The three of us caught the train at Wandsworth Common and headed to London Bridge station where we changed to another train heading into Cannon Street. Across the street from the Cannon Street station in the facade of the HSBC is a small glass case with a brass plaque. Ignored by almost everyone passing by, the London Stone a piece of a much larger stone that is possibly more than 3000 years old or may have been laid by the Romans or druids.

At one time, it may have marked the centre of London and it has been mentioned in the history of London on a number of occasions.

We next headed off to see what else was in the neighbourhood and came across St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The current St. Paul’s Cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the last 1600’s and is actually the third design he proposed. There were earlier chuches on the same location but they had this nasty habbit of getting hit by lightning, burning to the ground and so on.

The ceilings of the cathedral are amazing tile mosaics. Many surfaces are coated in gold. On the main floor, there are numerous memorials to many people and military units.

In the basement lies the crypt. It contains the remains of many people from British history and memorials to even more. Some people have simple stone markers while others, such as that of Admiral Lord Nelson, are grand carved stone monuments.

Wren is buried in the crypt and his marker is quite plain. The last sentence of the inscription reads Si monumentum requiris, circumspice which means If you seek his monument, look around.

One of the famous parts of St. Paul’s is the Whispering Gallery. It runs around the interior of the Dome 259 steps up from ground-level. It is so named because someone whispering on one side can be clearly head on the other. Unfortunately, the lineup to get up to its level was huge so we didn’t get up there.

From St. Paul’s we took a bus to Victoria station and returned home to get ready for Les Miserables. Yuki was able to arrange for tickets through her school. We met up with Christine, a friend of her’s, and headed downtown for dinner in Chinatown before the show.

This was the second time I’d seen it and it’s just as moving a story now as the first time I saw it. The sets were quite impressive and the actors were very good.

The four of us headed back to Wandsworth Common and Christine drove us home.

Click here to view pictures from Day 6.