Europe 2007: Day 8 (London)
Mike and I set out for St. Paul's Cathedral, site of many royal events including the wedding of Prince Charles & Princess Diana. The enormous cathedral is amazing inside. As you enter, things are very plain. Towering light-colored pillars, clear glass windows, and wide open space. As you move forward towards the dome area, it becomes much more ornate. Stained glass, gilded fixtures, tiled mosaics in the ceiling. The price of admission includes climbing to several floors above. We went up to the Whispering Gallery level. After climbing over 150 steps in narrow, dark, winding passages, you arrive in the dome area. I felt quite shaky up there and while the view was amazing, we were actually above the tiled mosaics and couldn't view them. Mike wanted to keep climbing to the Stone Gallery but I wasn't handling the heights very well so he took me back down to ground level before climbing it all again (some 350 steps). While he was at the Stone Gallery (which is on the exterior of the building, viewing the City), I observed 12:30pm mass back inside.
Once Mike returned, we visited the crypt below (including Christopher Wren, Florence Nightingale, and Churchill's Gate) before leaving the Cathedral.
Next we viewed the Cabinet War Rooms. This was Churchill's underground command center during the attacks on London during the war. Some rooms have been left in place for all this time while other's have been reconstructed after serving other purposes after the war. We had time for a quick visit to the British Museum. With only an hour, we weren't able to see much but we did see the Rosetta Stone before it closed. We stopped into Starbucks before calling Chris and making plans to meet at the Black Lion Pub (near Queensway Tube) for dinner (MORE fish and chips for Mike, steak and ale pie for me)and pints. We finally made it back to the room around 10:30.
There are no comments for this entry.
[Add Comment]