Best of London...St. Paul's Cathedral & Westminster Abbey

I think everyone has their favorite. Some people are partial to Westminster Abbey and others to St. Paul's Cathedral. You probably want to do both, as they are unique and different and then you can decide for yourself which keeps drawing you back.

Westminster Abbey has been around in some fashion since the late 11th century though the current structure was largely from the 13th century.  The stones are worn and uneven from centuries of foot traffic. There are many tombs of ancient Kings and Queens, including Queen Mary and her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, who it may surprise you to know are buried together. Additionally, many literary and scientific figures are memorialized there even if not actually buried or entombed inside the Abbey. Westminster featured in "The Da'Vinci Code", notably the Issac Newton statue, sparking additional interest in the Abbey for not entirely honest reasons, until of course that was overshadowed by the Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. You could spend all day just looking at the ornate detail, stained glass, tombstones, statues, etc., to say nothing of appreciating it AS a religious building. There is a line up of statues above the outside doors, best recognized for being where the Royal Wedding Guests entered and exited that wedding, and where you typically exit after the touring. If you look close, you will see that one of them is Martin Luther King, Jr. They do have a very NICE gift shop next to that exit. (To enter, you do have to pay and the entrance is on the north side. If you see a school group in front of you, I suggest you come back another time or day.)

St. Paul's Cathedral is young by comparison. There has been a "St. Paul's" on that site for nearly as long, but the prior church, a marvel in it's own right, burnt to the ground in 1666. The magnificent cathedral that stands there today is Sir Christopher Wren's marvel, completed in the early 18th century. Whereas Westminster primarily seems made of stone and packed with tombs so you wind through sometimes narrow passages, Westminster seems like a marble palace. Open, airy, bright. spacious, breath-taking. It too had it's Royal wedding, that of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Admiral Nelson is entombed there. You can climb up to a whispering gallery, assuming you can handle about 200 stairs. The dome is the striking noticeable feature of the outside and the inside as well. It has it's own history, apart from the rest of the structure. St. Paul's was sort of the symbol of Great Britain during WWII when the Germans were bombing regularly and seeing that dome still there each morning gave the people assurance that they had survived another night. At the east end there is the American Gallery. There is a large stain-glassed window with a square representing all 50 states. Very poignantly, there is also a book that lists the names of all the Americans who died in WWII helping to defend England. They turn a page every day. Spend a moment looking at that book, reading down the list of names, and try to keep dry eyes. I'm not sure if you still can, but at one time, if the climb to the Whispering Gallery seemed like a warm-up, you could continue all the way up inside the inner part of the dome, to the very top where you could stand outside. Now THAT is a view.

To walk around and tour you do have to pay. And at least once, it is definitely worth it. But, I also have to recommend attending Evensong some evening. It's a church service so you can't just roam around. But the singing is wonderful and atmospheric. It's peaceful. Sit so you can look up in the dome as you hear the singing. 

There is a very nice gift shop here too, in the basement and you do not have to pay to enter this area. There is a coffee shop and restaurant as well. And rest rooms. If you are in the neighborhood, it's a nice place to spend a few minutes, even if you don't have the time to tour upstairs or just need a place to sit down, catch your breath, dodge some raindrops, etc.

Note that the third weekend in September is a weekend called London "Open House". It's an architecture focused event and fundraiser, featuring hundreds of buildings around London. St. Paul's is one of those and a very popular one. You get to take a free tour that takes you behind the scenes to areas not often seen by the public, even those who have paid to go inside. Note that you need to arrive about an hour before the first tour starts. You will register and be assigned a time for a tour. After about the first hour, typically all tours are full for every time slot through the day. So get there early! I do not know if the tour stays the same each year or changes. The tour starts at the South Entrance (vs. the West where you typically would enter and pay to enter). We were taken up the stairs almost to the Whispering Gallery but then instead were taken in a door to a private hallway. We saw the Library, the Circular Stairway in the Southwest Clock Tower, as well as the Trophy Room where the Model of the original design by Wren is stored. This was VERY special and if you are a fan of St. Paul's and can be there that weekend, I highly recommend it. For more info on this event, go to this URL: http://www.openhouselondon.org.uk/