Best view in London is from the Shard!

I've been watching the Shard grow from a hole in the ground to an amazing finished building which catches the eye where ever you are in central London.  

This week I finally got round to going up it and it certainly lived up to all the hype I'd heard since its opening in February.  I awoke on Monday nervously looking at the sky as I really wanted a fine day. Western Europe's tallest building can be hidden in or even above the clouds as I'd seen during the Jubilee river parade -  that famous day of dreadful weather when the top of the Shard disappeared into the clouds! However, it turned out to be a fine morning and I reckon having been there that a visit would be fun even in poorer weather.

Losing the top at the Jubilee River Parade

For those who like to know these things, we say it's 'the tallest building in Western Europe', because there are buildings going up in Moscow that already beat our Shard. 

Arriving at London Bridge station you can see that the whole area is being developed and the Shard is the focal point of this transformation. You turn the corner and there it is - streaking up into the sky. The entry is welcoming with a member of staff there to greet you and point the way and as I was there at 10am on a Monday morning I just walked straight through the airport style security into the first of two lifts.  

Looking up!

Lift one takes you to floor 33 and you cross over to zoom silently up to floor 68. You can chose between the covered viewing platform on floor 69 or the more open air one on floor 72 but there are still glass walls so don't worry. The top platform at 244 metres above ground is truly spectacular with 360 degree views across the rooftops of London to the distant hills and along the Thames through to the Thames Barrier and beyond. You can look directly up into the open air and see the points of the glass reaching into the sky that give the tower its name, though I must admit that made me feel a bit wobbly!  A couple of workmen were doing some repairs on the outside of the building and I could barely watch - not a job for many people....

Arriving at the top of lift two

Workman fixing his harness

Nerves of steel!

You can stay as long as you like, spotting landmarks and watching the clouds pass and even helicopters which fly across the skies at your level! On floor 69 there are great telescopes which show you the key buildings and have an info function if you want to learn more about each one. 

Here's my gallery of photos so you can enjoy the View from the Shard. Looking west you can follow the Thames and its bridges and see St Paul's, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Wembley Stadium

Looking east you can again follow the Thames, see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and on to Canary Wharf and the Thames Barrier:

The Thames curving east

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Canary Wharf through to the Thames Barrier

The platforms are spacious and have plenty of viewing spots. The telescopes are free but timed to 2 minutes to keep people moving around and not hogging them!

The platform at floor 69

One  of the many free telescopes

Extra info from the telescope

You can look into the City with new buildings going up, as always....  Beyond the City, the Olympic village comes into view as well with the stadium and Orbit bringing back great memories of London 2012.

The City

The Olympic stadium with the red of Orbit

 It can be blowy on floor 72 and here's yours truly looking a little wind swept!

I really enjoyed the View from the Shard, yes it is pricey at £24.95 for an adult and £18.95 for a child if bought in advance, but the views are extraordinary. You can easily spend several hours on the various platform looking across London, using the telescopes to find out what the buildings are, taking photos and browsing the good shopping. 

Bye for now.

Sue

www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

@itsyourlondon 

@

London 2012 just got better - it's the Paralympics!

London's very special Summer Like No Other continues to amaze even the most jaded   Londoners who are used to incredible stuff happening all the time in our great capital city. After the Diamond Jubilee, Olympic Games and Notting Hill Carnival, now we have the Paralympic Games!

We've had another emotional torch relay before the Games themselves set up camp in east London and brought the Olympic Park alive again with thousands of enthusiastic fans rushing in to see wonderful sporting events.

I was lucky enough to catch the torch relay at Lords Cricket ground and see several people take their turn at carrying the famous flame.  The considerable support was very moving as people were running alongside the route to watch as many carriers as they could.

My next Paralympics moment was in Trafalgar Square where the big screen is attracting huge and vociferous crowds who cannot get to the Olympic venues to see the sport in person. Tickets are very hard to get hold of, especially for events in the Olympic park so the screens are a great alternative.  I had another reason to visit Trafalgar Square as my sister is a Paralympic Ambassador, helping people find their way around London and a great job she is doing there.  As were walking around the Square Team GB won a cycling gold medal so the excitement levels went through the roof - if there had been one!

I was lucky enough to have tickets for the Olympic Park and the Olympic Stadium itself so we set out to Stratford full of expectation and excitement. Settling into our seats at the stadium, found ourselves just next to the wonderful Thomas Heatherwick Olympic cauldron. There was so much happening that it was hard to keep up with all the different sports going on, often several at the same time and with very short breaks between starts. We saw 100 metres heats men and women, 1500 heats, shot put, discus, javelin, 400 metres heats men and women and long jump, all in one morning!  Our Team GB heroes delivered us a silver medal in the womens'  long jump and a brilliant gold in the men's discus! 

Stef Reid goes for silver for Team GB

Add caption

Aled Davies proud gold medal winner for Team GB and Wales!

We really smiled at the remote controlled Minis used to collect the javelins! What a great job for those 2 in the ponchos to have at the Paralympics.
 

To complete our day we wandered around the wonderful Olympic Park to the basketball arena to watch a closely fought game between Canada and Germany. It's a rough sport with incredible skill levels and the crowd are encouraged to the make the venue vibrate with noise so it's a great place to experience the Paralympics!

I'm following the rest of the Paralympic events on TV and there are plenty more top class sport to enjoy in the next week. 

Bye for now
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon 

Visiting London 2012's Olympic Park

Visiting the Olympic Park is an exciting experience whatever you go there for. I've been out there a couple of times, once for the technical rehearsal which was in my blog on 24th July when I couldn't spoil the surprise by telling you anything about the show!  My second trip was this week when we had day passes and although we didn't have any event tickets, we had time to explore and enjoy the whole park. 


Arriving for the technical rehearsal was a special experience and the excitement level of the crowd of specially invited volunteers and others connected with the Opening Ceremony, was so high you could light up the stadium with it! Being there to see the show was a once in a lifetime moment. We didn't have the videos so Mr Bean and James Bond's appearances were a surprise as was arrival of David Beckham and the beautiful lighting of the cauldron in the full show.  To be in the stadium to see the transformation from the countryside to the industrial scene with massively loud, driving drums was breath-taking. The gasps when the chimneys came out of nowhere and the intricate choreography of thousands of people weaving round each other was extraordinary to see. The wildly energetic dancing to a run down of so much stand out British music was great fun and I could see everything as the views in the stadium from my top seat were splendid, and I saw quite a few bits that didn't make the TV. The scope of what was going on in front of us was immense and there was something happening in every inch of the stadium floor and in the sky and in the stands from the lights that were in front of each seat.  I'll never forget it and it was made extra special by knowing a good friend was actually performing!


A few photos to take you back to the greatest show on earth:

The bell that starts it all going - rung by Bradley Wiggins

Yours truly in the stadium

The countryside with farm animals

Jaw dropping scenes as the countryside becomes industial

The Olympic rings are forged

The NHS section - kids trampolining!

Lyrics racing around the stands from our seat lights

Music and lights - full on!

Tribute to Tim Berners-Lee - father of the internet

Orbit by night - with a blimp

It took me a few days to recover but I was keen to return to the Olympic Park and we managed to bag day tickets which gave us entry to the Park but not to any venues - a bargain at just £10!  We had the usual weather for summer 2012: sun, rain, cloud then blue sky and then all over again....  The park is huge and it took us ages to wander around, checking out the venues but also the amazing amount of lovely flowers, all planted by volunteers to come to their peak right now. There is plenty of catering and seats but little cover - we, of course, found the undercover champagne section so dodged the rain!  The big screens are good and clear and we watched in a state of nail biting tension as Zara and her team mates jumped for Olympic glory -  the gasps and oohs and aahs gave the moment a special feel.  We loved being there and in the end it didn't matter though a ticket to see live sport would have been the icing on the cake.


Here are some photos to show you the amazing park:

Riverbank - hockey stadium

The elegant Aquatic Centre

The imposing Copper Box venue, busy with handball

Zara jumping on the big screen

The Velodrome - there may be GB gold in here!

Crowds watching with the Aquatic Centre behind and Orbit

Very appropriate art work!

Velodrome, BMX site and basketball venue

The park is flowery and landscaped

The wonderful stadium

We know how to have fun in the rain!

Fingers crossed for Team GB and to all other teams competing from every corner of the planet.


Bye for now,
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon