Church of England

Day two of my London adventure began with a trip to St. Paul's Cathedral. Designed by Christopher Wren, this building dates back to the early 1700s and is one of the defining landmarks of the London skyline. If you're a "Royalty Watcher" (personally, I'm not), you may know this as the place where Charles and Diana were married, and where Queen Elizabeth celebrated both her Golden Jubilee and 80th birthday.

The main feature of the cathedral is an enormous dome, 365 feet high. You're not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral yourself, but the internet comes to the rescue and allows me to show you this:


Looking up at this thing is truly impressive, but looking down from it is even more so. A Whispering Gallery runs along side the base of the dome, hundreds of feet above the center of the cathedral, and you can climb the steps yourself and look out for a vertigo-inducing perspective on the open space and other tourists below.

From there, you can climb another flight of stairs to an observation deck called the Stone Gallery that runs around the exterior of the building at the base of the dome. And then, for the truly adventurous (and not yet out of breath), you can climb another tiny, spiraling staircase to get to the Golden Gallery, a tiny observation ring outside the building at the base of the spire atop the dome.

Make it through all that, and you make it to this:


In touring St. Paul's, you not only get to go high above the ground, you can go beneath it too. Beneath the cathedral, and sprawling out in equal size and shape, is a crypt where a number of famous British figures are interred or memorialized. I think our expectations there were for something more... well, "crypt-like," with interesting statues or tunnels or something of that sort. But the crypt is mostly filled with simple engraved plates marking the graves. Interesting enough if you're interested in the people, I suppose, but it left us wanting to see something more "crypty" later in the trip. (This led to an unusual side excursion, which I'll get to covering a later day on the trip.)

Admittedly, it may be a little redundant to go too many places in London that involve "going high to get a look at the city." So from that perspective, if you're ever touring London and your time is limited, I would probably suggest choosing St. Paul's Cathedral over riding the London Eye. Both were fun experiences, but St. Paul's has the longer, richer history and the breathtaking architecture. It was a wonderful stop on the trip.