St. Paul's was designed by Christopher Wren

CQH has known this fact for several years now, thanks to Miroslav Sasek.  But there's nothing like actually being in St. Paul's and immersing one's self in Wren's abundance of magnificence.  Unfortunately there is no photography allowed inside St. Paul's, so I was limited to outside pics.

 EBH and I walked to the very top, past the Whispering Gallery and past the external Stone Gallery at the base of the dome. This is now on top of the dome, looking down.  Through that (hopefully very thick and secure) piece of plexiglass you can see the sunburst mosaic on the cathedral floor, 225 feet below.  I'm actually between the inner dome and the outer dome here, and it was a little freakish to think that when you're down on the floor looking up into the dome, there could well be someone up there looking right back at you.

This is the highest the public can go at St. Paul's.  E was delighted.  It's called the Golden Gallery, and it's a very narrow external walkway at the top of the dome, with only those railings to prevent someone sliding down the outside of the dome and plunging to their certain death 280 feet below.

See?

But the views!  Ah, the views.  Here is the rather uninspiring "Shard"--that glass pyramid skyscraper in the background--but I can forgive even its monstrosity when it's subsumed into a view like this.

 Just around the corner, looking west down the Thames toward the London Eye and Westminster.  It had been a glorious, sunny winter day, and we got to the top right before sunset.  Couldn't have been more picturesque.

 And on our way home, a stop by the front steps, made famous by the old lady in Mary Poppins: "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag."