Wednesday 3rd August 2011

HELLO TO ALL
Just think as of next week no one will have to read this anymore.
We had brekky and set off this mornig to start our day at St Paul's Cathedral, beyond beautiful, I know I say this about them all but this was just perfect, designed by Christopher Wren, who designed most of the churches in London after the great fire, but it is almost too beautiful. When it was built they did not embelish it but he had done all the plans for its embelishment and even though it was 300 years later,in the 19th century it was embelished and the altar he designed were all done, if you do not see anything else in London you need to see St Pauls, it only took 35 years to build. A banker named Fleming paid restoration work back 100 years or so ago and his descendants have just paid for the cleaning of the stone at a cost of eleven million inside and Paul Getty paid for the cleaning of the front at cost of six million, he passed away before it was done but his widow was at the opening of the newly cleaned building and she said he would have been very delighted. These people have an enormous amount of money but it was not for them and their generosity none of these amazing places would survive. Our guide was a very passionate fellow in his 70s gave us a fabulous guided tour, we missed out on nothing.
We had a coffee and cake in the cafe in the cathedral and then headed off to see the newly constructed Globe Theatre. They have done an amazing job and it is an authentic Elizabethan rebuild, we actually saw a rehearsal in progress and got to be part of the audience, Sam really enjoyed this, probably because it was not in an Abbey/Cathedral/Church I guess. You are very exhausted after these days, so we caught the train home, I do think London is so much nicer than Paris, the women dress so much better and they are way prettier too. There is just something about the place, you know how you get a feeling for a place. We have a lot planned for tomorrow so I will sign off Sam and Sabine