Guns, Stairs and God

I now have jello for legs.

Today Mom and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where you can walk up the to various galleries in the dome. It was beautiful as all cathedral's are. I put up pictures of the view from the second of three galleries, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the church. I got to see the tombs of a slew of British heroes-- Nelson, Wellington--yes the guy who gave us beef Wellington-- and Cornwallis. Lots of military men. Also there were a large number of memorials to men lost in particular battles erected at the expense of the British people. It was very different for me to find a memorial list of all British military lost during WWII within a church. I chalk it up to the fact that Britain doesn't have the same separation of church and state that the US does, so the government can erect memorials in a religious setting. The other unexpected part of St. Paul's, for me, was a memorial to the US soldiers based in Britain during WWII. Again a weird mix an of war, state and religion as it was unveiled by H.M. Queen Elizabeth in 1958 with Richard Nixon as our representative-- I know don't we wish that wasn't literally carved in stone.

Then we went to the Tower of London, which is actually quite the complex. Lots of history, just my thing. We took a tour with the jailers (spelled gaolers) who live inside the complex, guard the jewels and give tours, I'm sure they do more but that was the general gist I got. There were lots of weapons and a beautiful chapel. It was quite the interesting time capsule.

As to my legs, I feel like I've walked an innumerable number of stairs today. Up from the ground floor of the cathedral to the galleries, then back down, up and down the various levels of the 20 total towers within the Tower of London, and tack on little spurts in and out of tube stops, and well I'm getting some great/terrible leg workouts. Well I'm off to bed, I have an early start tomorrow for our day trip out to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath.