The second day of our trip was our only full day in London and it was so much fun. We decided that we wanted to experience a few historical sites and check out some great views of the city. The obvious place to start was Saint Paul's Cathedral.
We took the tube over there and then wandered around looking for breakfast and waiting for it to open. We ended up grabbing something to eat at a place called "Eat"- this was our first truly English fare and it was something called a "bacon crusty roll." And that description pretty much sums up what it was.
Saint Paul's is national church of England, and a pretty amazing structure. They don't allow you to take photos inside, but even the outside was great. We went on the audio tour, which was interesting and a nice feature because it makes the sites seem so much more quiet and peaceful despite the crowds. No one is talking much while they are listening to the tour.
The back of the Cathedral.
Near the front doors.
Saint Paul's ended up on the top 5 list for both Caleb and I for all of the places that we visited on our trip. We just really loved our experience there. We had to wait a few minutes after our tour to be able to climb the 528 steps to the top dome and check out the city of London. There were several stops along the climb. One in the whispering gallery, which you couldn't see from below, but opened into a view of the cathedral floor. The next stop was a balcony with high stone rails just below the cone and larger dome. The last stop was the smaller top dome and a beautiful city below.
There were small alcoves just big enough for a person to sit on the avoid the wind, and I would guess also the rain, though we stayed dry.
Caleb loves a good view point almost better than anything else in the world, so he was soaking up the chance to take a lot of aerial photos of the city. We also used this time to try and get a sense of direction and acclimate ourselves to where we were. Tho it was quite different back on the ground.
London business district
The smaller chapel and garden of Saint Paul's through the railing.
One of the things that made this one of our favorite places in England was the climb. We do love a good physical challenge, but I also loved the ancient feel of these stairwells and their winding and changing halls.
We also got a very close up view of the construction of the dome and the hidden cone that is the main supporting structure for this building. These stairs went right along it. Amazing.
That tiny dome at the top is where we were just a few minutes before this picture.
We saw so many of these iconic phone booth, but right by Saint Paul's was this one that is how I will remember England. Green and with lots of flowers and some old London history. Had to pose for a few photos.
And I was not able to access the Ministry of Magic from here.
We were much more wise and gentle on our feet the second day and did a lot of hopping on and off the tube to get around town. The oyster card was a great tip from a travel blog and we put it to it's maximum use this day. My favorite things about the tube are that there are no exit signs, just arrows pointing to "the way out."
And of course we loved the many reminders both verbal and written... to "Mind the Gap" between the train and the platform.
Our next stop was the Tower of London. We had the amazing experience to see the poppies exhibit to commemorate the 888,246 British military deaths in WWI. It truly was a breath taking and visual shocking site amount all of the grey of the city. The poppies are each ceramic and about the size of my hand.
We watch some of the volunteers placing the poppies as well.
We decided not to tour the tower because of the incredibly large crowds and the other places we wanted to go.
The view of Tower Bridge.
We did take the short tour of Tower Bridge, tho it wasn't quite as enlightening as we would have hope, it still had some interesting parts. Just the scope of technology used in making this bridge was something amazing. And to make it look great with the landscape of London, was impressive.
After all of our morning wandering, we took the advice of a good friend who had lived in London and we headed to Burrow Market hungry and ready to try some great foods.
We tried Schwarma, fresh squeezed juices, olive cheese bread fresh from the oven, Duck confit sandwich (Caleb's favorite), more Ethiopian food, and the most amazing donut i have ever had in my life- the traditional English donut filled with whipped blueberry cream.
Caleb waiting for the duck confit.
And Caleb after the first taste of the English donut... we may have bought another 4 after this one... though we didn't eat them all at once.
The food stands serving up some great stuff to loads of people standing and eating in the street. That's how good the food was.
After Burrow Market we dropped off our stock of great food yet to consumed and then decided to take a double decker bus to Camden Market... not sure what tainted that experience for me, maybe it was the lack of eating food, but Camden was not my favorite place. The grungy, smoke blowing crowds and endless shops selling chinatownesk goods just didn't fulfill my London expectations. We did find a few souvenirs and then got out of there.
We finished our night with some great Indian food and a walk through and interesting part of town, then we wandered around to take in the city in the dark.
London doesn't disappoint whether it is night or day.
Parliament
Westminster Abbey
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