On Tuesday, February 6th, Ayushi and Aditi both had classes in the morning, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to do another Rick Steves audio tour, this time a walking tour of “The City,” the oldest central part of London. It took me by several old churches, two of which I went inside, as well as the Royal Courts of Justice. I ended up at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Aditi met me. St. Paul’s Cathedral had been on my list of things to see, but I had no idea how amazing it would be.
The exterior of the building is impressive, but the inside was even more so. It was designed by Christopher Wren, who designed many other churches and buildings in London after the Great Fire. Inside the cathedral, we got the audio tour and spent a good amount of time walking around and learning about the building. One thing that I found very interesting is that there are actually two domes, an interior and an exterior separated by a stone cone, in order to make the outside exactly 365 feet tall (one foot for every day of the year), but the inside still proportional to the size of the building.
But, the best part was that you can go up inside the interior dome, very close to the ceiling. This is called the Whispering Gallery because you can whisper close to the wall on one side of the dome and someone on the other side can hear it. Aditi and I tried it out and it did work! Next, you can go up to the Stone Gallery, which is on the exterior of the dome. From there, we went up even further to the Golden Gallery, which is basically the very top of the exterior dome. Here, there are beautiful panoramic views of the city and because we were there in the late afternoon, the sun was starting to set. It made for an amazing view and great photos!
After we came down from the dome, it was almost 5:00, when there is an Evensong service, which was recommended by Rick Steves. So, we decided to stay for part of the service and listen to the choir. After this, we went down through the crypt and finished up our tour.
After walking back towards Aditi’s place and stopping to get something to eat, we decided to keep walking along the River Thames to get a view of the Tower Bridge at night. It was a beautiful walk and the Tower Bridge is pretty all lit up.
We then headed back to Aditi’s room and went to sleep early so we could get up early for the Changing of the Guard the next morning.
Hammond Adventures 