St. Paul's and Dream Girls, Sept 11.2018

After collapsing into bed at 8 PM the night previous we slept soundly until 10 am the next morning.  Nevertheless we still felt very jetlagged and so our day started slowly.  We struggled to find breakfast and ended up getting underway at about noon.  We decided to spend the afternoon at St. Paul's Cathedral.  We were not sure how long to leave for this visit and so planned to also pop into the Tate Gallery if we had time…Well as they say, one plans and God laughs!  St. Paul's Cathedral is huge and fascinating so we spent the entire afternoon exploring it.

We expected huge crowds but when we arrived there were so few people we were shocked.

Under the assumption that we had hit a quiet spot between groups we hurried directly to the whispering gallery and the stone Gallery, two very popular spots.  We climbed the 376 stairs to the stone gallery where we had panoramic views of the city.  The climb up was interesting as it led around the famous dome, but from the inside so we could see detail of the building’s construction.

We then visited the whispering gallery which circles the bottom of the dome itself on the inside.  This gallery gives a close up view of some of the art work as well as  panoramic view of the floor below.  Unfortunately pictures are lot allowed, so the few that I got were taken surreptitiously.

The crowds never did appear and so we visited the church itself and went finally to the Crypt where we saw the grave of the Duke Of Wellington, one of my ancestors.

We visited until closing and even had a chance to attend part of the evensong service where a combined boy’s and men’s choir sang in the perfect acoustics.

We then made our way to our next engagement, a supper at a restaurant on the River Thames.  We had purchased this as part of a package including a show in the famous London Theater  scene.   We had chosen the musical Dream Girls and supper was the prelude.

We walked to the restaurant  through side streets and alleyways and found that the restaurant was on a boat, The Tattershall Castle.  It is located directly opposite the London Eye and we were afforded great views from our table right at the waterline.

We then made our way to The Savoy Theater along the Victoria Embankment, past one of my favorite points of interest, Cleopatra's Needle which was imported from Egypt  decades ago.

We went to see the show, which was an  outstanding production.

Finally we visited the lobby at The  Savoy Hotel and saw such a beautiful lobby that I just had to see the ladies room!  Thus our second day in London ended!