Monday morning we said our goodbyes to Jon’s relatives and Nottingham, took the train back to London (as usual easy, comfortable, on time), and then went off to St. Paul’s Cathedral since  Jon’s cousin Barb had given it high praise after her visit..

 

St. Paul’s is perhaps most known for its “Whispering Gallery”.  You can climb a few hundred steps (on a circular stairway, so you not only get tired, you also get dizzy) to a walkway circling the inside of the dome.  The acoustics are such that people on opposite sides can hear each other whisper.  We both made it this far, but Jon continued up another narrow stairway to the “Stone Gallery”, an outside balcony, and then up another 4 stories or so via a series of circular metal steps within the top section of the dome to the “Gold Gallery”, also outside..  Unfortunately, MC was holding the camera, so Jon had to climb back down and up again in order to catch some great views of London.

 

Tuesday, our last day abroad. 

 

We managed to fill it with plenty of touristy stuff.  Our morning search for a geo-cache ended successfully (in an abandoned cemetery!) so we have a travel bug to take back with us.  We stopped in St. Martin in the Fields (the church is unimpressive, but the crypt cafeteria was very good).  We cruised through the National Gallery (almost entirely paintings).  Then we joined our hosts, Jan & Michael, for a Greek dinner and a bit of a “pub crawl”.