This morning, fairly early off, we made our way as a group to St. Paul's Cathedral. THE St. Paul's Cathedral. It was SO cool. And also SO massive. In a way that is just hard to believe. The architecture is really interesting because Christoper Wren, the architect of lots of buildings in London (see I did actually learn things on this Study Abroad) wanted both the outside and the inside to look equally impressive. So the outside of the Dome is actually not the same as the inside, it is built higher up with this really interesting internal structure so that the inner dome still looks like.. well a dome.
On the main level of the Cathedral there is just so much to see, and so much history that comes from this building. Of all the the things to see, probably my favorite, or at least the one that stuck out the most to me, was these two white crucifix looking things protruding from the wall in the Nave, that looked kind of like they were rafters or pieces of some building's internal structure..or something. Upon further investigation I learned that they were actually installed earlier this year in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War (that's World War One to all you Americans).
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| St. Paul's from the front |
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| The Stone Gallery |
Next up was the most insane set of stairs ever. Ugh. Stairs have become the bane of my existence on this trip. And these ones take the cake. The first stop is up this nice wide stone staircase, it's like 120 steps or something, so pretty annoyingly long, but not too bad compared to what was to come... and the first destination is the famous Whispering Gallery- where you can say anything next to the wall and someone all the way across from you can hear it perfectly. And the great thing is it totally works!! The second stop was up a narrow stone staircase that was kind of scary but mostly just really long: the Stone Gallery. This gallery is actually outside and there is a really neat view of the city from there. OK, now remember earlier where I explained about the architecture of the Dome and how the outside and the inside are not actually the same structure? Well, the last leg of the hike up St. Paul's was actually up a metal, spiral staircase in between the outer and the inner domes, topped off by a tiny little narrow stone staircase that led to the Golden Gallery. Even though it was ridiculously cramped at the top, the view was TOTALLY worth it.
St. Paul's really was incredible, the whole atmosphere of the place is very neat. With people walking around as the listen to a recording tell them about the history of the building in political spheres, religious significance and cultural events, the experience punctuated hourly by religious messages intended to edify and uplift. To be honest, it wasn't quite as spiritual as some of the other Cathedrals I have visited, maybe because it is such a huge tourist attraction, and even though it is still used as a house of worship, the history of the building has become more important than the worship that takes place within.
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| My View from the Golden Gallery |
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| Proof I Made It All the Way To The Top |
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| Looking Down at the Front of the Cathedral |
After St. Paul's, Kindal and I went to the Wallace Collection to do our Humanities homework for the day. Basically it is a huge house that has been turned into an art collection and it is really cool! It has a totally different vibe than, say, the National Gallery, and the collection of art is obviously very prized and valued by the owners. I seriously love the homework assignments I have here in London!!
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