Sir Christopher Wren's St. Paul's

London's Great Fire of 1666 burnt down nearly 80% of London city. Among which was the old St. Paul's Cathedral. This gave a chance to Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild numerous public building, including St. Paul's and fifty other churches. This cathedral was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. The dome is second only to St Peter's in the world.

Have it been opened on Sundays for the public, it would have been among the first few sites for us to visit. But alas it was only on our second day that we have the chance to enter this magnificent cathedral.

After climbing up the winding staircase we reached the Whispering Gallery. The acoustics of the gallery was so well accomplished that when one person sat on one side and whispered to the wall, the other sitting on the opposite was able to hear the whisper. We thought it must have been some gimmick for attracting tourists, but after seeing how one couple did it, we tried, and amazingly it really is true. A search online shows that this can be accomplished with any gallery with a dome structure and can be found in other domed structures as well.

After the Whispering Gallery, we climbed up even higher and came up at the top of the dome, on a viewing balcony where we were presented with this magnificent view. If you look close enough, you can see the London Eye in the middle of the photo.

This is the Great West Door with the clock tower. This was where the entrance to the Cathedral was located. The pigeon was a pleasant surprise to me as well, as I didn't expect it to pass my frame. I noticed it only after the photo was downloaded to my laptop.

This view can only be seen from the river, on board a Thames river cruise, while we were passing the Millennium Bridge. This bridge was also known as the Wobbly Bridge, due to the fact that when it first opened to the public, the bridge started swaying sideways due to the passing crowd. The bridge was closed and modified to eliminate that.

What's Black, Red and Goes Around on Wheels?

London Buses and London Cabs!

Bright red London double-deckers are seen everywhere in the city. The ebony black London cabs are more expensive to travel in but really spacious and comfortable for the passenger at the back. We saw one guy put his bicycle in the back together with him when he board the cab. O_o

It pays to wait a while for one of them to pass you just before you click on the camera. You'll see them everywhere! Beep beep! Buckingham Palace!

I thought they were all black, but I was proved wrong with numerous with different colours and some even with patterns. Honk honk! Another one driving along Westminster Bridge, passing the magnificent London Eye!

There goes the bus! In front of Royal Albert Hall, opposite Hyde Park where Royal Albert Memorial is at! It was fun sitting at the top floor, at the very front. You can feel as if the bus will run down those people in the bus stop waiting to board while it came to a smooth stop.

The Royal Albert Memorial sits opposite the Hall. I'd found a way to take a photo of both of them. (Me and my gal were captured in the photo as well, try to find us... ;P )

Now in Westminster Abbey! They were everywhere! It was nice to travel on them, when you had the day pass or better still, the Oyster travel card. You can hop on and hop off as the daily rate was capped: Unlimited travel around the city and just blindly going up any busses!

Now, this is called traveling in style, the London way!

The London Eye

Behold, the London Eye! One of the biggest observation wheels in the world.

It was built to celebrate the millennium, and when it was opened to the public, was the tallest. It is now surpassed by the Singapore Flyer, they were both very similar. However I have not yet have the chance to board the one in Singapore, yet.

The pods were really spacious, easily able to accommodate nearly 20 persons. A small air conditioning unit was left in the pod, keeping it well ventilated and cool while you take your own sweet time savoring the views of London from above. Due to its location, you can see the Houses of Parliament very clearly. At the distant, you can see St. Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge (commonly and mistakenly known as London Bridge, about that in coming posts...) . The views were spectacular, however the sun was nearly at the horizon and it was hard to look at buildings on the west. We took the 830pm ride and the sun had not set, amazing no?

The night scene was taken just past 11pm, accompanying the Eye, is the London Aquarium. We did not have time to visit that however. These are the new attractions to revive the south bank of the Thames. The dark moonless night brought out the best of the London Eye.