Proper English weather.

Friday 6^th September.

It rained through the night, pavements dried by morning then it rained again. It felt so good to be cool after the heat of the past few days. Found a TV show that gave a weather forecast, expecting 17 degrees today and showers clearing. Nothing that will slow us down. Today’s itinerary includes the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral. The ground under London must look like Swiss cheese, all these Tube lines running this way and that. We’re getting the hang of it now. One good thing about the rain, I think it’s put a lot of people off being tourists today, something we noticed on a rainy day in Melbourne. Very short lines to buy tickets and get into the Tower grounds and on very good advice, we head to the point where the free tours with a Yeoman Guardsman leave from. Us and 50-60 other people!! No thanks, looks like we’ll figure it out ourselves. Show me the Crown Jewels! That’s what I’m here for. What an amazing collection. To finally see precious stones that you’ve read about is really something. No crowds to speak of, we were able to take our time inspecting the actual crowns, I think we went around 3 times! And as impressive as some of the crowns are, I think my favourite was Queen Victoria’s little crown that you see her wearing in the iconic profile image. It’s so tiny, but sooo sparkly. No photos here, for security reasons, but ................. shame.

We spent several hours exploring and seeing as much as we could, we were lucky enough to see Tower Bridge open as well, but it happens rather quickly, so unless you’re in the right spot, you’d miss it.

After finding some lunch, we consult the map again and head for St Paul’s. By now the showers have just about gone so the walk there is pleasant.

St Paul’s is really special, I could sit in the nave or under the dome for ages, looking at the painted ceilings, the carvings on the pulpit, the mosaics in the Quire and the people walking above us in the “Whispering Gallery”.

St Paul's

The audio guide is interesting and points out details and gives lots of background information. Never one to back down from a challenge, we decide to tackle the stairs to the Stone Gallery and sit in the Whispering Gallery. Too much other noise around to see if a whisper really can be heard across on the other side, but one security guard says another’s name in a fairly normal voice and it carries well to the other side.

The view from the very top of St Paul's

After admiring the view from this point, we head for the stairs that will take us as high as we can possibly go in the Cathedral. No need to do any other exercise today, or probably the rest of the week, so many stairs!!  But the view from the very top makes it all worthwhile. And the London Eye is crossed off our list, we don't need it now. We finish our tour with a visit to the Crypt, to see the final resting places of many fine people, including Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul’s, Wellington and Nelson, British military heroes.

On the HOHO bus, we went past the British Museum, which is on our list, but we see signs for an exhibition of Pompeii and Herculaeneum, so we call in on the way home to see if we need to pre-purchase tickets.  While we’re there we notice there is a 20 min tour and talk about the Rosetta Stone, so hang around and listen. It’s around the replica stone in room 1, and we’ll see the real McCoy when we go back.

Back home and having dinner, legs are nearly falling off – we must have had a good day!