![\"IMGP4739\"](\"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/IMGP4739.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFirst glimpse!<\/p>\n
In the gardens at the rear.<\/p>\n It was only here that I realised that I hadn’t budgeted my time to include waiting in a long queue! Well, to my surprise, there was absolutely no queue!<\/p>\n Photography is not allowed in St. Paul’s, so you’ll have to go here<\/a>\u00a0to see some of the wonders within. It was more beautiful than I could ever have imagined… The \u00a318 entry fee included a very good audiovisual guide that let me explore at my own pace.<\/p>\n One thing I didn’t realise you could do was climb the dome! You start up a wooden spiral staircase to the interior Whispering Gallery, then climb to the exterior Stone Gallery through a narrow stone staircase. I thought the Whispering Gallery was alarmingly high up until I got to this first exterior gallery…<\/p>\n You then climb a series of metal spiral staircases to the Golden Gallery. Total steps from the ground: 527. OUCH. But the view!<\/p>\n The main things I took away from St. Paul’s:<\/p>\n -How controversial the design was for the day. The Protestants were used to Gothic architecture with its arches, not the domes of the Baroque style;<\/p>\n -This ornate church was more Catholic in style, but was very much tailored to Protestant practice;<\/p>\n -St. Paul’s survived the Blitz almost undamaged thanks to a fire brigade that patrolled the roof. Only one bomb got through.<\/p>\n -Almost nothing of ancient London survived the Blitz. This is why the city looks so modern and is so drivable as it was rebuilt after the Second World War.<\/p>\n Last glimpse!<\/p>\n I had about an hour and a half to my tea reservation when I came out St. Paul’s. When I had set out in the morning, I regretted scheduling tea for midafternoon, but it wound up being perfect timing since I was famished when I came out of the cathedral! \u00a0I wandered around the area a bit, stumbled onto another major Sherlock shooting location that delighted me, and then took the Tube from St. Paul’s Station to Oxford Circus on the Central line, then I rode one block south on the Victoria line to Green Park.<\/p>\n That reminds me that I forgot to give my Oyster update! A newsagent on the way to Kensal Green Station was able to sort out half of my Oyster problem, ie. putting money on the card so I could travel today and tomorrow. I’ll sort out the other half when the charges post…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Next stop today was St. Paul’s Cathedral. But on the way… First glimpse! In the gardens at the rear. It was only here that I realised that I hadn’t budgeted my time to include waiting in a long queue! Well, to my surprise, there was absolutely no queue! Photography is not allowed in St. Paul’s, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[637,636,55,3,56],"tags":[792],"class_list":["post-7321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-england","category-europe","category-london","category-travel","category-uk","tag-religious-sitescemeteries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n