My Last Sunday Afternoon in London
Monday 08/13/2007 4:56 PM (In the United Kingdom: 9:56 PM)
After the British Museum, I took the tube over to St. Paul's Cathedral. I actually came up to the sidewalk around the corner from the cathedral, but I got a little turned around trying to navigate my way there, so this was my first view of the dome:
Leave it to me to take the back alley way to St. Paul's Cathedral. I had a much better view of the cathedral itself once I found the front of it, but even from across the street, I couldn't get it all to fit inside the frame of my camera, so here's the top half:
And here's the bottom half (note that the dome is behind all of this hoopla):
And here is a more complete photo of the dome:
From here, I headed for the Thames so I could cross it and get the Globe (you know, where Shakespeare's plays were first performed?). That was a disappointment -- no tours of the theater since there were performances that afternoon, and no tickets for the performances. I got one picture of it, but the view is so obstructed by other buildings (no matter where you stand), that it isn't even worthy of being here as a "failed attempt" photo. BUT before I got to the Globe, or even to the Thames, I found this statue a couple of blocks away from St. Paul's (the firefighter on the left is gesturing toward the cathedral, which survived the war even though it was a primary target):
The panels around the base of the statue are filled with names, and on the main panel, is this inscription:
Once I crossed the Thames and was disappointed by the Globe, I decided to walk along the riverside. I was on the South Bank again, but east of the buskers I documented in an earlier (pre-Finland) post. There wasn't as much activity on this walk, but I did find a lot of neat passage ways and tunnels under bridges (I was allowed to go here -- it was a marked path, part of it named "The Queen's Walk," in fact.) Here is a reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde, the 16th-century galleon:
And the ruins of Winchester Palace, which housed the Bishops of Winchester in the 12th century. There really wasn't much to see, except a space without a building, and this window on what I think is the only remaining wall above ground level. It's called the rose window:
I made it down to Hay's Wharf, which sounded like a really interesting place in my travel book, but once I got there, I realized it was a semi-indoor plaza of overpriced gift shops and cafes. Here's a picture of the roof, though, which is pretty impressive, I suppose:
After this, though, I decided to head west again before crossing the river to get back to my hotel. Along the way, I discovered my favorite tree of the trip (and one of the first signs that summer is over ... the leaves are just barely starting to change colors, and earlier in the afternoon, I'd realized that a few had already fallen from trees and were blowing around the sidewalks), and my favorite busker. Here's the tree:
The busker gets his own post.
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