Tuesday 25 July 2006

Let the battle of the churches begin!! Today we toured Westminster Abbey and the 17th century St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Abbey with its tomb and shrine of St. Edward the Confessor also houses the tombs of several kings and queens, as well as, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Darwin to name a few.

The tour of St. Paul’s culminated with Doug and Ray climbing to the top of the 3rd highest church dome in the world (Amy and Steph decided this would be an opportune time to get in some shopping). 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery followed by 117 steps to the Stone Gallery with an additional 166 spiralling steps to the top of the Golden Gallery totals 280 feet from the floor of the nave. THAT was our workout for the day.

In between tours we had lunch at The Texas Embassy (where else would four Texans eat?) and took the opportunity to walk through and take some pictures in Trafalgar Square.