UK Blog #3 - Reliving the tale of Sweeney Todd

There's a lot to London. This much, I know.

If London was an Orange, I've been flitting around one single pip, and I haven't even seen it all.

This morning started in Leicester Square, where I picked up my 'London Pass', a prepaid card which costs a bunch but gets you into a whole heap of attractions for free. If you're coming to London (Pete & Mel) check it out because it will save you loads if you intend to do a lot of the typical touristy things.

London Pass in hand, I stumbled upon an M&Ms World. Yes, that's exactly what it sounds like. Imagine the Apple store, but dedicated to M&Ms. You can get custom M&Ms with whatever you want printed on them. For a pretty penny of course, but still! Talk about first world extravagance. I didn't spend any cash there, though I'll admit the had some damn funky M&Ms pyjama pants!

The M&Ms channel the Beatles

Following that, I headed in the direction of Fleet Street because I had a mission to accomplish. It was a lovely walk, passing Waterloo Bridge, the Australian High Commission, Covent Court Markets at Jubilee Hall (amazing food stalls!).

An Australian Marvel ... and the Australian High Commission

Covent Markets, I could have grazed here for days

Good to see the English give credit where credit is due.

And, well, this just seemed funny!

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From there, I continued until I hit Fleet Street. Being a musical theatre nerd, I was determined to show my love for Sondheim and Sweeney Todd, so I found a Barber Shop and had a haircut - I specifically refrained from getting my hair cut before I came - and then went and found a pie to have for lunch. It's lame, it's very macabre humour, but hey! It's me! Here's proof:

Ok, so it's not very pretty, but neither was the musical, so lay off, okay?

After that, I saw a sign pointing to St Paul's Cathedral, so I set off for same. I am so glad I did because I hadn't necessarily thought to do it. Divine providence perhaps? At any rate, it was such an incredible experience. I could have spent hours there.

St Paul's Cathedral, bathed in the afternoon sun.

The cathedral itself is incredible, and indescribable. The architecture is mind-blowing and seeing it on the television cannot do justice to the immense size, and detail of the structure and its design.

Anybody who has played Assassin's Creed II will have a taste of it (the design, to me at least, appeared quite similar to the Italian cathedrals recreated in the computer game). Believe me though, they're much harder to climb. Even using stairs! Let me explain.

I had the opportunity to climb up to the galleries. The first (internal) Whispering Gallery circles the dome of the cathedral at a height of 30m/257 stairs. From there, you can continue up to the (external) Stone Gallery, a further 23m/119 stairs. If you do this though, you have to continue up to the top gallery because the stairways are very narrow, and one-way only. It's do or die. The top (also external) Golden Gallery is a total of 85m/528 stairs up from the cathedral floor. Now, I'm neither one for stairs nor heights, but I couldn't pass this opportunity up. I started freaking out halfway up to the Golden Gallery, as the stairway structure becomes similar to scaffolding. But I made it to the top! Want proof? Here you go:

"You are here."
Indeed I was!

Oh, and some more proof.

The 360-degree views are amazing, but yes, it's windy up there. And freezing. Quite freezing.

528 stairs later (this time with gravity on my side), I was back on the cathedral floor, where I continued down into the Crypt.

Now, call me dark and dreary and macabre and all that, but I could have stayed down there for days. The Crypt houses the remains of many, but notably Arthur, Duke of Wellington. Now I am not one for relics, which seems to feature a lot in catholicism, but you can't but be moved by the experience.

Within the crypt there is a chapel called the Order of the British Empire Chapel. It is dark and serene. Now, God's omnipresence aside, it was so peaceful to sit in the chapel, read my favourite Psalm and pray.

I was also inspired musically - how could one not be? - and instantly regretted not bringing any manuscript with me. I need to buy some so I can jot down my ideas soon!

Alas I have no photos of the inside of the cathedral as they don't allow you to take photography, but I bought a guidebook so I could help with the memories.

After this remarkable journey, I grabbed a coffee. Well, I grabbed a Starbucks, but as bad as it sounds, it was the nicest coffee I've bought since I've been here. Finding a decent coffee will clearly be a journey in itself!

Then I caught a tube to South Kensington, to head to the Royal Albert Hall where Mel and I are seeing Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, with a couple of her friends. On the way to the RAH though I stopped at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Incredible. I had an hour to spend in there but you could spend days in there and probably not see everything properly. And this is just one museum out of... stacks.

Ah well. Hopefully there'll be time to go back.

For now though, I'm in the RAH cafe, waiting for Mel and Co to arrive.

This is where I sign out. Let me pause and say thank you to all those who have been commenting on these posts, either here or on FB. Thank you for enjoying my journey with me and encouraging me to keep writing. I am loving sharing everything with you as it gives me a chance to reflect.

Grace and peace!
SG

PS. This was this afternoon's functional status of the tube, just to vex those fans of CityRail!