And I Thought the 63 Stairs to My Room Was a Lot.

OH my goodness, can I just tell you how happy I am that pictures are uploading! Mom and Dad-you can actually see what I'm doing!

Ok so today was amazing! Possibly the best day so far! It was our first city field trip. Usually we have these on Fridays and our day trips on Wednesday but this week they are switched. So, today we went to St. Paul's cathedral, and the Museum of London. As soon as I walked out of the tube station (tube strike is over... I'm not sure if it did anything except make the locals exercise more-the mayor requested they bike to work) I was in awe of this place. It is absolutely gorgeous. It is so big, and beautiful. We had a few minutes before our tour began so of course we spent the time taking pictures, and sitting on the steps pretending that we were on Gossip Girl. (I got to be Blair because I had a headband on).

Nicki, Sarryn, Jessica, Me and Katie in front of St. Pauls

I love these doors

Kaitlyn, Lisa, Sarah, Annie, Kim, Nicki, Carolyn, Me, Jessica, Katie and Sarryn

Finally, it came time for the tour, or they decided that they were done having us work on our America's Next Top Model looks on their steps. Now they don't allow pictures inside the Cathedral, except for one spot, but let me just tell you-it is beautiful. There has been a church there basically since the beginning of time, the version before this one though was mostly destroyed in the great London fire in 1666. (I totally didn't even have to look up the year-I'm learning so much here!) So then this was built. Since then it's had a few renovations, and fixings-like after it got hit twice by the Blitz during WW2. You could never tell though. It is absolutely gorgeous. I loved being there. It isn't dark or dreary like many other Cathedrals I've been to, it was happy and beautiful.

Now, here is one spot where they said we could take pictures:

I'm standing on the ground looking up at these stairs, by the way. And do they look familiar? Opening sequence of Sherlock Holmes where they fight down the stairs? Or maybe you've heard of a little movie called Harry Potter? Yea Dumbledoors office may or may not be at the top! :)

After here we were split into groups and we got the full tour. I enjoyed the whole Cathedral, but learning about the US WW2 memorial in the northern most end was my favorite for sure. We lost over 20,000 troops in Britain during WW2, and after the war the government mentioned that they would like a memorial somewhere in Britain. The British responded warmly, and not only said they would like to give us one, but gave us one of the most prized spots in all of London-the northernmost part of St. Paul's Cathedral. It is beautiful. There are three stained glass windows representing service, sacrifice, and um... sanctification?not sure. And there is this huge book that has the name of every solider we lost here. Everyday they turn it to the next page. They also have a copy of it somewhere else so people can look up their relatives. Cool huh? I loved it.

You know what came next? Over 590 stairs. Yes that is how many steps it takes to get to the top of the dome, where you can go out and walk around, and see the entire city of London. Now after the first 300 or so, and a stop at the Whisper Gallery I was feeling pretty good. They only get harder though! But, once you make it to the top and see this:

IT'S MORE THAN WORTH IT

I loved it out here, being able to see so far. It was absolutely beautiful.

Sadly many people took markers to the outside to show that they made it to the top. It is sad for the church but provides another good background for photos! ha ha Like I said earlier-I'm just glad these are uploading!

Next came the hardest part, walking down the stairs. It went much faster but a combination of a few things left me very light headed. Pretty soon I couldn't tell where one stair started and another stopped. I almost passed out right there on the steps. Luckily I made it down, and after getting some food into me I was as good as new! Except for the fact that my legs wouldn't stop shaking-thats how we all were though so I don't feel too bad :)

Next was the museum of London. Now they allowed you take pictures but I was having lots of fun, and didn't take to many. They have cool stuff about and from London since basically when the Dinosaurs were here. Ok, a bit of an exaggeration-I don't even know if Dinosaurs were here. However, the museum is very cool just the same. I loved the section about the Victorian age, and the 40s. Also we got to see a book written by Thomas Moore. Like written by him. Ya know-in his handwriting. There were many very cool things. Including this little gem!

Fancy huh? Anyways the museum was great. Overall the whole day was just wonderful. The rest of it was spent doing laundry, homework, and exercises... and eating ice cream. See the exercises on top of the 590 stairs more than make up for the ice cream!

If you can't tell... I'm loving it here.

But if you can't tell that then you obviously didn't read this, or any post!