After the park, I went to a little coffee shop and read Casino Royale for film, did some grocery shopping, and called it a day. It's been so nice that it stays lighter longer now-until 8 now! Ah!
On Tuesday we went to Cork Street for media and society. It was another art lesson in class, so none of us understood why we were going to Cork Street. The short street is filled with high end art galleries (i.e. 50,000 pounds per piece). Mo didn't really even explain what we were doing there, we just walked into galleries, looked around for a few minutes since the galleries were so small, then left. At least it was BEAUTIFUL outside. Still cold, but brilliant sunlight. We all just wanted to stay outside and bask in the sunlight.
Sunny Piccadilly Circus!
Later that afternoon, I went on perhaps the coolest JMU outing so far. For Culture by Design, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what it had to do with CBD, but I don't really care. It was really neat. We had a guided tour of the cathedral, which has a very long history. There has been some form of cathedral there since 604. The current one is actually the fifth St. Paul's. It was designed and built by Christopher Wren after a fire in the 17th century. The church was completed in 1710 and has been an icon of London ever since. Like the dome in Florence, the dome atop St. Paul's was pretty much an architectural miracle at the time. Since it is so iconic, St. Paul's was under attack during the Blitz during World War 2. However, thanks to constant fire-fighting, St. Paul's escaped the war relatively unscathed. Churchill understood that the survival of St. Paul's was a metaphor for Britain's survival; if the Cathedral went down, so would the morale of the country.
After walking around the cathedral and learning about the interior architecture, we were able to climb to the top of the dome! I'm just climbing everything in Europe apparently. I couldn't help but compare the climb to climbing the Duomo in Florence. St. Paul's was more stairs (528), but it was worse because when you got to the uppermost stairs, they were see through. In Florence, everything was just narrow, stone spiral stair cases. St. Paul's were terrifying. But the view was cooler. Florence is beautiful and all, but I have no emotional connection to it. London is my city. I've walked on the streets I saw from above countless times. From up top, I could see everywhere I'd been and where I haven't. It was windy and cold, but I had to take a moment to realize how special this opportunity was. Okay cheesiness over; basically, it was awesome. We also really lucked out with the weather. It was so clear you could see for miles.
Wednesday morning, we went to the London Transport Museum. Understandably, the museum talked mostly about the Tube. But before that, it had information about travel on the Thames, steam engines, and horse-drawn carriages. London's underground system is the first in the world, and it took a significant amount of planning to get it perfect. The first underground line was completed in 1863 and includes parts of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines. Engineers had to figure out how to move trains underground without steam, so they developed electric trains, which were first used on what became the Northern line in 1890. Most of the lines still in use today opened in the early 1900s. The trains used to be privately owned, but were bought by the London government in 1933. Today, the transport system includes the underground, buses, taxis, and above ground trains. They had lots of interactive things, and trains and buses you could climb on. All I can say it, Chris would have had a field day. It was fascinating to learn so many things about something I use every day. This year is pretty cool because it's the 150th year of the underground! I managed to get some Tube socks at the gift shop...get it...TUBE socks?!
For art, we went to the Tate Modern. This required getting off at the St. Paul's tube stop and walking across the Millennium Bridge. It was a strange feeling, crossing the Millennium Bridge; I haven't done so since the first night we were here. The temperature was about the same, but it was still light outside and I actually knew where I was going. It was a really cool experience seeing both sides of the river. Anyway, we just looked at some good old modern art at the Tate. I'm always unsure how I feel about modern art. I like some of it, but it's all so subjective it's very often hard for me to connect with the emotions the artist felt while making the piece. There were definitely some pieces that I didn't like, but we saw some Jackson Pollack, which I really like. There was also a really cool room with two brightly lit tables, one on the ground and one suspended from the ceiling. Every few minutes, the one on the ceiling would be lowered down on top of the other one, then back again. When the tables were together, the room was completely dark. It was a really cool experience. We're going back next week for the Lichtenstein exhibit, which I'm excited about!
This weekend we're going to PARIS! I'm SO excited! The weather isn't exactly going to be springy, but that's okay. Maybe I should brush up on some French phrases, seeing as I know none...Au revoir until Sunday!
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