Urban Trekking

After finishing Wednesday, I planned more touring for Thursday. Yay for lots of sight-seeing!

Let's see, first up was Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge is, I've decided, one of my most favorite landmarks in the entire world. I'm not sure why, but I absolutely love it's stately grandeur-- a bastion of Victorian power and prestige. Seeing the Bridge lets me know I'm in London. It's not St. Paul's Cathedral, not Buckingham Palace, not the black taxis, nor the red telephone booths. It's Tower Bridge for me. You'll notice that I take lots of pictures of it.

So I bought a ticket, rode the lifts up to the top, and walked along the pedestrian bridges up top. It was so cool! I was keenly interested in how it was designed and built and basically the all-around history of the bridge. Seriously, I have no idea why I'm obsessed with it. I even bought a cheesy photo of me photoshopped against a Tower Bridge background for £10. Back at the gift shop, I purchased one of, what I call, my 'main souvenirs.' I got a water color print of Tower Bridge next to the Tower of London and paid £17 for the pleasure. Completely worth it. I'm going to put the print on my wall next to all the postcards. When I get back to the States, I want to frame it.

After Tower Bridge, I rode the Tube over to the Templar Church which was a church built by the Knights Templar in the 1100s. There were even knight tombs in the church! Afterwards, I walked back to Old Bailey and got a picture of the outside of the building and then made my way to St. Paul's Cathedral. Wow, is that place amazing! If you ever go to London, I'd recommend seeing St. Paul's no matter how short a time you're there. Anyways, the inside was absolutely gorgeous what with its super high ceilings covered with glittering mosaics. It's a giant place!

So I basically went urban hiking at St. Paul's, seriously. After 400+ steps, I was at the Whispering Gallery and another 100+ steps brought me to the Stone Gallery which offers panoramic outside views of London. Another 100+ steps brings visitors to the Golden Gallery which has even higher views of London. Wow. But yeah, Brits have a thing with cramped, steep circular stair cases. You use those to get to any high place. I don't consider myself scared of heights, but really when anyone starts thinking about how high they're getting, it's a little much.

After scaling the side of St. Paul's and returning back to ground level (I got to the bottom and mouthed "Land! Oh sweet land!"), I wandered around a bit--back to the American memorial chapel--and then to the main area. An organist began playing as I sat and just soaked it all in. Wow, what a place.

What a day. So much stuff! While I did get to visit a lot of neat places, I couldn't help wandering around the entire time and feeling a little alone. I mean, Katie Beth was on a tour for her class and my flatmates were all at work. It's just me so either I'm in the flat or I'm out doing stuff. May as well see some things, I figure. I brought my MP3 player along and listened to the Mary Poppins sound track (there's a song where she talks about the Bird Woman at St. Paul's) while riding the Tube for half an hour out to the stop I needed just to keep my mind occupied. It's a new feeling, being a bit lonely.