Day 18 - London: St Paul's to Tower of London

We started our day at St Paul's Cathedral which was rebuilt by the astronomer Sir Christopher Wren after the fire of London. The Cathedral took a lifetime to build and cost a lot of money. It is different to the other Cathedrals we have visited as it is not gothic style.

When we walked in it seemed a bit plain. An audio guide came free with the entrance fee and it was an iPod touch. Best audio guide yet! When we walked towards the dome of the cathedral we were wowed by gorgeous glittering mosaics and the perfectly proportioned cupola. We sat and appreciated the beauty while learning about the features. Stef was excited to learn that Di and Prince Charles were married here. We took a tour of the alter and then headed downstairs to the crypt.

The crypt is where many famous and also common people are buried. There is also a chapel for people who have received the OBE can attend services, be married and christened. We couldn't go in because something was happening. The people attending were all dressed to the nines and wearing their medals. We saw Pippa Blake and hers and Sir Peters son attending! Unfortunately we didn't recognize anyone else.

We waited a while, in case any royalty came, then decided to move on. We could have walked to the top of the dome, approx 550 stairs, but chose not to because we had a big day ahead.

We then walked across the millennium bridge (featured in Harry Potter!) and to the Tate Modern art museum. This didn't take our fancy so we moved on pretty quickly.

About 100m away is the reconstructed globe theatre based and built pretty much identically (using same building techniques) to the globe of Shakespeare's day. We had a chance to look through the museum part while waiting for the tour to begin. This was unexpectedly interesting. The tour was mainly going into the theatre and looking around. The guide was not able to say much as they were preparing for a show and we had to be silent.

The theatre itself is awesome. It is completely round with a stage around about 1/4 if the circle. The seating area is covered, but it is lit by natural light ( (ie no roof) so the standing area is uncovered and spectators get wet if it rains. There are no microphones - the acoustics of the theatre ensure that everyone can hear. We both agreed that it would be amazing to watch Shakespeare there.

Our tummies were rumbling by the time we finished the tour so it was lucky our next stop was the Borough market. This market is open at least four days a week and is about 3x bigger than the Dunedin market. All the food looked incredible and we were sad we couldn't try more.

For lunch stef had a salted beef sandwich. This was basically small flaky peices of corned beef, on fresh bread with gherkins and mustard. I had a fresh organic beef burger. We followed this with some fresh raspberries and the best coffe we have had the whole trip. We found a gourmet pie stand called the "Piemimister" and decided to pick up dinner. I chose the big cheese and Stef chose the Heidi - yes it is a pie named after me!

The Southwark Cathedral is right next to the market and we had a quick nosy before heading to London bridge. It really must have fallen down because there is only a very plain bridge there now. We wandered down to the tower bridge (much more interesting) and saw it rising to allow a boat through.

Our destination was the tower of London, built by William the conqueror in the 1060-70's. At the time London was already bordered by much older roman walls. The tower of London was simply amazing. We had audio guides which gave us so much information about the tower buildings and stories about some of the many events in history that had occurred there. One of the highlights was getting to see the crown jewels including a 500 carat diamond and the actual crown that the recent monarchs have been crowned with!

We were kicked out dead on 5.30pm and had just finished our audio guide tour which was good timing. Luckily for us there was a souvenir outside the gate so we could pick up some more goodies. We had a rest at Starbucks and then walked down to the monument built by Sir Christopher Wren for the great fire of London.

We then headed home to heat up our pies and to give Stef time to read the evening newspaper. She is loving getting a paper every morning and night when we ride the tube - especially because it's in English! We decided to pop out for a quick visit to Buckingham palace at twilight and enjoyed a nice stroll through green park. We waved goodnight to the Queen and perhaps she was looking out the windows and saw us.

Harry Potter Studio tour tomorrow!

- Heidi xx

Photos are:

Buckingham palace
Stef with Tower Bridge raising
Me with the tower of London and tower bridge
Me at the crown jewels entrance (no photos inside)
Me and my pie
Inside Shakespear's globe theatre
Stef at St Paul's (no photos inside)