Monday, September 19, 2016

London - Day 2

St. Paul's Cathedral was a short walk from our hotel so we got there ahead of most of the crowds. I had to have a short Mary Poppins moment on the steps, softly singing a couple of lines from "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag". Anyway, I got a kick out of it. We went inside and found it wasn't too crowded. They had an excellent audioguide that directed you around the cathedral. I'm not normally a fan of audio guides but this one actually gave you options to learn a little or a lot about each item. I liked that because sometimes I just want the brief explanation. No photos are allowed inside, not even without flash, which always disappoints me. Even the Vatican lets you take pictures everywhere except in the Sistine Chapel.

We climbed the 200 plus steps to the Whispering Gallery but it was quite warm inside so we decided not to climb up to the next two galleries (each one over 100 more steps). We didn't try the whispering trick because several others were trying and I think you have to be the only one whispering in order to be heard on the opposite side of the gallery.

Next up was the British Museum. I think I actually liked it a bit more than the Louvre.  We saw the Rosetta Stone, a large bust of Pharoah Ramesses II, lots of mummies (cool), and a whole lot of Greek and Roman antiquities. There is a large reconstruction of pieces of the Nereid Monument which was a tomb in present-day Turkey. You walk in the room and Bam!- you think you just walked into Athens or something.  We also saw several reliefs from ancient Assyria. Lots of things to see here and wasn't too terribly crowded except around the Rosetta Stone.

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