Day Trip to London

After a week finalizing housing arrangements and taking care of other business around Swindon, we are making the most of our weekend. Today we hopped the train to London for the day. First stop, Leicester Square for discounted theater tickets. We had every intention of walking to St. Paul's Cathedral but it was VERY cold - can it really be May here?!! We made it about 1/2 way and then hopped on the tube.

Having tried on two previous trips to make it to St. Paul's Cathedral, we finally went in and it was worth the wait. We explored from top to bottom, quite literally. After touring the ornate Nave, Dome and Quire areas, we climbed up 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery that circles the dome from above. From here you have a birds eye view of the Cathedral below. A whisper spoken against one wall of the Gallery can be heard on the other side of the Dome. We were up there with a bunch of school children so I would say it was a little louder than a whisper up there today! From this level we continued to climb another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery on the outside of the dome. This set of steps was up a winding and narrow stone passageway with no open windows and people in front of and behind us. If you know me, you know that I am the one who climbed out of the MRI enclosure, so it was all I could do to appear calm, cool and collected in that situation! Again, the climb rewarded us with a spectacular vantage point. We peered through the stone enclosure to view London in every direction. My hiking buddies would have loved this climb and we went still further up another 152 steps to the Golden Gallery. This is an unobstructed, 360 degree view of London and I don't think the pictures do it justice.

Before leaving we climbed back down to the Cathedral floor and headed down to the Crypt holding the tombs and memorials of many important people from British history. And no journey through a famous landmark would be complete without being funneled through the gift shop and cafeteria on your way out!

Next stop, Apollo Victoria Theater to see Wicked. I LOVED this show last year when I saw it at this very same theater with Megan. Mike had not had a chance to see it yet so what the heck...it was still fantastic the second time around! Afterward we avoided the tube because there was a track closure that made every line extremely crowded (enough with the claustrophobic situations for one day) so we walked past Buckingham Palace and through Green Park before heading up Piccadilly - great shopping in this area! At this point we really were just wandering until we found a place that looked interesting for dinner. We got lucky in Covent Gardens. We ate at a place with a lame name (Cafe Pasta) but fantastic food. It was full and WARM so we figured it was a good bet at this point. A couple of glasses of wine, hot soup, seafood salad, dessert and hot tea was just the ticket. I have to say that we have fallen into this terrible habit of ordering sinful desserts for every dinner. It will be good for our wallet and our waistline when we move out of this hotel and into our own place!

All in all a great day.