St. Paul's Cathedral

The weather in London, lately, has been so unlike the spring weather I expected to experience here. The temperatures have been mostly normal, but the surprising bit is how often the sun is out! And I mean, truly sunny.. and not just "sunny spells" or "bouts of sun" as the British weather forecasters normally predict (they never speak about the sun in positive terms.) Hence, I decided to spend one of these wonderfully sunny days at St. Paul's Cathedral.  I had been waiting for a proper day to take in the views of London at the very tip-top of the dome, over 500 steps from the floor of the cathedral. The Thames, Tower Bridge, London Eye look amazing from so high up, especially on a beautiful day full of sun. I had never been inside St. Paul's before either. I've only seen the exterior from the Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern or an open-topped, double-decker, sight-seeing bus. Photography inside the cathedral was not allowed and although I did enjoy learning about the architecture and history of the interior, the main reason I had come was to climb the stairs to look out over this amazing city ;)

First, I climbed to the Stone Gallery:

Then I continued up a tiny, twisty passage...

a window in the floor... right in the middle
of the dome looking down to the cathedral floor!

And now the views from the Golden Gallery:

for perspective... 

disclaimer: this post was to go up two days ago, but Blogger has not been cooperative! 

White Horse Hill

Gavin and I took advantage of the May Day bank holiday to head out to the country, both to hike and see the famous White Horse Hill! I may have said this before, but we've become a bit obsessed with a program here called Time Team. It follows an archaeological dig for three days somewhere in the British countryside. The team will look for artifacts from any time period, but what I'm quite taken with are the Iron-Age hill fort digs. These hill forts are massive earthworks created and maintained, literally, thousands of years ago. It's amazing to think of the human power it took to sculpt them from the hillsides and you can still see them from miles away.

After some careful researching in my fabulous Walking in Britain book, we hit upon the jackpot: quintessential English towns, the fantastic Ridgeway National Trail which linked up the White Horse Hill earthwork, an Iron-age hill fort and burial ground and the legendary spot where St. George slew the dragon! All within about a four mile radius, no less! It was a gorgeous spring day, despite the 30 mph winds and we had a great time.

the White Horse Hill (better to view it from farther away)

rapeseed oil fields

where St. George slew the dragon

the white horse up close

approaching the hill fort from the Ridgeway

climbing one of the garrisons to the hill fort

Wayland Smithy, the Iron-Age burial ground

Wills and Kate

It has been quite exciting to be in London for a royal wedding. You could just feel the anticipation in the air! I'll admit I even got a bit of the fever myself, if only for her dress. Even though I didn't travel into Westminster to get a glimpse of the happy couple, I was able to attend the next best thing: a neighborhood street party. Through Chewie (of course), I've managed to meet a number of very nice dog people at the park and I was lucky enough for (as I've affectionately nicknamed them - after their dog) "the Busbys" to invite me to their block's street party. It was a jolly good time... (see, I'm becoming British!) There was good food on the barbie, cheap wine poured by 10 year olds, potato sack, three-legged and egg-on-spoon races, delicious cakes to enjoy and a very warm welcome for an American crashing the party. Oh, and we watched the ceremony and balcony appearance - the main reason of the day... aside from that drop-dead gorgeous dress! Best wishes to Kate and William!

Wills!

the aforementioned under-underage bartenders...

Harry!

God save Queenie!