St. Paul's Cathedral

In case it wasn't clear, I am over in London because my friend Sue is teaching for a study abroad with the University of Dayton. So while she works, I get to play. :-) It's a pretty sweet deal. Along with the classes students take, they also have several excursions planned. One such excursion was to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was made famous in modern times when Princess Diana and Charles married there. There has been a cathedral on those grounds for a very long time. I bought a poster of this amazing picture:

St. Paul's Cathedral through the destruction of the city during WWII

It's a beautiful cathedral with more mosaics than I have ever seen. Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but we stopped for some pictures around.

Sign kinda speaks for itself ;-)

The front of St. Paul's (I was dodging traffic, so it's a little off kilter)

Looking up at the side

The tippy top of St. Paul's

Imposing but beautiful building 

Walking around St. Paul's brought some interesting sites.

Old gate with some new panels

Pigeons gotta eat too

Union Jack

St. Paul's was beautiful, but it felt more like a memorial (even the alter had an inscription about the lives lost during the two great wars) rather than a church. Although it sufficed the Queen enough to have her jubilee services there several days later.

Below is a view out my window at night. It looks in the general direction of Buckingham Palace. This shows you how bright the city is, probably no chance of seeing stars from here.

View from my room at night - the chimneys look very Mary Poppins-esque

London Day 3 and 4

After doing a drive-by, albeit a roundabout one, of Westminster Abbey, Sue and I decided to go back. So we packed our cameras and purses and headed out. It was pretty crowded as it was a Saturday, but well worth the tour inside. It's a pretty magnificent place with lots of little cubbies that make it so unique and interesting. We got the audio guides and lo and behold - Jeremy Irons. I have *never* been more interested in British history as I was on that tour. I distinctly heard him say, "I love you Erin." Several times in fact.

We couldn't take pictures inside, so we had to load up on postcards. If that were an Olympic sport I would get gold, every time. So the only pictures I have for you are from the outside and from the cloisters. In case you weren't aware, Westminster is where Kate and William got married. It is the place where many Kings and Queens were baptized, married, and buried. It is also a burial place for many notable people (Charles Darwin!!).

Front of Westminster Abbey 

View of Westminster from the Cloisters

Statues on Westminster

In honor of Edmund Halley - as in Halley's comet

I *love* war memorials

The letters were offset from the wall - another memorial.

Beautiful designs throughout the entire building

An interesting door 

The Cloisters at the Abbey

Carving of Martin Luther King Jr.

Big Ben and St. Margaret's Church

 We walked around and stopped at a nice pizza place for a rest. The weather, as you can see, was amazing. This town is pretty cool.

On Sunday, we moved apartments, to one that doesn't have 4am college kids having too much fun outside the bedroom windows. So sleep abounds! We walked a little bit around Bloomsbury, our neighborhood, to acquaint ourselves with the area. It's a great little neighborhood.

We stopped at a pub for some food and on the way back to the flat I ran into Paul Wilson, a friend from Scotland. It was just some side street in London. So I am making the bold claim that London isn't so small after all. In fact, the very next day I saw Toby Jones biking down the street. He was the voice of Dobby in Harry Potter and he's done several other things.