We're slowly but surely visiting London's tourist attractions and crossing them off our London list. A couple of weekends ago we decided it was time to do St Paul's properly (on my last attempt I didn't even make it to the front steps.)

We've had great luck with the weather and once again we managed to pick a beautiful, crisp winter's day for our escapade. The clear sunny day meant we had a fantastic view of St Paul's and a breathtaking outlook from the top of the dome.

The current Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren was built between 1675 and 1710 after Old St Paul's was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Even today the dome is one of the major features of London's skyline. In the 18th century it must have dominated its surroundings and all of London.

Sir Wren was bit of a cheeky bugger. When his original design, including the dome, was not approved, he submitted a new design. The new revised design included a much smaller dome with a spire on top. This design was approved and Wren was given permission to make 'ornamental' changes by the King. Wren took ornamental to mean radical and he completely reworked the design to include the large central dome.

Design 1	Design 2	Design 3

We entered the Cathedral via the Nave, the long central section that leads to the Dome. The aisles on each side of the Nave are dotted with memorials devoted to military commanders who sacrificed their lives in the Napoleonic wars. The most famous being Lord Nelson, whose memorial includes a seasick lion (I think because Nelson got seasick every time his ship left the harbour) and the Duke of Wellington, whose memorial is a three-tiered marble monstrosity.

The already impressive view improves as you wander down the nave and underneath the dome. Standing beneath the dome, you have to crane your neck all the way back to get a real appreciation of the dome's magnificence. The inside of the dome is covered in trompe l'oeil frescos; scenes from the life of St Paul. You can see people peering down over the balcony from the Whispering Gallery.

Other highlights of St Paul's:

• Light of the World -- the cathedral's most famous art work by Holman Hunt. The painting depicts Jesus knocking at a door without a handle covered with brambles and weeds. The door represents the human soul. The lack of handle signifies that the door must be opened from within. God can only enter our lives if we invite him in.
  
  
• Mother and Child -- an abstract sculpture by Henry Moore. Viewed from different perspectives the sculpture shows conception, birth and nurturing.
  
  
• The Chancel -- the chancel is the most richly decorated section of the church. The ceiling sparkles, covered in glittering mosaics. In the Apse is the American Memorial chapel, dedicated to the 28,000 Americans based in Britain who lost their lives in World War II. (there is a Space Rocket, a tribute to American's efforts in space, hidden in the carved wooden panelling. I had to search for a while to find it.)

Our explorations of the Cathedral floor were finished we were ready to tackle the business of climbing the dome. To make it to the top, you must scale 530 steps, up narrow spiral staircases, visiting three galleries on the way.


After the first 259 steps, we arrive at the Whispering Gallery. The gallery is named for its acoustic properties. Apparently words whispered to the wall on one side are clearly audible from the other side of the gallery. Of course, when we visited on a Saturday, the place was crowded with people all trying this trick. Although, whispered conversation wasn't perceptible, normal conversation was. The security guard on the gallery level was actually using the walls as her PA system. She would speak loudly into the walls to ask people to get down off the seats. (oops! Guilty!) You could hear her on the other side of the gallery as if she was standing next to you.

We climbed another 119 steps up a stone spiral staircase to reach the Stone Gallery. This is the first outdoor gallery and is located at the bottom of the dome. After a quick tour around the promenade and a few snaps of the view we were ready to make the final ascent.

The final leg of the journey is up a series of steep spiral staircases. The staircases are made from wrought iron. This meant that as you were climbing them you could look up to see where you were going, or look down to see where you might end up if you tripped. We climbed the final flight of narrow stone stairs and emerged into the bright sunshine. The Golden Gallery runs around the highest point of the outer dome and is 280ft from ground-level. The view from the top is truly breath-taking. As most of the climb is indoors, I was slightly awestruck when we finally did surface. The platform is only a few metres wide so it was a bit crowded. To fully circumnavigate the Golden Gallery we had to squeeze our way past quite a few people.

I didn't have any problems climbing St Paul's dome at all. The score is now Jess 2 -- Spires of the World 1. huzzah!

After we'd climbed back down from the dome, we headed underground into the crypt. Although, not as crowded as Westminster Abbey there are still more than a few famous people buried in the Crypt at St Paul's. The most famous being Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. Wren is also buried in the crypt. The inscription on his tomb reads 'lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice'. 'Reader, if you seek his monument, look around'. This beautiful dedication is heartfelt and true. St Paul's is a fitting testimonial to Wren's architectural genius.

The entrance fee for St Paul's Cathedral is £9. Our tube driver obviously thought this was a bit much as he jokingly called the stop 'home of the nine pound cathedral' when we got off at St Paul's tube station. Personally, I thought it was worth every penny. St Paul's is definitely on the must-do list for any London visit.

I've always enjoyed collecting things. At the moment I'm particularly enjoying collecting stamps in my passport. When we discovered that Bratislava was only 60km (an hour train ride) away from Vienna, we decided that a day trip was in order. It was a chance to see a new city, visit a new country and most importantly get a new stamp in my passport. And it's a stamp with a little train on it. It is too cute!

Our train ride to Vienna was rather early in the morning. While we breakfasted on our journey, we were missing one essential ingredient. Coffee! (We are all slaves to caffeine.) On our arrival in Vienna we put our heads together and agreed on a draft itinerary. Items on our agenda included: browse Christmas markets, devour a wiener schnitzel, and taste Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher. Of course, we all concurred on priority number 1, find coffee.

Andrew, who had been to Vienna before, was Tour Guide Barbie for the day. He compared the layout of downtown Vienna to a big clock. At the centre of the clock is a "big-ass" cathedral, St Stephen's Cathedral (we affectionately nicknamed it, St Big-Ass). The Ring Boulevard (Ringstraße) skirts the clock and two tourist trams run along this boulevard. One tram runs in a clockwise direction and the other in an anti-clockwise direction. The Ring Boulevard actually follows the path of the old city wall. Vienna's tourist sites are dotted at different "hours" on the clock face. I think we'll change Andrew's title to Tour Guide GI Joe.

Our first undertaking on our morning in Vienna was to hop on the clockwise tourist tram. Our plan was to travel the ring boulevard for an overview of Vienna. However, this plan was quickly thrown out the window when we spotted the elusive green sign of Starbucks. All sight-seeing plans were put on hold while we ingested our much needed dose of caffeine.

Thirty minutes later, four functioning human beings set out from Starbucks, ready to execute Operation View Vienna.

• St Stephen's Cathedral -- we headed into the city centre to visit St Big Ass. St Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) is an enormous, Romanesque and gothic church originally built in 1147. It is apparently a much-recognised symbol of Vienna (although, I'd never heard of / seen it before). The cathedral has an impressive roof which is covered in coloured tiles. The roof is so steep that it is never covered in snow. It was scene of both Mozart's Wedding and Funeral. We had planned to go inside the Cathedral but there was a large crowd of people awaiting entrance outside.
  
  
• Hofburg Imperial Palace -- an enormous (everything is enormous in Vienna) palace, a former imperial Winter residence and now the official residence of the President of Austria (nice house mate!) We didn't venture inside. I think Palaces are always more impressive from the outside anyway.
  
  
• The Austrian Parliament Building -- built in 1883 it is an example of the "Greek Revival" architectural style. In other words, the building looks like it's been transplanted directly from Athens to Vienna. White marble, columns and a statue of Athena dominate. I thought the building was incongruous in Vienna.
  
  

Next stop were the Christmas Markets. We explored the markets in two locations, the markets at the Justiz-palast (Law Courts) and then those at the RatHaus (Town Hall). It was a lovely experience. Impressions:

• Most of the stalls were selling Christmas ornaments, presents or food treats of some kind. My favourites ornaments were the decorative glass baubles. I was tempted to buy one or two but doubted that they would survive the trip back to London (and definitely not the trip home to Australia!). I did buy a cute little "Santa putting presents under Christmas tree" ornament to hang on our Christmas Tree in SheBu (now we just have to get a Christmas tree *G*).
  
  
• I did say "most" stalls were Christmas themed. There were a couple of stalls selling boomerangs and didgeridoos. Andrew and I were highly amused by this and the stall owners were highly confused by our amusement.
  
  
• We decided we had to try some of the food treats for an authentic Christmas Markets experience. We sampled a delicious potato pancake smothered in a garlic sauce. We sipped Christmas punch while browsing the Rat Haus markets. My punch was Red Bull flavoured (highly authentic!) and Andrew's apple (he declared it too appley). We tried Roast Chestnuts for the first time. A bready texture with a nutty flavour. The perfect treat for a cold Winter's day.
  
  
• It was a very strange experience to be browsing Christmas markets, listening (and singing along to) Christmas carols, dressed in an overcoat, scarf, gloves and beanie because the temperature is below 10 degrees. My hands were numb and my cheeks rosy. And yet, somehow, it feels right. I guess all those Christmas carols about snow and frost and cold have had a subliminal effect.
  
  

Item 1 was checked off our to-do list; next stop, Wiener schnitzel. The closest restaurant our guidebook recommended was Einstein Café. We decided to make this our next destination. The service was typically Germanic; efficiency over courtesy. (I do not know how the Americans survive in these countries.) We consumed 4 Wiener Schnitzels, 2 Topvars (a Slovakian beer) and 2 Radlers (the German word for Shandy). It wasn't the best schnitzel I've eaten (a title currently held by the Rathauskeller in Munich) but at least I could tick "eat Wiener Schnitzel in Wien" off my list of life-goals.

One of the benefits of travelling with Frisbee types is that they don't groan when you suggest having a throw of the disc. Tossing the Frisbee is the perfect after-lunch exercise and has proven benefits for digestion. (I'm sure I read that somewhere *G*) After lunch, we threw the Frisbee for a while, dressed in overcoats, scarves, gloves and beanies / tuques. We must have looked slightly silly. Of course, it became very silly when the boys began to set themselves challenges..."Through this copse of trees and round that massive bush!"

After we'd prised the disc from the boys' hands we headed back to St Big-Ass to see if the crowd had abated. This time we managed to make it inside for a glimpse of the impressive interior. It really is an impressive and beautiful church. A group decision was then made to climb the spire over a tour of the catacombs. Big mistake! HUGE!

I've already documented my phobia of heights (my experiences with Vor Freslers in Copenhagen). However, when I handed over my 3 euros for a ticket, I honestly did not think I would have a problem with the climb. Although the spire is 136 metres tall, the staircase is entirely indoors with little or no view to the outside world. We started the ascent as a group, but I quickly fell behind Andrew, John and Leah. (They've been playing ultimate regularly, while I've been nursing my injured ankle). After 10 minutes of going up and up and up while going round and round and round, I started to feel a little bit dizzy. I made three rest stops where I then forced myself to continue on. Finally, I could push myself no higher. My head was spinning and the dizziness was making it difficult to move. I leant back against the stairwell wall and it felt like the tower was swaying precariously. (Andrew assures me it did not move.) Finally I gave into my body's weakness and hurried back down and out in to the fresh air.

Apparently the view was not much to talk about. The spire is undergoing restoration and scaffolding obstructs most of the scenery. However, you'll have to ask Andrew if you want an honest opinion. My mind / body can be very frustrating sometimes! The current score: Jess 1 - Spires of the World 1.

Andrew, John and Leah deserved some afternoon tea after their strenuous climb and I was in serious need of some comfort food so we headed to the Sacher Hotel (pronounced saa-cer) to check number three off our Vienna agenda. The Sacher Hotel serves the "real" Sacher Torte, a dense chocolate cake with a thin layer of Apricot Jam in the middle. This original recipe is a well-kept secret and the trademark for the "Original Sachertorte" is owned by the hotel. I know of Sachertorte as we used to serve a variation of it in the café I worked in the QVB. (However, John and Leah had never heard of it.) We dined in the very posh hotel café on Sachertorte, Viennese Apple Strudel and Viennese hot chocolate. It was very decadent.

Our time in Vienna had come to an end; it was time to return to Bratislava. I feel it was a very successful day-trip! I was a bit sad as I didn't get a stamp in my passport on the return journey. Apparently they're only concerned on inspecting people going to Austria.

Back in Bratislava, we revisited the all-night Pizza joint for our evening meal. This time John decided we needed to be more adventurous with our order. We decided to try to decode the Slovak pizza menu. It was actually quite easy to do as we knew what to expect on certain pizzas. We identified tomato paste and cheese as they appeared on all the pizzas. We were able to establish the Slovak words for ham and pineapple from the Hawaiian pizza. We used the pictures on the menu to figure out capsicum, corn and broccoli (on a pizza!). When we quizzed our waiter (who spoke excellent English of course) we discovered that we had deciphered the code. Huzzah!

The harbour cruise was a good introduction to the tourist attractions of Copenhagen. On Day 3, we decided to take a closer a look at some of the more interesting sights.

Copenhagen offers a "free bike service" to its tourists. Scattered around the city at a number of locations are tourist bike depots. You can pick up a bike here by inserting 20 kroner into the bike lock. This is a deposit which you get back when you safely return the bike to a depot. We thought that this would be a good way to explore Copenhagen, so our first task for the day was to find a depot and thus our transportation for the day.

Unfortunately, it was nigh impossible to find two tourists bikes. We did find one bike all by its lonesome, but every other depot we passed was devoid of wheels. I was ready to give up after 30 minutes of searching. So, we returned our one bike to a depot and continued on foot. Strike 1 for Copenhagen Tourist Bikes.

Stop 1: Ströget
Ströget is Copenhagen's pedestrian shopping mall. We ambled down Ströget and window shopped along the way. Doing the mental conversion from Kroner into Pounds and then into Aussie Dollars made all the prices pretty steep, so we restrained ourselves from buying too much.

Although it is commonly called Ströget, this is not the name of the street, but its nickname. Ströget is actually five adjoining streets and it is apparently one of the longest pedestrian malls in the world.

The Danes are fond of that phrase "one of...". Append either longest, tallest, or biggest and possibly an "in Europe". They are obviously catering to the Americans who think that things are only worth looking at if they're number one at something. However, I think the glamour is lost when it is only "one of" the longest, biggest or tallest. I reckon the Danes are number one at making Danishes. Maybe they should concentrate on that *G*.

Stop 2: Statue of Bishop Absalon
We thought we'd take a closer look at Copenhagen's founding father. Yup... statue of a man on a horse...still there. You can read more about the statue here and about the man himself, here.

Stop 3: Vor Frelsers Kirke
The church has a spire with a spiral staircase on the outside. If you're daring enough, you can climb up to the observatory deck and then up the spiral staircase to the top of the spire. We'd noticed people climbing the spire, the day before, when we were on the harbour cruise. In a moment of insanity, I'd decided that it was something that I'd like to do. It seemed like a good idea when my feet were flat on the ground. I always seem to forget about my irrational fear of falling from high places.

The weather during the day had been quite strange. We experienced swift rainstorms followed by bright, sunny periods. We waited out one downpour in a bakery, munching on bread rolls and drinking orange juice (which is called Appelsin Juice in Danish).

During a sunny episode, we climbed to the top of Vor Frelsers Kirke. There are 400 steps to the top, including 150 steps around the spire.
The first part of the climb is a staircase. When we reached the level where the glockenspiel and Carillion is located, the path changed and we ascended a series of ladders, the gradient of which increased as we climbed.

Finally, we emerged into bright sunlight onto the observatory platform and were treated to what is probably the best view Copenhagen has to offer. From the Observatory deck, we climbed the spiral staircase that winds its way around the spire, all the way to the very last step at the top of the spire.

Have I mentioned my fear of heights? Well, not a fear of heights exactly, but a fear of tripping and falling down a ladder, a staircase or off the top of a church spire. I held on with both hands while out on the observatory platform. I climbed the Spire's staircase one step at a time, concentrating very hard on where I put my feet. It didn't help that the stairs were wet and slippery from the rain. And the blustery weather meant that it was quite windy at the top. My rain jacket caught the wind like a kite, and I had visions of flying off the top of the spire. I had to force myself to take every step; tempted to just sit down and refuse to go anywhere. Yeh, I'm really good with heights. Here's to climbing more church spires in the future!

Of course, Andrew isn't afraid of anything and he practically skipped up the Spire stairs. Well, he would have, but he's too manly for that. Actually, he swaggered up the stairs.

Although, it was a bit scary for me, it was definitely worth doing! The view of Copenhagen was amazing.


Stop 4: The Little Mermaid
Even though our guidebook says that the Little Mermaid is one of the most over-rated pieces of sculpture in the world, I feel that no visit to Copenhagen is complete without a visit to the melancholy sea princess.

While lunching, we'd noticed a pair of tourist bikes at a depot across the road. That's right, count 'em, TWO tourist bikes... TOGETHER. The Little Mermaid is a bit of a hike from the centre of town so we decided to nab the bikes and ride out to the point. It's been a while since I've ridden a bike, but luckily, it's like riding a bike so it wasn't too hard. Unfortunately, my bike was not in perfect condition. When I turned the wheel to steer, my pedals would catch against the front wheel. As long as I rode in a straight line, and didn't turn any corners, I was fine. I wasn't 100% confident though and the lack of helmet didn't help.

Although many of the roads have bike lanes, everywhere else, you're expected to ride on the road with the cars. The tourist bikes are painted bright colours, so I assume cars know to give them a wide berth. However, I would have felt more comfortable with a bright neon sign proclaiming, in four languages, "Warning! Warning! Erratic behaviour expected. Finds steering and stopping difficult"

My fear of cars meant that we rode mostly along the waterfront to get to the Little Mermaid. On the way we stopped at the house where Hans Christian Anderson lived for a period. We also made a brief stop at Amalienborg Slot, the Queen's residence. We watched the mini-guards walk back and forth for a bit. We never tire of that!

Once at the Little Mermaid we lined up to get the obligatory photo. Andrew climbed out to her perch and cuddled up to her for one extra photo. Tick! We checked the Little Mermaid off our list.


Stop 5: Really cool fountain
On the way home, we noticed this really cool fountain and stopped to have a closer look. We snapped a number of photos, without really knowing much about it. But thanks to Google, here is what I've learnt.

From:visitcopenhagen.com.

The official name is 'Gefion'.

According to an ancient legend, Gefion was the goddess who ploughed the island of Zealand out of Sweden. The Swedish king Gylfe offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she was capable of ploughing within one day and one night.

Gefion received help only from four oxen. She had transformed her four sons into immensely powerful oxen and had them plough so deeply in the ground that they raised the land and pulled it into the sea. This is how the island of Zealand was created.

The lake Vännern in Sweden approximately resembles the shape of Zealand, proving that there must be some truth in the story!




Finished
And our explorations for the day were over. We met Natalie at home and headed out to a local microbrewery for a few refreshing beverages. Andrew tried the Bombay Pale Ale and Natalie and I sampled the Çeske Böhmer, a Pilsner. Jess is drinking beer, Oh my! I am an Oktoberfest success story.