May 27, The Ely Cathedral

I finally found cathedral in which I could take pictures! On Friday, we drove over to Ely, England to tour the Ely Cathedral, and it was so much more than we expected. It was better than Westminster in the sense that it wasn't crowded, I was allowed to take pictures, and they gave a pretty awesome tour. We got to go up on the roof! Is that neat or what?

I took over one hundred pictures; if you care to see all of them, click here.

This is the layout of the cathedral. If you can follow it, I'll try to show you where some of the following pictures were taken. The Cathedral is positioned so that it points east.

The front doors at the western end.

Looking eastward down the Nave(D) just inside the west doors.

Can you guess what these are? Organ pipes! They are behind the walls and are so low you don't hear them as much as you feel them. And no, they were not played while we were there. :(

Here I am at section H on the map, up a couple of stories looking down on the Octagon(G).

The Octagon. If you look at the very top of the picture, you can see long, colorful paintings. Some of those actually open up, and we were able to get behind them and look down on the Octagon.

"It's a good thing you're not a big fat guy, or this would be reeeaally difficult."

Looking down on the Octagon.

The stained glass in this place was absolutely stunning. I think I'm going to have to learn the art of stained glass with you, Olivia. :)

This is a wonderful example of a medieval town. The church was at the center. It was the center of there lives; it was the center of their city. Then the markets and city houses were scattered around the church, and finally the farms out in the distance.

"Now I could get used to a view like this! Yep, I'm used to it. Guys, I want a cathedral!"

Our tour guide talking with Daddy on the roof of the cathedral. He was a lot fun and knew quite a bit about this fantastic place.

This is just on the west side of the Octagon going into the choir 'loft', for lack of a better term.

The Lady Chapel located off of the main building, section J on the map.

I believe this is section K, up in the east part, just to the left of the middle section.

The beautiful pipe organ. To hear these things played in these buildings is just amazing! Especially with the choir singing.

Again, I can't think of the proper term used for where the choir sits, so loft is going to have to suffice. Behold, the choir loft.

"Feewing vewy spiwitual..."

The ceiling to one of the side chambers. Quite impressive, isn't it?

Wishing he had a cathedral of his own....and for the moment imagining that he did.

And back around to the Octagon again looking eastward.

This is standing at the east side of the Octagon looking back to the west end.

Looking up into the Octogon tower.

The baptismal font located at the front of the cathedral in section C.

We were in awe the entire time we were there. How these people managed to build such an incredible building, I'll never know. But they built it to last, and their goal was achieved.