This is the last set of pictures from Boxing Day in London. It includes photos from St. Paul’s Cathedral as well as the Globe Theater and the Millennium Bridge.
St. Paul’s Cathedral
This is where Prince Charles and Princess Diana got married. It costs money to tour and interior photography is strictly forbidden so we decided to take pictures outside. However, Sunday services are free.
However, that’s not where we’ll begin.
When we got out of the Tube station, this dinky little church was the first thing we saw. We wondered why the place was so empty. Imagine our disappointment. So this was the heralded St. Paul’s Cathedral?
Of course, it turned out to be some unrelated church that had the misfortune of being directly next to the Tube station marked ‘St. Paul’s Church.’ The actual church was behind us, its dome towering above the mobile phone and coffee shops blocking us from the courtyard. We went into the alley and turned a right, bypassed some statues and Christmas tree, and came across…
…the Temple Bar, which is the last remaining gate into Old London. In simpler times, travelers to London had to pass under these gates. As London expanded, it didn’t make sense to keep them around. So they were torn down. The Temple Bar was purchased and placed here for the purposes of preserving history.
This is the view of the city from the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The sun was starting to set at this time (around 3:00p). It made the sky look kind of like those fake ceilings you see in Vegas casinos. The buildings themselves weren’t actually this dark. But for some reason, my camera was unable to capture this correctly.
There’s a statue of Queen Anne in front of the church. She was the first Queen of the ‘Kingdom of Great Britain,’ which was a union of England and Scotland. She also held the crown as Queen of Ireland and Queen of France. So basically, she ruled a lot of people.
Here’s the front of St. Paul’s Cathedral with Queen Anne’s statue.
The building isn’t actually made of gold. But the sunset makes the white stone reflect as such.
Here’s an image of the Cathedral’s famous dome.
Millennium Bridge
We then walked further east and south to the Millennium Bridge. This is of course the futuristic looking suspension bridge that the Death Eaters destroy in the opening scene of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The air smelled nice because this guy was cooking meat. Mmm.
The skies are actually pretty in London… when the sun gets a chance to shine. This is a shot from the Millennium Bridge, facing west.
This shot was taken at the south end of the bridge (near Tate Modern) looking back across the river at St. Paul’s Cathedral. To the right of where I was standing was a homeless man.
Here’s a view of the bridge from the west looking east.
Here’s the bridge from the east looking west.
Globe Theater (Shakespeare’s Globe)
The Globe Theater is where William Shakespeare’s plays were performed. Well, not really. The actual Globe burned down in the 1600s. This is a replica that was opened in 1997. Instead of actually being made out of wood, it’s all painted on.
Here’s a view of the Globe from the Millennium Bridge. It looks good from far away. But keep in mind that the brown structure of the building is an elaborate deception.
Here it is from the walkway. Yay.
At this point, we wandered around a bit until we found the London Bridge station and went back to Piccadilly Circus to take the night photos I posted earlier. That’s it, folks. Happy Boxing Day!
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