London - page 3

November 10-18, 1999

Page 3

Thursday, November 11 (continued)

Across a very busy street at the end of the park, is Buckingham Palace. It seems strange that the palace sits right on a busy street with very little if any lawn in front. After a few shots of the palace and the statues out front, I walked back down the Mall towards Lord Nelson’s Colunm to find a Tube station.

Buckingham Palace
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Statue of Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace
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Statue of Queen Victoria with Buckingham Palace in the background
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After a quick trip back to the hotel for a change into more comfortable walking shoes, I headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I found a great little streetfront deli and had lunch on a bench, looking up at St. Paul’s. The Cathedral was even more ornate and beautiful than I remembered. The outside was being renovated, but only the back half of the dome was scaffolded. They didn’t allow photography inside the cathedral this time, but I took a few shots inside the stairwells and of the city skyline from the top. Just as I was headed for the stairwell, I ran into the ladies from the Airbus trip - Barbara, her daughter Cynthia, and Cynthia’s one-year old daughter Sophie. They were with a tour group so we only had time to say hello and gasp at the possibility of running into each other again. Small world indeed! The climb to the top of the dome wasn’t as bad I remembered, but I wasn’t climbing with a time limit this time. It was cold and very windy on top of St. Paul’s but the view was wonderful. I sat down in the Whispering Gallery for a little while on the way back down and listened to the pipe organ for a bit while I planned where to go next. It was getting late, so I decided to just head back to the hotel and call it a night.

Finding a Tube stop again took a little time. The only maps I had were either of the streets or of the Tubes. Tube Stations weren’t marked on the street maps, so there was a lot of wandering aimlessly on this trip. Once I got all the transfers right, I finally made it back to the hotel and started packing. Tomorrow I have to make my way to Heathrow to the convention hotel. I’ve decided to wait until 11:00 to avoid rush hour on the tubes. I’m not looking forward to dragging all my heavy luggage through the Tubes.