England/Scotland 2024 Pilgrimage – Day 18: St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Once again, we slept in. Then I got caught up on my blogging. Yay! We’re begining to feel familiar with our surroundings and routes, or at least, Gregg is getting us around smoothly without having to follow Google’s instructions. My brain doesn’t feel as overloaded when every single thing is not new anymore.

Fortitude Bakeshop Again

Back to Fortitude Bakeshop for breakfast. When you find a good thing, keep on enjoying it! This time we were saavy about getting something savory along with something sweet. I had a chicken bacon focaccia and Gregg had a sausage roll for our savory. For sweet, we shared a rhubarb beignet and a repeat of yesterday, a cinnamon sticky bun. Plus Irish Breakfast Tea (really good!) for me and a Flat White for Gregg.

Fortitude’s specialty seems to be beingets. They begin serving them at 11:00 until they run out. It was like a Krispy Cream donut without the hole, sliced in half and filled with a thick cream filling and a little fruit. Not our favorite but, hey, we HAD to try what folks were lining up down the block to get. Did I mention, the line was even longer this morning than yesterday.

St. Paul’s Cathedral for Eucharistic Service

With full bellies and saving half my chicken and both sweets, we headed for St. Paul’s Cathedral for their 12:30 Eucharistic Service. (no photos allowed) It was held in the chancel area so the participants were able to sit in the choir pews facing each other. Gregg and I were very close to the alter table. The Eucharist was special and tears dripped down my face after taking communion.

The former St. Paul’s church building had burned down in London’s Great Fire in 1666. Christopher Wren, who designed 53 of London’s churches, designed this church in the baroque architectural style with domes. Prior to this, churches had been built in the gothic style with the pointed spires. This is the largest church Wren designed.

We weren’t sure that we needed or wanted to tour the cathedral, but after going inside for the service, we decided we wanted to see and learn more. So we paid for a ticket, got our self-guided tour headsets, and enjoyed the day. The Cathedral closed at 5:00 when their Evensong program began. We stayed for that lovely service (no Eucharist) with a choir accompanied by the organ.

Tickets allow you to go up into the main dome and out on two different levels. You walk up over 500 stairs (and down the same number.) The highest point of the dome is 365 feet, one foot for each calendar day. The architecture as well as the views are amazing. Before climbing, we went down into the crypt to the cafe area and ate the rest of my chicken breakfast sandwich and the beignet.

Organ Music

Several times during our visit, the organist was practicing. I took several videos with the music in the background. I’ll share them below. The first and second videos begin in the chancel area, where we sat (on the lefthand side) during the Eucharistic service.

There was also a piece of video-artwork remembering martyrs. I took videos of that, too, while the organ played. Be aware that the video can be disturbing so close your eyes if you want to hear the music but not see the video.

Fish and Chips and Squeeky Cheese

We found a restaurant close by for supper. It was next door to a traditional British pub which had the exact same menu as the pub we ate on our first night here. Fleets, the bar nextdoor had cider battered fish and triple fried chips so we decided to try that restaurant for something a little different.

The fish was mild and tasty. The batter didn’t “rise” like the beer batter does. We also had a halloumi cheese appetizer. It tasted like chicken wings. All the food was delicious!

After eating, we headed back to our room with a stop for water, carbonated drinks, and milk to have with our cinnamon sticky bun. It was a special, low-key day spent in God’s house.

Tomorrow is our last full day in London. We think we want it to be a low-key, reflective day. We’ll see.