Adventures in London: 528 Steps

Mom with her Cheese Toastie.
The chocolate chip cookies/brownies
are in the background.

Got to sleep in this morning! Didn’t have to wake up until 8:30. J Before heading off on our day’s adventures we got ham and cheese croissants from Starbucks. They were actually pretty good. Then we went to Portobello Road. We got there around 10, just as they opened and there was no one there. Portobello is usually PACKED with people. You can’t walk down the street normally. But, there was no one there that early. It was really nice. Not all of the shops were open but it was totally fine because you had the market pretty much to yourself. We bought raspberries for £1 and they were huge! I also bought another watch. Like my other one, but turquoise and with a Union Jack watch face.

We headed across London for lunch. After walking across Millennium Bridge we went to Borough Market for lunch. I made Mom get a Cheese Toastie. She didn’t have much choice in the matter. They were very delicious. J We also got a giant chocolate chip cookie and a soft chocolate brownie. Also very delicious.

St. Paul's from across the Thames

Next we went back across Millennium Bridge and headed into St. Paul’s Cathedral. I hadn’t been there before so, it was new for me too. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but it was gorgeous! The artwork on the ceiling was AMAZING! It was so intricate and beautiful. We wandered around the main floor and even went down to the crypt. We saw William Blake’s grave. It had my favorite quote of his on it: 'To see a world in a grain of sand. And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.’ It was pretty cool. But, the highlight of St. Paul’s is walking up to the very top. 528 steps: all on spiral staircases. We went up the first 257 steps (shallow wooden steps). to get to the Whispering Gallery. It went around the inside of the dome. It was really cool to see the main hall from above. It was so pretty. Then we walked up the next 119 steps (tall stone steps) to get to the Stone Gallery, which went around the lower half of the dome on the outside. The view was really cool, restricted by the tall barrier, but it was still amazing. The final 152 steps (steep metal ones) were hard, but they ended at the top of the dome (the Golden Gallery) and you could walk out around the top part of the dome and see everything. It was amazing! The view was spectacular. You could see forever! After we walked back down the 528 steps we decided to stay for Evensong. It was cool. Their choir was really hard to understand, but the echo and the acoustics were amazing inside that cathedral. It was an interesting church service. A good interesting.

Ice cream sundaes!

After all that walking we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit before going out for dinner. After we relaxed for a bit, we went shopping at H&M. I got a jacket. Then we went to Ask Italian for dinner. It was right across the street from our hotel and I had never been there. Mom got a mushroom pasta dish and I had a Stromboli pizza. We both had a raspberry lemonade. It was really good. Then we bought vanilla ice cream so we could make our own ice cream sundaes with our leftover cookie/brownie from Borough Market. They were delicious!

And now I must go to bed. Enjoy the pictures!