St Paul's Cathedral is the main attraction today. The stairs that lead to the top of the dome open at 9.30am. If you walk at a steady pace up and down, you can make it to the first guided tour of the day at 10am.
Climbing
Climbing to the top of St. Paul’s dome is not for the faint hearted but if you do climb, the memories will last forever.
The first stage is to reach the Whispering Gallery which is 30 metres from the Cathedral floor and 257 steps. It gets it’s name because if you turn to face the internal dome wall and whisper, your words can be heard on the other side of the gallery.
Currently you cannot stay at this point for safety reasons, so onwards and upwards!
Next level up is the Stone Gallery and this is on the outside of the dome. The 119 steps are internal but for a large part of the way there is a guide rail on the walled side only. Tip: don’t look down as you climb! Stone Gallery is 52 metres from the Cathedral Floor.
So more climbing and after another 152 steps you reach the Golden Gallery with another outdoor viewing area. This is a total of 85 metres from the Cathedral floor.
Ta da! Take your photos, savour the view and pat yourself on the back.
What goes up must come down and you guessed it…….walking down the spiral steps - just don’t look down too much…..
After the climb we joined a free guided tour which covered as much is possible to absorb in 1 1/2 hours.
St. Paul’s has so much history, famous memorials and important events that have taken place inside it’s walls ( think Diana and Charles’s wedding in 1981, Margaret Thatcher’s funeral in 2013). It is also a working place of worship.
One thing I will say is that the difference between St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey ( I know you have been dying to ask!!) is that St Paul’s is more a place for military, Commonwealth and State ceremonies.
Westminster Abbey on the other hand is what is called a Royal Peculiar and belongs to the monarch. It is where Coronations, important Royal Weddings ( Charles preferred St Paul’s due to it’s size and acoustics for music) and Royal Funerals. Westminster Abbey tends to hold more scientists, poets, artists, writers as opposed to Statesmen and Military personnel at St. Paul’s.
After a bite to eat we wondered across Millenium Bridge to view St Paul's from the other side of the Thames. It allows for some iconic photos.
From here we split up. Maddie & Ben head to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre not far away. They joined a guided tour and had an enthralling time.
Harry & Rosie headed of to The Strand to go to the Twinings shop. Twinings sells the Asha Sleep tea in Australia- only at Woolworths but is out of stock in the Summer. I wanted to get some from London but they actually don't sell it in the UK. The lady did sell me the constituent teas to make my own version.
We all met up again at Embankment station and headed back to Heathrow for dinner and sleep.....
No comments:
Post a Comment