Stairs - Lots and Lots of Stairs

Have I mentioned that I'm getting quite the workout on this trip? Not that surprising since usually you climb lots of stairs while traveling in Europe, but I'm taking stairs to a new level on this trip. Let's start with the fact that I live on the 4th floor of my building - with no elevator. So every time I come and go - 4 flights of stairs. And then of course there's the tube stations. Some of the deeper lines have escalators, but there's always stairs of some sort.

And then, on Thursday, I finally climbed the Dome at Saint Paul's Cathedral. On my last London trip, I went to Saint Paul's, but I was EXHAUSTED that day, and I chickened out on climbing the dome like a loser. This time, I was rather determined.

I remember being frustrated the last time I was in London that there were no good city views of London. Obviously I missed out. There are two brilliant city views of London - I just didn't do either of them the last time I was in London. One is the London Eye, the other is Saint Paul's. Beautiful, beautiful city skylines from both of these landmarks.

I don't recall whether I actually took a picture of the front of Saint Paul's the last time in London. I doubt it, because it doesn't look very familiar to me, and because it's next to impossible to capture it. You either get *some* of the front of Saint Paul's, or you get the whole front with trees.



The view from the top is lovely. You can see most of the major sites in London, at least a bit. The Tower and Buckingham Palace are both a bit too small, but the rest is at least semi-visible.

Here is the top!











After leaving St. Paul's, we headed over the river to have dinner at the same pub by the river as our last Globe trip. We barely made it inside before it started pouring rain. And then finished before we got out of the pub - it's amazing how fast the clouds move over this island! The result of the rainstorm, however, was a very pretty rainbow over the Thames:





We saw the Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe Thursday night, and I have to admit, it was really a wonderful production. I didn't care much for reading the Merry Wives of Windsor, but it definitely plays out fun on stage. Particularly the ending bit, with the people of Windsor all dressed up as faeries and picking on Falstaff in the woods - the costumes and masks were lovely, and they did this huge flashy dance and song number that was simply wonderful. I enjoyed it much, much more than King Lear at the Globe.

We have three plays down now and only two to go (within the program). Monday night we'll be seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe, and then next Thursday we're heading to Stratford-Upon-Avon for Taming of the Shrew! A few of us are discussing going back to Regent's Park on Tuesday night to see Romeo and Juliet. So that might be added to the mix.

After leaving the Globe, a few of us decided we weren't quite ready to turn in for the night yet, so we walked down the South Bank to see the Tower Bridge by night, which was simply lovely (as expected). I hadn't been down to the Tower Bridge yet on this trip yet either - so it was just nice to see one of the best sights in London finally.













Yesterday was....not the best. Took a day trip to Cambridge and got sick within an hour of getting off the train. Didn't really get anything out of the trip, and ended up coming home early to lie down.

But today...will be a fun day. My buddy Tas is coming up from Southampton for the weekend. We're going to run amok. Maybe swing by the Pride parade. And eventually sit down and watch the Doctor Who finale together. It should be a fun day!