St Paul's Cathedral

Today I had planned on resting my sore foot by taking the Hop-on-hop-off bus tour, and doing minimal "hopping". This was a good plan for most of my day, as I didn't walk much except for a brisk stroll into Hyde Park for a 20p wee (seriously London? Your public loos aren't worth that).

I then took the rest of the afternoon to visit St Paul's Cathedral - where the 500+ stairs ruined my plans for a rest day. These stairs take you 85m above the cathedral floor to the external parapet of the dome for impressive views of London and the internal architecture of the dome itself.

View from Golden Gallery of St Paul's

Looking down onto the nave and towers over the West doors

One small thing that particularly caught me at St Paul's was the ''Paschal Candle' lit by the font among it's religious imagery and symbols are depictions of a huia and New Zealand eels. After some questioning I found out that the design is by NZ born artist and ordained minister Regan O'Callaghan, and he includes endangered or extinct species with his religious works for awareness of our connection to nature. Here is a link to the artists website and images of the similar 2017 candle (as the public are not allowed to take photos within the cathedral).