While in London, your not-too-upscale hotel could cost you 400 U.S. dollars a night and restaurant meals may go for a mere $70 each. You’ll then believe there’s nothing you can do in the old town that doesn’t cost you a bundle of money. Maybe not.

1. If you’ll be traveling to London, you’ll be happy to know there are many things you can do there that won’t cost you a ha’penny. If you’re tired of TV reality shows, boring movies and bad news from Wall Street, walk over to Hyde Park, a beautiful patch of green in the middle of the bustling city.

Find a comfortable bench near Speakers’ Corner, and soon you’ll see some free live entertainment. You may not agree with what the guy up on the soapbox is saying, but you can either sit back and enjoy it, or get up and add your two cents of opinion.

2. Amble over to magnificent Buckingham Palace, but don’t expect the Queen to invite you in for tea and scones. Be content to stand by the gate and watch the famous changing of the guard. Bring your video or still camera, and if you’re lucky, you’ll see the formal ceremony, complete with brilliant red uniforms and those big bearskin hats.

3. Wander through Covent Garden, and there’s always a continuous free show going on. You’ll see all kinds of musicians, from staid string quartets to the latest punk rockers. Also mimes, jugglers, dancers and much more. There are fun shops inside the buildings, including food stalls, souvenirs, mod clothing, fresh cakes, meat pies, fish’n’chips and many others. If you remember Liza the flower girl in “My Fair Lady”, and you get the the Garden just before dawn, you’ll the same beautiful arrays of flowers she sold being readied for the day’s sales.

4. Spend some time at Trafalgar Square, with its soaring column with Lord Horatio Nelson on top watching over his city. See the kids feed the pigeons or older kids trying to look cool and funky as they climb all over the historic lion statues. On the northeast side of the square is St. Martin-in-the Fields Church and nearby the National Gallery. Incidentally, for the art and history lover, the famed British Museum and all London museums and galleries are free.

5. To those not familiar with Piccadilly Circus, when they arrive they expect to see something out of Barnum and Bailey. Clowns, acrobats, elephants and lion tamers. However, the word circus here means circle, and the site is a connecting point of five lively streets, huge ad signs, sidewalk strollers, clubs, restaurants and theaters. It’s sort of a Times Square in New York or part of the Strip in Las Vegas.

In the middle of the busy intersection, there’s a famous statue of a winged boy that has been called Eros, the love god. Tradition has it that many new romances begin with meetings at the Circus. In reality, the statue is the Angel of Christian Charity, but that doesn’t seem sexy enough for people who’d rather make his role more earthy.

Of course, I’ve named just a very few of the hundreds of wonderful locations to visit in London. If you do it with sensible shoes, and take time to stop and enjoy the sights, a free and carefree stroll around the city’s most interesting areas can be a great pleasure.