I had never seen the picture below before my tour of the cathedral. I love it! I have learned that St Paul's Cathedral is one landmark that stands for London, and kind of represents the UK. During WWII and the Blitz, with fires raging around London, Churchill fought to save St. Paul's. Workers stood on the different balconies on St. Paul's throwing bombs down to the ground if they landed on the roof (crazy) and putting out fires with hoses. Apparently when it seemed St. Paul's might have been lost, the winds changed and pushed the flames away from the cathedral. Is that not amazing or what? Now St. Paul's is thought of as a testament to hope, and is very symbolic for British people. I find this picture so chilling but glorious at the same time.
The genius that it took to build a cathedral of its magnitude is totally insane. Christopher Wren, a mathematician was commissioned to build it after the old cathedral that was there kind of fell into ruin. He was able to use his math skills to become an architect. Pretty cool!
When we got to the cathedral we were led around by a guide named Elaine. She was extremely nice, one of the nicer British guides we have had (they can be kind of harsh). She showed us the staircase where they filmed Harry, Hermione, and Ron coming down from Trelawney's classroom in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and where bits of the recent Sherlock Holmes movie was filmed. Apparently St. Pauls' runs separately from the government and so relies on outside funds to help keep it going. I really enjoyed going down into the crypts where all the old burial stones and memorials were to people like the Duke of Wellington, Horatio Nelson, and Christopher Wren himself. Another area I really enjoyed seeing was the Winston Churchill memorial. Apparently Churchill could have been buried in the crypts because of his honorable service to Britian but he refused saying, "I never let anyone walk over me in life, why would I let them do it in my death." Instead he was buried on a family lot. Smart guy!
After our tour we were allowed to head up tons and tons of stairs to the three different levels/lookouts of St. Paul's. After the first long flight of stairs we reached the first lookout, called the whispering gallery. You could whisper and people all the way across the dome would be able to hear you. I loved this lookout because it was the first and only lookout still in St. Paul's, just at the base of the huge dome. Plus, it was super fun talking to people in the group! Also, from the height we were at, the whole building almost seemed unreal. It was just so HUGE, and beautiful!
The next lookout took us out on a balcony looking over at the city. It had tall stone walls with slits that you could look out at. It was cool, but we were really excited to just get to the top. The next set of stairs took us up through the workings of the highest point of the cathedral, on metal wire staircases. I felt like the Hunchback of Notre Dame navigating up through the large beamed interior. I loved it! A bit before we got to the top we walked over this slab of metal with a circle of glass in the middle that looked straight down into St. Paul's below. It was soooo COOL! I couldn't really get a good picture of it...but you guys will just have to take my word for it. It was crazy.
It was so fun climbing the last bit! And all the stair climbing was totally worth the view on top. It looked like this:
St. Paul's was absolutely incredible! Loved it!
