Cool breeze and cloudy skies greeted us as we left early for St. Paul's Cathedral. Younger and less impressive than the Gothic Cathedrals we have seen in other countries it has a completely different feel to it. It is only 300 years old ---having burned down several times. (However, the age issues is really not exactly true since it was first built in 603 A.D. and became ultimately ultimately a Gothic cathedral --taller than the current structure. It was burned in the great fire of London in 1666.) Christopher Wren designed the cathedral and considered it to be his monument. It is also the resting place of many British heroes from a host of wars.

The chapel behind the choir is dedicated to the U.S. servicemen who died in defense of Britain. It is perhaps the most beautiful part of the church with lovely stained glass windows dominating it. The crypt includes the remains of Lord Nelson among other heroes. It felt very military. Perhaps because it was mostly military heroes that were buried here. Of course John Dun and Samuel Johnson rest there -- two real word warriors!

I climbed the stairs up into the dome ....276 steps--- I am certainly better at clmbing than when the trip began, I found that I was not completely winded by the trip up only pausing at the 100th step to rest and catch my breath -- We left the Cathedral and caught a bus across town to St. Martin in the Fields (just next to Trafalgar Square) They have a restaurant in the Crypt where we grabbed a sandwich. I don't thnk most of the folks buried here much expected to be sharing lunch with people in the 21st century!

This was probably my favorite place in London on this trip. I made a brass rubbing and then we went upstairs for the noon concert. It was absolutely lovely. A young soprano performed, Bach, Handel, and Strauss. Then we caught a taxi to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum's focus is art and design and it does a fabulous job of displaying things. Its exterior a testament to the bombings of WWII. We went through the British section featuring articles of design and life in Britain from the 17th-19th century. The display was ingenious --- taking entire rooms from manor houses and castles and recreating them in their entirety. You can literally walk into a room and feel as though you have stepped into that time period. I was surprised to see the glass sculpture by Chihuly that hung in the Frist on display there in the entry! http://www.chihuly.com/installations/v%2Ba/chand02.html

At about 3:30 we walked over to Harrods and had tea. The room is a bit fancier than Fortnam and Masons was and there was a wonderful pianist playing soothingly wonderful tunes while we had tea sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam and of course a wonderful assortment of dessert items. We walked through Harrods after tea and looked at all the amazing things that we would never buy, but perhaps some folks afford such extravagances. Gowns for 6,000 pounds.....hmmm.....

Then we caught a bus over to the general area where we could walk the rest of the way to the theater. It has been cool and mostly overcast and that makes the walking very easy. Kathy knows London pretty well, so she can navigate the streets and we located the theater with no problem. Tonight's delight was The Lady in Black. It has been playing for nearly 20 years, so she figured it had to be good.....and it was....very satisfying mystery/horror! There were a large number of young people in the audience--attending as a school group and they really made the evening....shrieking in all the right places and just bringing the whole thing to life quite nicely. It was a great choice. After the theater --- Kathy hailed a cab --and we rode back to our hotel in luxury.

London is a big place and perhaps not as well designed as Paris with things strung out all over --- it is harder to get to everything. I was thinking that in Paris --- St. Chapelle is just a few blocks from NotreDame....the Musee De Orsay is just across the Seine from the Louvre which is next to the gardens and not far from ....well you get the idea....it is mostly walkable...

London also has tremendous traffic problems --- and Paris was busy --- but not jammed up...It seemed that maybe there were more tourists in London than in Paris....or maybe it was just that we had encountered more of them. An unbelievable day!