49...50...51...huff puff...what, I lost count!

Today, my fellow architectural buff and I climbed all 528 steps of St. Paul's Cathedral!  And then I proceeded to come home and eat a lot of food to make up for the calories lost.

We heard about a special exhibit in the Geometric Staircase of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the odd thing is that the exhibit is only open from 8:35 am - 10:30 am.  So, yes, on a Saturday morning, we left NIDO at 9:15 am to go to a church.  St. Paul's costs £9.50 for students, perhaps the most expensive sightseeing I've done in a while, but it was definitely worth it.  Photos are not really allowed in St. Paul's...but I managed a couple.  

The cathedral is absolutely beautiful.  We first made a beeline for the Geometric Staircase to see Antony Gormley's Flare II exhibit.  The Geometric Staircase is where they filmed some bits of Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes (I think in HP, it's the divination tower?  But I'm not too clear, must go home and rewatch all the movies...).  The Flare II thing is basically a giant metal wire mobile.  I dunno, it looks cool.

Then, we wandered the entire cathedral, from the effigies on the sides and the famous floor under the dome (LECTOR, SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS, CIRCUMSPICE.  CHRISTOPHER WREN WAS A BEAST.) and the chapels around.  My favorite was beyond the alter, the American Chapel.  It is very touching: the Brits dedicated a chapel to the American soldiers who had died in World War II fighting alongside the Allies.  It has lovely hanging chandeliers and stained glass windows.  There is a large tome with the names of all the American soldiers that died, and the inscription said that Queen Elizabeth II presented this book to Vice President Richard M. Nixon in 1958.  Um, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was unavailable to meet the queen?

Next, we accepted the challenge of climbing 528 steps to the top of Christopher Wren's dome.  The steps to the Whispering Gallery were kind and shallow.  When we got to the Whispering Gallery, there were a lot of people interfering with our whispering, but when we sat at either side of a stretch of the dome, we could whisper into the wall and hear each other!  Then, we climbed some steeper stone steps to the Stone Gallery, the first outdoor bit.  Finally, we climbed the hole-y metal winding stairs up to the Golden Gallery!  It was beautiful - albeit drizzly - when we got to the top.  We had a lovely panoramic view of London.

What I noticed about London, the city that is now my second home ♥, is that there is a ton of construction going on.  The skyline was littered with a smattering of cranes.  It was a bit annoying that they blocked our view, but intriguing.  It means London is aiming to become newer and better.  I just hope they preserve the old stuff too.  And, no more gherkins.  God, I'm starting to sound like my architecture professor.

After St. Paul's, with aching legs, we had Pizza Express and journeyed down Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street, and the Strand to one of the best shops in the world: TWININGS!  It is a teeny shop, almost like the Leaky Cauldron in that you (Muggles) will miss it if you don't look closely, but it's very long inside.  The walls are absolutely lined with the most fragrant teas ever.  Some of the stuff you can buy at Tesco or Waitrose (and cheaper), but some of the stuff is unique: vanilla tea, blackberry/ginseng/vanilla tea, honey tea, orange/mango/cinnamon tea...oh gosh I wish I had more money on me, because then I would have boxes and boxes of tea to bring home.  No worries, I will visit Twinings before leaving London and bring lots of yummy tea home to New York!