A Museum, A church and A Needle

Museum of London

“The Museum of London Group represents a quarter of a million years of history and over seven million modern Londoners. Our collections include over a million items.”

That’s about it! The Museum of London is a historical museum, from prehistory to the Romans through medieval times right up to the present. A couple of notable items are The Lord Mayors coach

“a masterpiece of wood-carving, gilding and painting, built in 1757 and still rolled out every year for the Lord Mayor’s Show”

There is also a gallery about the great fire in 1666, explaining its cause and the results.

From inside the museum you can see a portion of the old Roman wall, from outside, you can walk right up to this section of the wall. Again London’s history comes alive and is tangible.

St Paul’s Cathedral Is big, very big. St. Paul’s was designed by and built between 1675 and 1710 by Sir Christopher Wren after the 1666 fire destroyed the previous cathedral.

It is not the first church to stand on this spot; there have been three before since 604AD. Like all of London, this place has a history.

This was the first church of any kind that I could climb to the top of the dome. There are three galleries or levels that are open to the public. The first is the Whispering Gallery, this circles the dome and if you pay attention you can here people speaking from almost anywhere on the gallery. Either Wren knew what he was doing or he was very lucky. The Stone gallery is next; it is the first of the two galleries that are open to the air. The Golden Gallery is almost at the very top of the dome it is a total of 530 steps from the floor of the cathedral, almost 85 meters up.

The view from the top is amazing, spectacular, out of this world…. The only place that offers something comparable is the London Eye, except St. Paul’s is open to the elements

The Crypt contains tombs, memorials, a chapel, the gift shop and café. Nelson, Wellington and Sir Christopher Wren's Tombs are here great men of London and the UK. There are also memorials to other people, like Alexander Fleming the discoverer of penicillin. There were also tombs and memorials to loads of people I’ve never heard of. Then again, who’s heard of me?

Cleopatra’s Needle
(http://www.akhet.co.uk/cleo.htm)

“Cleopatra's Needle is located on the Thames Embankment in London close to the Embankment underground station. The Obelisk was actually constructed for Tuthmose III and is carved with Hieroglyphics praising Tuthmose and commemorating his third sed festival. Later inscriptions were added by Ramesses II to commemorate his victories.”

It is a twin to a similar Obelisk in New York City

It’s there; its old and I saw it!