St. Pauls Cathedral

On Saturday I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, this massive behemoth of a building dedicated to Paul the disciple. This might be my favorite building I have visited since I've been here in London. It is absolutely beautiful and it is HUGE. When the Great London Fire of 1666 destroyed the previous Gothic-style cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren (who's tomb is in the cathedral) rebuilt the more modern Baroque building that stands there today. What is really interesting is that during the Blitz of London in WWII the cathedral basically was standing on its own among burning fires where bombs had destroyed much of the surrounding buildings. There was little damage to the building during the Blitz, a miracle as many of the other buildings around the cathedral were completely destroyed.

The layout of the building is that of a giant cross. There is an enormous dome that sits over the center of the building, and a neat little fact is that the interior of the dome does not match the external design. Basically, there are two internal domes, but it was thought that the building wouldn't be as impressive from the outside if these two domes could be viewed at their actual size. As a result, the dome that is seen from the outside actually encompasses both the large and smaller domes so that the building looks much more impressive and grand. Inside, the bigger of the two domes is called the "Whispering Gallery" - so called because apparently you can sit on one side of the dome and whisper to a companion who is sitting on the other side who can hear words precisely. I tried this, and while it was hard to distinguish between all the 8 year-olds around me trying to whisper, I could sometimes hear some people talking on the other side. The Whispering Gallery is like 257 steps up from the ground floor, all in a spiral staircase. Another 150 steps or so will take you to the Stone Gallery, an outdoor walkway that offers a pretty decent view of London. This is where the outdoor pics were taken. Then another 100 steps or so takes up up to the Golden Gallery, which, unfortunately, was closed down as they're building a new staircase. This is probably a good move as it could be quite dangerous were there to be a fire - the upper staircase is only about 3-4 feet wide.

You're not supposed to take pictures of the inside of the cathedral, however I snuck one or two in because the ceiling artwork is so impressive. Its soooooo high off the ground that it makes it even more impressive that the work was able to be completed!!!