on a walk early this morning), so sticking to the river's edge was my strategy for a first run, particularly since running doesn't always allow you to navigate quite as effectively as walking.

Along the Thames' southern embankment runs a fairly well-marked path (occasionally veering onto narrow cobbled alleys, but always close to the river) that passes the following:

1. Shakespeare's Globe Theater (Theatre, in English)
2. The London Eye (a gigantic ferris wheel)
3. The Tate Museum (modern art)
4. Giant Dali sculptures (part of an exhibition of the surrealist's work)

I crossed back over the Thames on the Westminster Bridge, into Westminster, the government center (centre, in English), getting as far up as St. James' Park, near Buckingham Palace. On the return leg of my out-and-back run, near the War Rooms (where one is not allowed to fight), I stopped momentarily to allow a military band and armed platoon take the street in parade formation.