"Um...his name escapes me at the moment..."

Today was supposed to be a quick visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, then on to other adventures. Instead, it ended up being the bulk of our day. Our first glimpse as we approached from the Tube:

We started with a guided tour instead of the recorded tour - excellent choice as our guide was an animated older gentleman who loved what he was talking about but constantly got lost in his thoughts (hence the title - a common phrase from him). It was a wonderful tour even though it stretched to about two hours instead of the advertised 90 minutes. In showing us the enormous main domes in the cathedral he pointed out that we could later ascend into them if we chose - about 260 steps to the first level, another 200+ steps to the second, and 150 or so to the highest level - a total of 85 meters above the cathedral floor. We decided to tackle that after lunch.

Unfortunately there was no photography allowed inside, so our ascent of the first level is undocumented. The view down into the cathedral was breathtaking, especially after climbing all of those stairs. Margie decided against the next two levels, so it was up to Caitlin and I. Here are three pictures that start to capture the heights.

This is a view from the front of the church. Notice the clock in the upper right - there is another clock on its reverse side visible from the dome. The second level of the dome takes you to a ring where you can walk around the outside of the dome. The same clock from that level:

The final level of the dome takes you up a tremendous number of increasingly smaller spiral staircases. By the end both of my shoulders were touching the sides and I had to crouch to avoid hitting my head. We finally reemerged to a very small outside ring. Here is our new view of the clock:

There were some columns above us that I managed to capture by leaning backwards against the railing - Caitlin was not happy with this!

The view from the ground shows the two outer rings and the upper columns, if you look close:

A zoomed picture of the top:

The views from the top were amazing, of course!

After a bit of shopping (with one of us guarding the pub), it was back home for a power snooze then out to dinner. We found a great Thai restaurant very close to our flat, Thai Pot.

Great choice! On the way back we encountered one of many Scottish football fans in town for a big game. They are all wearing kilts, singing songs, and drinking heavily. As far as I know the football game is not happening anywhere around here but that seems irrelevant. Here is our new friend:

I doubt he will remember us, although he did appear to want to take Margie with him.