Day 28 Spiral Staircases

Day 28 was my last day in London.  Later that day, I was heading to York to visit my friend Karen (another English friend from my days in Canada).  My train wasn't until 3:00 so I'd decided to go to St. Paul's Cathedral in the late part of the morning then head to the train station.  Be impressed people, I made it to St. Paul's WITHOUT getting lost.  Yes, I went the right way out of the tube station.  And then I could easily see the cathedral so I just kept walking toward it and found the entrance.  Woohoo!  I got there around 10:45/50 and there was a guided tour at 11:00 so I wandered around for a few minutes and then did the guided tour, which was very informative.  It was about an hour and a half long, but it did not include visits to the top sections of the cathedral.  Unfortunately, you were only allowed to take pictures in one spot inside so apologies for the lack of indoor pics.  You'll just have to trust me when I say the inside was cool.  If you ever get the chance to go to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, you should do it.  After the tour, you could climb many spiral staircases to various sections.  Since it wasn't 1:00 yet, I figured I'd give it a try.  I climbed the first sections and enjoyed the indoor views.  You could look down inside the cathedral and get a cool view from above.  Then it was up some more stairs that were narrower to the next section.  As I was climbing, all I could think at one point was that if I fell down there'd be no one to rescue me.  Okay, that's probably a lie as there were tons of people visiting and many employees.  I'm sure if there were a real emergency and I did fall, someone would ask if I were all right and maybe call an ambulance if needed.  When I was in Galway, one of the women in my program stopped by my "famous" window one evening and told me when she was in town a little while ago, a young woman had fallen down and injured her ankle.  She was traveling alone so some strangers stopped to help her.  She said she worried about people who were traveling solo if they fell and got hurt. So yes, these are the things I think about as I'm climbing these crazy stairs.  Anyway, I got to the top (or so I thought) and enjoyed some more views outside.  I figured I'd head back down now--wait, what does that sign say?  There's still another section?  Oh, boy, time to climb some more stairs.  Up up up--you get the idea and again more nice views, but it was after 1:00 and my train was at 3:00 and I still needed to go to the hotel to get my luggage so a few pictures later and it was back down the stairs.  Down, down, down--you get the idea.  I'm not sure which is worse going up or going down.  Then out to the exit where I finally got smart and asked a security guard where the tube station was.  Back on the tube to the hotel, got my luggage, the concierge got me a taxi and it was off to Paddington Station.  (I'd checked out earlier, but stored my luggage.) I wasn't thrilled with the idea of lugging my luggage on the tube so I decided I'd just spend the money and take a taxi.  It was between $20 and $25, which was annoying, but definitely worth it.  I was a little early so I walked around a bit, watched people dress up in Harry Potter attire to have their picture taken in front of the sign for Platform 9 and 3/4 and then decided to grab some lunch to go.  I was planning to eat it before I got on the train, but they called the train to board a few minutes later so I ate on the train.  I was so nervous about fitting my luggage on the train, but I succeeded.  It was a little squishy because I was seated at a table of four with a big purse, lunch, and strangers, but I managed.  The train was nice enough otherwise.  I made some nice progress on my book and 2 1/2 hours after leaving London I was in York. A few minutes later Karen met me and then we found her boyfriend Luke who drove us home.  We had a nice evening in complete with yummy fajitas, good conversation, and a bit of tv.     It was an enjoyable last day in London and a nice first night in York.

These are NOT the stairs I climbed, but this is one of the only spots inside where you are allowed to take pictures.

  See how high I climbed.  Look at that view.