Westminster and St. Paul’s

                      Westminster and St. Paul’s 

       5th June 2018

 Today we didn’t know what a surprise was in store for us as we traveled to our capital city London
Our journey starts by climbing aboard a Grand Central Train heading for Kings Cross Station.
We will eventually be a party of Eight. John will join the train first at Bradford, Eddie Colin Derek
Keith Malcolm and Dave will join at Wakefield. Jeff is reaching Kings Cross by a different train.
Our train was to leave Wakefield Kirkgate at 7:42 , arriving in London at a few minutes past
10 o’clock . This didn’t happen, signalling problems near Grantham caused a 25 minutes delay.
On arrival at Kings Cross our first objective was to consume a delicious sausage and egg sandwich at the Leon cafe here at the station. From here we now took the underground railway to Westminster.
A short walk now to reach the doors of the Abbey and gain entrance to this magnificent building, once inside the splendour became apparent. A guide monitor and earphones where presented to us in order to help discover the many artefacts placed in the Abbey, such a tremendous amount of history about our past monarchy our statesmen and military personnel etc.Such a wonderful experience. Much more time could have been spent here in the Abbey but other venues await us, so time was of the essence. We had allocated about two hours for this visit.







1:30 and we are now heading for St. Paul’s Cathedral a short tube ride journey away with directions to hand we set off in that direction. Once in the vacinity of St. Pauls it took a while to find the correct entrance gate, this established we now entered an amazing place, the size of this magnificent building
just blew us all away, what a structure , the foresight of Sir Christopher Wren and the craftsmanship of the builders of bygone times was beyond our imagination, fantastic!
Once again we had a guide monitor and earphones to help navigate this huge treasure trove, after
some time spent on the ground floor a collective decision was made to go and experience the views from up above, with the knowledge of there being 500 plus steps to climb we began our ascent. First stop the whispering gallery, a circular concept giving us great views of the cathedral floor some 90 feet below us at this point.









A few more steps takes us up to the stone gallery, a vantage platform giving a 360 degree  view of the city and a chance catch our breath. After a brief stroll around this gallery it’s onward and upwards to our next vantage point, some 275 feet above the cathedral floor.











Dave and Keith enjoying these spectacular views of the city.












Descending the 528 steps took about 20 minutes or so , now for the Crypt a floor below.
Much more to see down here , the tombs of Nelson and Wellington along with other distinguished 
People.  Now as the time approaches 6 o’clock it is time to leave this wonderful experience behind and have a well deserved lunch/ tea. This we enjoyed at a nearby McDonald’s.while being entertained by an enthusiastic Daniella.







Now time to stretch our legs again, this time we venture across the milenium bridge which crosses the river Thames. A riverside stroll now takes place before we cross the river at Blackfriars and take the underground train back to St. Pancras. 










With about twenty minutes till our train back home leaves,  we spend these moments reflecting upon the wonderful experience of today.



Cheers Lads for a great day.




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