It was Jennifer’s Birthday today and so we decided to take a day out in London and also include my wish to visit St Paul’s Cathedral, more of that later.
A pleasant train journey, I must say that South West Trains are very good, over the past year they have been on time and always new and almost clean trains. Well done. Any way I digress.
The first stop was Jennifer’s birthday present which was a visit to Rigby & Pellar Ltd, the famous London based ladies underwear shop right next door to Harrods. We arrived at a very nice looking establishment with a doorman resplendent in a smart uniform to let us in. There was already a small queue of ladies of mixed age waiting for the measuring service sitting in a line awaiting the ministrations of an attendant. Jennifer said do I want to sit down and wait? , but the thought of passers by looking at this guy sitting in a line of women waiting to be measured for a ‘C’ or ‘B’ or even a ‘world’ cup did not appeal and so I did a walk around Knightsbridge. One hour later and a little lighter bank balance we left for St Paul’s Cathedral.
Not many people know that when I was a young lad in my early teens I was a choirboy with a great voice and was asked to join a small select choir outing to St Paul’s where I and another thousand choristers sang for our supper for a couple of hours. It was an amazing experience for me and obviously for my parents, my father was obviously quite overcome by this occasion and only just having come from a cocktail party decided to tell my mum “isnsht it bloody lovely” the only trouble was that they were sitting in the whispering gallery and so it echoed all around.
St Paul’s Cathedral is undergoing a complete restoration with most of the inside complete and about half done on the outside and it looks magnificent. For some reason they say not to take pictures, not sure why, perhaps they want to sell their own books but anyway I sneaked a few shots. This is a beautiful building finished by Sir Christopher Wren in 1710 and it is huge. We visited the crypt and also the whispering gallery where we listened to the organ being tested or tuned and up here in the heights the sound was most impressive. It is well worth a visit. I have added a link of St Paul’s to the site. My only negative comment is that why in a house of God do we honour those past warriors of war and not the peaceful people?
We finished the day with a quick dinner at Wagamama’s Asian fusion restaurant on the South Bank and then went to the IMAX to use up some free tickets to see Superman Returns. The visual effects were good but the story line was poor, alright for kids though.
A nice day out.
All photos can be seen at http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/album/105698
