St. Paul's Cathedral

17 July 2012

Today was my last day of classes before finals. We all go to Paris tomorrow, so we’re having our finals next Monday, the day after we get back to London. Do you think they expect us to study while we’re in Paris? ;)

Today was awesome. I got to go to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and that was really cool. I couldn’t take any pictures while I was inside, but I learned a lot of cool stuff. According to our guide, the cathedral has been undergoing a ten-year cleaning process, and they just barely finished. So it looks like I got there at just the right time!

Another thing I thought was cool was the grave of the architect, Christopher Wren. It’s in the crypt, but directly above it, in the nave, there’s an inscription that says, “Reader, if you are seeking his monument, just look around you.”

There’s also a chapel dedicated to the United States. They have a list of names of American soldiers who died in England during World War II. So that was neat to see.

After our tour of the cathedral, we walked up the 528 stairs to the top of the dome. It was quite the ordeal, but it was worth it! We had a pretty good view of the city, and it was really cool.

And by the way, we probably climbed over 2,000 steps today. Between the stairs in the tube and the stairs up to our flat, we climb a lot. We all decided that climbing steps to our flats every day was our training for St. Paul’s.

When I finally got home, I was exhausted, so I didn’t do much until it was time to go to the Globe Theatre for Richard III.

The play was great! It was really funny. They had men playing the parts of women, just like they had in Shakespeare’s day. It was a little awkward, but for the most part, it just made the play funnier.

The stage

From the outside

Coming out of the play

On the way home, I walked over Millennium Bridge, so that was cool.

The rest of the night, I looked up stuff for Paris and did some homework. So that’s all I’ve got for today. But I’m sure that this weekend will be full of exciting adventures!