Day 16, Monday, July 21 - Another great day in London.

Monday was our second trip to London. We got up bright and early so we could catch the 9:30 AM train from Oxford to Paddington station in the heart of London. We then took the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and switched to the District line to get to St. Paul Station. Our first stop of the day was the world famous St. Paul’s Cathedral designed by Christopher Wren in the English Baroque style.  The highest dome reaches well over 300 feet into the air and we waked 528 steps to the upper Golden Gallery.  St. Paul’s is located right off of the bank of the Thames and from the top we got a view of London that extended for miles. Unfortunately our time at St. Paul’s got cut short due to a false fire alarm, but I think we all got to see what we wanted.  After St. Paul’s we made our way across the Millennium Bridge to the other side of the river to see Matisse’s cutout collection. Matisse really focused on his cutouts in his latter stages of life. This was a once in a lifetime chance to see the work of a modern art genius. When Matisse was in his late sixties he was unable to paint because of his bad health conditions, so he switched to making paper cutout pieces. The museum had pieces ranging from snow flowers to dancers to a famous abstract of a snail. After the Tate Exhibit we visited the Churchill War Rooms; the site where Churchill, and his war cabinet and military advisers oversaw England’s WWII operations.  The rooms were preserved so that they mimicked what they would have looked like during the war, and the Churchill museum was full of cool facts and quotes of Winston Churchill. One thing that stuck out to me was that he smoked eight cigars a day.  We were lucky enough to come across a Chipotle restaurant where we enjoyed dinner before going to see the musical “Pajama Game.” The play was about a 1920’s pajama factory owner fighting against labor unions to keep his wages down, and somehow this plot was used to make a romantic comedy.  The play was entertaining and full of good music.  We got back to Paddington easily for the 10:40 train back to Oxford and we were all happy to rest after a long and exciting day in London.

Edward Miller

Morning train ride to London's Paddington Station.

Back in the Tube on the Bakerloo Line.

View of St. Paul's Cathedral from the Millennium Bridge.

Lower observation deck of St. Paul's Cathedral Dome.

View of London skyline toward's the financial district.

Chris, Mr. Reid and William on lower observation deck.

Chris and William climbing long spiral staircase to upper observation deck of dome.

Up river view of River Thames.

Visiting the Matisse Exhibit at the Tate Modern Museum on Southbank.

Tour through Churchill's underground command and control center.

Hike through Trafalgar Square.

Dinning at Chipotle, Covent Garden.

An evening at the Shaftesbury Theater.