Rabbit Tracks

Tuesday morning we were up and about early. After breakfast (not steak and kidney pie) we took off by tube to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

This is a really neat sculpture of a mother and son. JoAnne took this one.

the facade of St. Paul's

It is located in the center of a district with many modern buildings that actually contrast rather nicely. Unfortunately, much of the exterior was obscured by scaffolding since they are working on restoration. The church is huge. I wasn’t as gaga about the interior as JoAnne: I must confess a preference for Gothic.

The ceilings were amazing. Most of the decoration was by mosaic and it was very colorful.

JoAnne is with me as I write this post. She says that going in to St. Paul's was amazing, except for the three most painful words: "NO INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY". She thought the statues and memorials really glowed in the interior light and that they were extremely impressive. The guard at the bottom of the steps warned us that the steps were one-way, narrow, steep and enclosed (did you know that JoAnne is claustrophobic and afraid of heights?!) But I dragged her up there anyway.

We climbed the 163 to the whispering Gallery overlooking the interior great central dome which was designed by Christopher Wren. The Whispering Gallery has an entirely different feel than the main floor - even the name commands that you keep quiet.

I found the sign for the Stone Gallery and insisted that we continue up another 150 some steps to the Gallery which is outside and commands great views of London. JoAnne took several photos of the panoramic view (which included amazing numbers of cranes.)

Then yet another 160 some to the Gold Gallery which were grating so that we could see where we had been. At the top is a sign "Mind your head". JoAnne said if she had she wouldn't have climbed up there.

the view looking down on the way up to the golden gallery

The Gold Gallery is also outside and very near the top of the central dome. At the top we were about 333 meters above the floor of the church and we both agree that the views were worth the climb. As we were going up we met a nice family with two little boys, Sam (6) and Jack (4) who were visiting London from Yorkshire on their mid-term break. One nice thing about following two little boys up the stairs was that they took frequent breaks which meant we also took breaks and that kept us from looking like total wooses.

After traveling to the top we went down to the crypt. Before heading down there we talked with one of the priests. Ironically as soon as we told him we were from Iowa, his eyes lit up an he started talking about our presidential election. His job is to call all the visitors to a moment of prayer and silence every hour on the hour. We sat and prayed with people from many nations and then followed him in the Lord’s prayer.

In the crypt I saw Lord Nelson’s tomb among many others. In the mosaic floor pattern at the foot of his tomb were two crocodiles and at the other end they had a copy of a prayer he wrote out before a battle (I don’t know from that if it was Trafalgar or not) that was amazing: asking for victory without the stain of misdeeds by anyone and mercy from the victors, committing himself to the Lord’s care and ending with "Amen, Amen, Amen". (This is a poor paraphrase – his words were much better.) I was very touched.

Okay, I looked online and found a copy of the prayer. It was written before the battle of Trafalgar in which Lord Nelson lost his life.

May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my Country, and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious Victory; and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature in the British Fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may his blessing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen.

the shell of a church that has been turned into a rose garden

Perfect photo op - for the initiated, a distaff is the thing that holds fiber while you are spinning (mine is made from handspun yarn worked with macrame into a specialized bracelet.)

From St. Paul’s you can see the Millennium footbridge across the Thames so we did the logical thing; we walked across the Thames before crossing back and heading on to our next stop of the day.