I look out my window every day and see this giant dome.  It’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, and it looks glorious.  You can climb to the top, just like I did in the Duomo di Firenze in Florence, and look out at the city.  Jason, my step brother, recommended that I do just that.  So I did.  Today.

I’m not a big fan of paying to enter a church.  But I also understand that they are not funded by anything but donations, so fine.  I’ll pay.  What I didn’t expect was how totally worth it my £9.50 was.

St. Paul’s is incredibly beautiful inside.  Words can hardly describe it, and unfortunately, pictures aren’t allowed.  This is the same place that Princess Di married Prince Charles, so you probably have seen it, but the best parts are when you look up into the dome and all the mosaics on the ceilings.  You’ll just have to go.

I actually listened to my audio guide, probably for the first time since I’ve been here.  Partially because I was impressed that their audio guides were on iPod Touches, and partially because it was really interesting. 

After spending awhile listening to the guide and wandering around the Cathedral floor, I decided to start climbing the stairs.  528 of them to be exact. I did get a couple of breaks - after 257 steps I made it to the Whispering Gallery, which is inside the church sort of at the base of the dome.  It has these thingies in the walls where if you whisper into them, the people on the other side can hear it like you were standing right next to them.  Neat.

Then another 119 steps and I made it to the Stone Gallery, which is outside of the church at the base of the dome.  Super cold and windy.  OK views, not great.

And another 152 steps and I was at the top of the dome at the Golden Gallery.  A lot less scary than I remember it being in Florence, because like Americans, Brits understand the importance of a reasonably high railing when you’re 280 feet up.  The view was pretty amazing.

• Parliament and London Eye

• the bluish building (the front one) is where I live.

• Millenium Bridge and Tate Modern (gorgeous color for a river, huh?)

• crappy weather, but the Tower Bridge is in the distance.

• me and my hair…  and Parliament and the Eye.

After my trip upstairs, I went all the way back down…

• this part was actually better than the spiral staircases

…down into the Crypt.

The Crypt wasn’t too creepy, considering there were a lot of dead bodies hanging out down there.  Pretty interesting actually.  But I preferred the pretty parts upstairs in the Cathedral.

And that’s what I did today.

Last night I went down to Oxford Street to see the Christmas Lights.  The lights were turned on last Thursday I believe, and were the first to go on in London.  Oxford Street is the main shopping area and it’s super busy all the time, but last night wasn’t so bad.  Here are some of my favorite lighting displays:

• Selfridge’s

• Selfridge’s, again

• general Oxford Street lights

• more Oxford Street lights

Not having Thanksgiving around here is a little sad, but I guess the trade-off is that it’s Christmas here for 2 months straight.  Not all bad.  :)