11 June 2014

Woolwich - London

Another beautiful day greeted us as we strolled to The Great Harry pub (the Wetherspoon) for breakfast. We are eating two meals a day here; its cheap and convenient. They do serve beer with breakfast if you want it, and this morning there were three old blokes having a morning pint (about 9 AM). I manfully resisted.

To get into London today, we took a bus instead of the train. This took an hour (nearly twice as long as the train), but it went through suburbs we hadn't seen before. Also, there was a bonus sermon ! A lady of African extraction got on the bus, and came up to the top deck- where we were. She started preaching; I suspect mainly for the benefit of people of her kind. There are many Africans on the bus, and many in London now. She kept it up for about 15 minutes, thanked us all, and went downstairs. It was quite entertaining. No one argued; we just sat there and listened. People in London, and England are all very polite.

From the bus, we could see The Shard; a building made to look like a piece of broken glass. This is it (from St Paul's).

　

 

I wonder why they called it the shard ?

The bus delivered us to Whitehall; that is, outside the houses of parliament building. The plan was to visit Westminster Abbey today. However, a memorial service for Sir John Taverner (classical music composer) was about to start when we arrived. We didn't feel like hanging around to wait; so plan B was concocted over a cup of tea in the Methodist Church cafeteria. The decision was in favour of St Paul's Cathedral.

A short train ride took us to Cannon Street Station, and a five minute walk brought us to the front steps; and hundreds of people who had no intention of paying to get in.



 

And you thought the pigeons were bad !

In through a side door we went. The front door was closed, but what a front door it is (it's actually 2 doors, and they weigh a ton each). The good folk at the desk then asked us for 16 1/2 pounds each (ouch), and agreed let us in. Well, it was worth it.

The place is magnificent. As usual with places like this, a huge history sits behind the bricks and mortar. I was most impressed with the excellent condition of everything, given that the building was completed 304 years ago. The mosaics are especially beautiful. There are no photos, as photography is not permitted inside the church.

After booking ourselves onto the 1:30 tour, we decided to go up to the dome. Robyn braved the 1 million (275 actually) steps to climb to the gallery. This is a walk around the inside of the dome, looking down at the interior of the church. From here the view was spectacular. Going up another flight of stairs, we came to a circular walk around the bottom (on the outside) of the outer dome. This is the dome we see from outside the place, and it is covered in lead. The views of London were brilliant. Robyn took one or two photos.

The Millennium Bridge look small. People looked like ants.

 

There is a lot of London, and someone keeps building more...



A further flight of stairs led to the upper (outside) circular walk. This gave even better views of the city, and allowed us to look down on the outer dome. In all, we climbed about 330 feet from the floor to this point. I could see the lantern windows above me, but not the cross at the top.



This part is above the dome.



The dark ring just above the dome is the railing for the top walkway. Above that, you can see the columns and window from the picture above.



Going down the steps was much easier. It took only a few minutes. Soon we were back at floor level, and it was time for lunch.

The cafeteria in St Paul's is in the crypt; literally. There is actually a memorial just at the end of the servery. It's not really creepy - I didn't see any bones or anything like that. 'Twas just a bit surprising. Their price for lunch - 16 pounds for a set menu was a bit steep for us. Across the road from the cathedral was a café called Paul's (hardly an original name). Lunch, and a cup of tea each cost us 17 pounds (for two).

Back at the cathedral, a guide took us around the highlights of the place. This lasted 90 minutes, and was free - that is, included in the admission price. Our guide Fred knew all about the building and a lot of history as well. We all pretended to be very respectful, and knowledgeable; glad he didn't ask us any questions !

The last stop of this tour was in the crypt, so we had a look around afterwards. The three most notable tombs were Christopher Wren (who built the cathedral), The Duke of Wellington (defeated Bonaparte at Waterloo), and Horatio Nelson (won the Battle of Trafalgar, but died there). There were plenty of other dead guys, but none of them had as much style as Wellington. His coffin cost more than my house, and weighs more too (its granite, thick thick granite).

From St Paul's our walk to the train station took on epic proportions; across the Millennium pedestrian bridge, along the Thames, past the Golden Hind (Sir Francis Drake's ship), over the Tower Bridge, past the Tower of London, and finally to the station. Robyn was starting to flag.

We had to walk over that thing just to get a picture. Here's Robyn trying to look happy about it.
To get home to Woolwich only required one change of train, so the journey was fairly comfortable if a little crowded in parts. We arrived at 6:30, and proceeded again to The Great Harry pub (good name that - it refers to King "Harry"/Henry the eighth). After another nice meal, and Robyn's creamy chocolate sundae (more calories than a pound of butter), it was time to head back to our room in the Travel Lodge.

I left her to rest and went for a walk to the Thames River barrage. This is meant to stop water coming up the river and flooding the city. About 99.9 % of the time it sits idle , so it has to look nice.

They're pretty in silhouette but up close they look like a squashed coke can.

Finally, as the sun set low, it was time to head home. So until tomorrow...

Bye for now

Lex and Robyn.