Cathedrals, Museums, & Queen Victoria

CATHEDRALS. Today was an excellent day! We woke up and all went as a group on the "Super Tour" of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was spectacular! Soo beautiful inside and out! It is the second biggest cathedral in the world next to St. Peter's in Vatican City. Wow!

My favorite things about it were the ceilings. They were all mosaics and were absolutely incredible. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, so unfortunately, if you would like to see them you will have to make the trip for yourself. There were also so many infamous and influential people buried in the crypt of St. Paul's, and it's so interesting to see their monuments.

The most memorable thing about St. Paul's was the stairs. Not because they were ornate, or historical, or anything like that. They are memorable because there are simply so many! We climbed the 500 or so stairs all the way to the top of the dome. But it was well worth it! You can see all of London from the top of that dome, and it's beautiful!

In case you haven't ever been to St. Paul's and experienced the stairs first hand, let me paint a little picture for you. At first, the stairs aren't bad, they are wide and low to the ground. You think, "Huh, I could do 500 of these no problem!" But then, they suddenly change to steep, narrow cement stairs that wind and wind up and up and up. Here you are thinking, "Phew! I'm starting to get a little tired...and claustrophobic!" But you keep on going. Then, the stairs change again. Now they are not only steep and narrow, but they are those wirey type stairs and just have a hand rail between you and death. These stairs go up and up and up even more! By now you are thinking, "Man, I hope I get there alive!" Then finally, you go through a little narrow tunnel about 2 ft wide and 4 and a half feet tall and you have made it!

These stairs actually are famous. They are used in lots of films such as Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes!

See! Narrow!

This is while we were climbing up the stairs, there is this tiny window where you can see the cathedral right below you...we are reeeeally high up!

MUSEUMS. After the visit to St. Paul's, we went over to the Museum of London. This was a way cool museum. It had basically the entire history of London since prehistoric dates. Some of my favorite things here were the more modern stuff from the 18th and 19th centuries. They had period clothing and hats and stuff that were really cool to look at. They also had a really neat video about the Blitz during WWII. It had displays all the way up until today!

QUEEN VICTORIA. So tonight we had a movie night. It started out as wanting to watch Sherlock Holmes, because ever since I have got here I have had such a craving for it! We were going to do it before, but it just hasn't worked out. So I asked one of the professors if we could watch it tonight on the screen in the classroom and I was told to ask the director. So we asked him (and by this time somehow everyone knew me as the girl who wanted to watch Sherlock Holmes really bad because I had asked a couple times!). He said yes, so he came to help figure out how to hook it up. Well, my Mac wouldn't hook up just right so I needed a certain cord. i found the cord from another Professor and thought I was set. We invited everyone and when I went to hook it up the cord didn't fit my style of Mac!

So we ended up watching Young Victoria instead. But it was still a great movie experience!