Friday

Today was very full as well. Mike took us on our second walking tour this morning. We started at Samuel Johnson's house off the Strand, and then went over past St. Paul's, across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern, where we checked out the view from the glass cafe on the seventh floor. Here's the group outside St. Paul's:



Then we took the Tube over to the Tower of London, where Mike left us. We spent two and half hours or so in the Tower, seeing the Crown Jewels, the armory collection in the White Tower (which dates from 1071), the Bloody Tower (where we voted on who killed the Princes there in the middle ages), and a disturbing display of torture devices. Will posed beside John of Gaunt's armor:
Ashley posed in an unoccupied guard's station:

And the whole group posed in front of Tower Bridge:






After the Tower, everyone wanted to go back to St. Paul's and do the tour, so we did. After having some really good hot sandwiches at an eaterie near St. Paul's Tube station, we went to the cathedral and spent quite some time. The church is amazing beyond my ability to describe (the second largest cathedral in the world, after St. Peter's in Rome), but since no pictures were allowed, you'll have to take my word for it. We saw the cathedral itself and the crypt (where we also saw the tombs of Lord Nelson, Christopher Wren, William Blake, George Cruickshank, the painters Holman-Hunt and Millais, and a host of others.

The most spectacular part of St. Paul's, for everyone I believe, was the galleries in the dome. We walked up to the Whispering Gallery, which is at the bottom of the dome, then up to the Stone Gallery, further up and outside, and then up to the Gold Gallery, which is a tiny stone balcony at the very top of the dome of St. Paul's. 494 steps in all, mostly on a very narrow spiral stone staircase. It was not unlike the most vicious stair-stepper workout ever conceived. Much panting and stopping to rest and burning of the legs was involved.

But the pay-off was worth it. From the top of St. Paul's we could see all of London stretching out in all directions around us. Pictures are below. Breathtaking--in all sense of the word, since the wind up there was kicking it old school. But the view:

We don't know why Will ends up in more photos than anyone else. We've talked to him about it but there he is again. After an hour of free time around Covent Garden, we met back up with Mike for dinner at an Indian restaurant off Charing Cross Road, which was very good. Indian food is half the reason I go to London, and it seemed like everyone else enjoyed it as well.

Then we split up. Everyone is feeling pretty comfortable using the Tube and finding their way around the main areas of central London (or at least the main areas we've been to), so we split up for the evening. Most of the group went to see Equus with Daniel Radcliffe at the Gielgud Theatre. I went to see The Woman in Black at the Fortune, and Kali, Robin, Liz, and Jen went exploring (I know that at least Jen and Liz planned to take a walk by the river to see it at night). All in all a full day. And more of the same tomorrow. But as it's nearly 1 am here, and I have an 8am wake up call, I'll bid you a good night.