Yesterday, before our misadventure with train travel (between London and Stratford), we had gone to St. Paul's Cathedral (Anglican). What an amazing church! The late Princess Diana and the Prince of Wales (Charles) were married there in 1981. It has a black and white tiled floor that I remembered from watching the Royal Wedding on TV as a child. I also remember reading somewhere that the English thought they would survive the blitz so long as St. Paul's stood. Despite intensive bombing or that area of London during World War II by the Luftwaffe, St. Paul's (and England) did survive.
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| St. Paul's Cathedral from Knightrider St. |
The building was designed by Christopher Wren and built to replace the previous Cathedral destroyed in the great fire of 1666. It is capped by a magnificent dome - 434 steps to the top. I am sure you could get great pictures of London from the top, but Lisa and I wimped out. We did climb the 162 steps to the Whispering Gallery, the first tiered balcony of the dome. What was really interesting was why it is called the Whispering Gallery. It is designed that the acoustics are such that you can whisper into the wall on one side of the gallery and the sound will carry around the wall and can be heard on the other side! Lisa and I tried it from complete opposite sides (180 degrees from each other) and it really worked! I am sure it would be even better with less people there and less ambient noise.
The crypts (of St. Paul's) contain the remains of some very important historical figures. The most celebrated are the tombs of Admiral Lord Nelson and the first Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. But certainly more important for their contributions to the world were Alexander Fleming (discoverer of penicillin), Florence Nightingale, and Christopher Wren himself.
After St. Paul's we walked across the Millenium Bridge to the Globe theatre - an authentic reproduction, using the same materials, of Shakespeare's original. We passed on the 9 quid tour because of time (we thought we had a train to catch...) and because we talked to a teacher from Los Angeles who said you couldn't get the full tour today or take pictures inside because they were rehearsing a play. Before our train station fiasco, we had lunch at a pub on Knightrider street that is frequented by David Hasselhoff and was rumoured to have been a haunt of Guy Fawkes. We had pretty good fish and chips and I had a delicious ale called John Smith's.
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| Shakespeare's Globe Theatre |
Last night, after arriving in Stratford we had dinner at the Garrick Inn. It is the oldest pub in Stratford, dating back to the 15th century! It is right next to the house John Harvard, endower of Harvard University, grew up in. Lisa's lamb shank was exquisite and my bangers and mash were excellent. The Old Speckled Hen (ale) was good too, but the rhubarb crumble with custard that we shared for dessert was to die for...
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| Garrick Inn |
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| John Harvard House |
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