Destination London

St Paul’s Cathedral has stood on the same site since 604AD and has always been an active church. The present building, the fourth to be built here, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the previous building was destroyed by fire. First services held here were in 1697 although it wasn’t truly completed until 1710. Our tour included a walk through of this beautiful and imposing building, although no photography was allowed inside. We didn't get to try and climb the staircase to the dome or try out the Whispering gallery. Many of the Royal family have had important services here including the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer, and the organ from 1695 which Mendelssohn once played is still in use. I only got one semi-decent picture from in front but I did find another which shows it much better.

I'm writing this review to cover a very few items not covered in one I just read. My experience with this wonderful train ride was during our Spring 2005 trip.  It was a part of the Globus Tour we were on so I don't really know what the price was.  I do know that they were having trouble with some of their equipment the day we were traveling so it was necessary to go in on an individual basis and have our baggage scanned as we went through.  Then a fairly long wait in the station before boarding the train. 
The trip itself was fast (at one point doing over 180 mph, verified by a GPS device one of our tour was carrying), very comfortable, and really quite amazing.
Not once did you feel like you were: 1. In a tunnel, 2. Under water, 3. Cramped at all.
The only thing I didn't like was the view coming into London, where the tagging and filthy language was absolutely horrible.

This was the last nights stay for both of our tours and I would say it was the best four star hotel of our trip to Europe. This is a huge hotel, boasting 662 rooms, a huge restaurant, and several shops. There was also a permanent staff from the Tour companies, Brendan, Globus & Trafalgar with offices there. The food in the buffet style restaurant was very good and there was a large selection. We felt well taken care of at this hotel. The staff was courteous, friendly and knowledgeable and handled everything rapidly and without problems. Considering the number of tours that came through it was very obvious they knew how to handle the crowds. I would definitely recommend this hotel.