London day 2: Trafalgar, Temple Church, St. Paul's

Monday

The day's walk began at Trafalgar Square, where the lions still lie at the base of Nelson's Column. However, where last year there was a blue chicken, now there's a horsie skeleton:

Or maybe it's not a horse; that ridge on the back looks uncomfortable for a rider. The round thing on the left foreleg is an ad for something, but its text, which scrolls around continuously, goes the wrong direction so I got tired of trying to read it.

Then we walked along the Strand past various sights (and lots of people) on a beautiful day. We found our way to the Temple Church, which was founded by the Knights Templars. Originally they were militaristic monks who protected pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land, but they reportedly turned into a protection racket and the Church (never a greedy institution itself) appropriated their lands. Here's the effigy of William Marshal, a Templar who was influential in the creation and implementation of the Magna Carta:

Somewhere along the line the chuch and surrounding area were leased to lawyers, but it's still an active Anglican church. In addition to displays about the Magna Carta, there was a small exhibit about 20th-century mambers of the Temple -- lawyers -- who served in World War I. As you would expect, it was gruesome and very painful, with photographs and stories of men who slogged through the mud, got shot at, and died.

We walked on to St.Paul's Cathedral, which is big and beautiful (recently cleaned) but unfortunately doesn't allow photos inside. I have to maintain the war-weary mood for a bit: in addition to photos and descriptions of the damage suffered during the horrifying Blitz, there's a chapel dedicated to the Americans who fought (and died) alongside the British in WWII. It's very dignified and simply put, but it's all pain, loss, and grief; it's very sad.

So if you feel bad, you should get some exercise, and St. Paul's offers plenty. There's an interior gallery in the dome, over the nave; from there you can get to the exterior walkway around the dome; and from there you can get to the tippy top, also outside. It's a total of 530 steps to the height of almost 280 feet. Part of the sequence of staircases looks like this:

And here's a view from the top:

Which looks threateningly cloudy, but it wasn't really.

Here's a sign that you really don't want to see at 280 feet up:

And that leads to my last subject for today: signs, one of my favorite snapshot subjects. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure: