I Love St. Paul's!!!

We met at St. Paul's Cathedral today at 1pm, so we had some time to sleep in and bum around a little which I enjoyed very much!

We went in and one of the first things we looked at was a small tower in the southwest corner with a winding stone staircase that was used in a Harry Potter film! (Unfortunately, no pictures because it's a church.) Way cool! Then we were split up into two groups, and honestly, Steph and I got in with the better one. Anne was incredibly bubbly for a Wednesday and really funny. You could tell she absolutely loved sharing all the stories about the church. And she totally has a crush on the first Duke of Wellington...

We sat and heard about the church's history and about Christopher Wren's (architect) adventures in trying to get it built and designed the way he wanted. She took us around to see Wellington's tomb and monument and Holman Hunt's last and largest painting of "The Light of the World." It was even more beautiful hearing the meaning behind the painting.

Then we got to sit in the quire--where the choir sits!--and get a better look at the ceiling. And OMG! They have to be some of the most beautiful mosaics I think I've ever seen!!! There were three massive ones above us depicting part of the creation story: land, sea, and air animals. All the church's mosaics were incredible in part because of the rough gold tiles used around the colored ones; I remember her saying they were placed at slight angles to catch the light which is what makes them sparkle so much. They were so so incredible!!! Check out the link, but just imagine them with sunlight making them glitter!!!

Then we went around the altar to look at the American Memorial with stained glass windows containing a picture for all 50 states. Iowa had a part of our flag--very cool.

We saw a statue of John Donne, the poet. It was made from a drawing he asked a friend to do of him of what he would look like dead. Anne said he kept it by his bed and would admire it every evening and morning! She was kindof in love with him too ;)

And then...the fire alarm went off. We decided it was the politest alarm we'd ever heard. "Beep. Beep. A fire has been reported. Please evacuate the building." etc. And sounding even better in a British accent! We had to go outside for about 10 minutes while the fire brigade checked everything out. In the mean time, we thought about how much that would have sucked for the people 365 feet above ground in the galleries at the top of the cathedral!

Once back inside we went down to the crypt to see Wren's tomb and the grand sarcophagus of Admiral Nelson. We also saw the memorial to Florence Nightengale and the tomb of the guy who illustrated Dickens' books--something Cruikshanks (Hermoine's--from Harry Potter--cat is named for him). The tour ended and we wandered around the shop a little. Then we made our way up to the galleries.

Holy crap!! A long, long 259 stairs to the Whispering Gallery, so named because if you whisper into the wall, the person on the other side can hear you. It was pretty creepy--like a ghost was talking or something! Then it was another 119 spiraling steps up to the Stone Gallery where you get amazing views of the city--so I got to take some pictures before my camera's battery pooped out :( THEN it was ANOTHER 152 very scary spiraly iron steps up to the very steep and very narrow Golden Gallery. Up there it's 111 meters above ground (365 ft--or days of the year because Wren was something of an astronomer). You could see what seemed like forever out around London--a full 360 degrees! Unfortunately, I only got about 1/8th the way around because........the fire alarm went off again!!!!!!!!!!! So we had to book it 365 ft all all all all the way down those scary spiraly staircases to evacuate the buildiing. And we're pretty sure there was just a faulty connection somewhere. How crazy.

By then, it was nearly 5pm and we would've had to leave for Evensong anyway so most of us went across the street to the Gormet Burger Kitchen restaurant. Some of us only got shakes--which satisfied my ice cream craving for a good long while. Molly and Andrea wisely shared one while Steph and I got our own....and as a result, had a major giddy sugar rush. Wow! :D

We made it back home and later got to hang out with Gammon and share funny stories about our lovely Simpson professors!

Tomorrow it's off to Windsor. We're leaving around 9 to catch the earliest train. Unfortunately, because of the recent postal striking, our tickets for the train and castle are lost in the mail so Gammon's going to have to get those tomorrow too. We'll see how it goes, but we're going to power through this minor setback!!