Daily Details: July 21

The day began with an absolutely delightful trip to the John Soan’s Museum. John Soan was a very influential architect in London that was responsible for much of the rebuilding of London after the great fire. His home was one of the neatest things I’ve seen—I could have spent much longer in there soaking up all of the delightful details. The home was about 4 stories high and full of eclectic design. Because Soan had architects working with him in his home, he collected pieces of Roman architecture and had them just hanging on the walls of his home so that his workers would have plenty of inspiration at their fingertips should they need it. His furniture designs were simple, innovative and SO tasteful, and his use of space was amazingly clever. The hallways were narrow, but he still managed to tuck in beautiful little secretary desks that looked out into wee little courtyards. Bookcases were tucked in every single little nook throughout the house, and I absolutely LOVED that about it. The second floor contained what I think was my favorite feature of the home. There were lots of bookcases by the windows, and little window seats. But in the next room over, the gigantic windows pulled upward to open, and were big enough for you to walk through out onto the balcony that overlooked the street. I absolutely LOVED that feature!

Next, we were off to the British Museum. It definitely wasn’t my favorite museum, but did have a room that I absolutely adored. It was a room with LOTS of clocks and many of them were open so you could see the inner workings. This room contained some of the neatest clocks I’ve ever seen and I spent quite a lot of time there just soaking up all of the details.

The day ended with a trip to St. Paul’s, the second tallest cathedral in Europe next to St. Peter’s in Rome. The interior was absolutely divine and much lighter than the other cathedrals I have seen. Once again, we climbed to the very top of the dome, except this time there was no elevator to take us part of the way up like there was in St. Peter’s. So, we climbed the 500-something steps up to the top, but it was well worth it. The views of London were spectacular! Random side note: the cathedral has a café in the basement that they named the Crypt Café. I thought it was a really clever name!

Well, that’s about it. We called it an early day so we could have some time to wind down and get to bed early before we wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to go to Brinton Carpets.