January 6, 2000

British Museum

The British Museum is another phenominal museum. It's home to many famous exhibits including the Rosetta Stone. Museum admission is free, but some special exhibits may charge a fee (the Rosetta Stone was in such an exhibit while we were there).

One of the exhibits that interested us was a large collection of medieval tiles.

Some coats of arms

A full section of floor

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral is another London landmark.

Postcard of St. Paul's

St. Paul's is much larger and more airy than Westminster. It features quite a number of memorials for famous and important people and a few tombs. The interior decoration is just amazing.

You can walk up to nearly the top of the huge dome. The first landing is the "whispering gallery," a 6 foot balcony on the inside of the dome looking down on the floor of the church. The large empty space between you and the far side (42 meters) makes this climb a poor choice for those afraid of heights. A short climb from there takes you to the outside of the dome. A much longer climb on narrow cast iron spiral staircases will take you to the top of the dome. There is even a tiny 6" window in the floor that looks straight down to the church floor hundreds of feet below you. If you've made it to this point, you have some amazing views of London from the very top of the dome.

A cool circular postcard showing the dome interior
Note the tiny square window at the center

Looking up the Thames toward the Eye

London Museum/Barbacian Center

Up the hill a little from St. Paul's is a 70s era complete living community. It houses the London Museum and the Barbacian Center. First, though, we had a wonderful traditional British tea with huge scones and an amazing pile of cottled cream (very light butter) and jam. Then, we attacked the Museum of London. This museum focuses on the history of the city of London. It covererd pre-historic times, spent quite a bit of time on the Roman period, and then from medieval to modern times. A pretty neat place and also covered by the Go-See pass. We didn't have quite enough time left to do a good job of exploring the museum in the hour before it closed.

We then walked around the rest of the complex. It was kinda neat, if dated. We then headed back to the West End for dinner and to try to buy theatre tickets for Mama Mia for the next night.