London - July 6

Woke up in time this morning to see Melanie off to work. Had some coffee and toast with peanut butter and jam for breakfast. Messed with email and the internet for a while until Neil got back from his appointment this morning and then headed off to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Took the train and the tube to the appropriate place and proceeded to go down to the south side of the Thames for walk along the river. Looked in at a building that had been converted into an art museum. The building used to be a coal fired power plant. The renovation gave the building and interesting appearance.

From there we went across the Millennium Bridge. We kept a careful eye out for any death-eaters that might be lurking about but didn't spy any. It's a really nice pedestrian bridge with a great view of St. Paul's Cathedral the whole length of the bridge.

St. Paul's Cathedral was really spectacular. It is huge inside and out. I have no pictures because they are not permitted inside the cathedral. The dome has just about every inch painted with images. I wondered how they were able to paint some of the high places. Scaffolding must have been very sturdy. We went into the crypt and there were it seemed hundreds of "monuments" to military heroes and persons high in the church. These monuments were prevalent on the main floor of the cathedral as well.

One monument at the back of the alter was dedicated to the Americans that served in Briton during the second world war. There was a book that listed every man and woman so stationed. I would think that is really a high honor for all of those people and for today's American's as well.

From the main floor was climbed the stairs to the upper levels of the dome. The first one circled the bottom of the dome and was about 150 steps up the winding staircase. The next level was on the exterior about 120 steps. These steps were much steeper and greater distance than the first bunch. From there it was another 119 Steps to the "top" of the dome. The views were quite amazing and we could take pictures on the outside portions. The walk down was much quicker than the walk up.

From St. Paul's we went the Cafe Below for lunch. The cafe is actually in the crypt of t Mary-le-Bow church not too far from the cathedral. This church was designed by Sir Christopher Wren who also designed the St. Paul Cathedral. The food was really very good and we had an enjoyable lunch. The churches interior was pretty interesting as well but again no pictures. They were just preparing to start a service.

We trooped around in different back alleys and on the streets before we headed back to the house. Dinner was nice and we tried to decide what we would do for the rest of the time we are here. I will let that be a surprise as I'm not sure what we decided.