Just a day or two before my impromptu trip to London last weekend, I did a quick search of my email inbox to see if any of my favorite travel newsletters had unique “must do” recommendations for the city. I’m definitely not much of a theater person and it’s probably best that I stay far away from all the great shopping (have you seen the exchange rate?), but the Shard? Now that’s something right up my alley!
Not only is it the tallest building on the London Skyline, and the tallest building in the entire European Union, but its viewing deck just opened to the public earlier this month. I’d be able to get a great view of my favorite city while also getting bragging rights for visiting during its inaugural month. Score! I could just feel this blog post writing itself complete with amazing bird’s eye view photos of beautiful London.
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| Night view of the Shard (Photo Credit: |
Apparently, I’m not the only one who had a similar interest in seeing the Shard as most of the tickets to enter the viewing area were sold out. Luckily, my London-based friend Pam was able to get a pair of tickets for Sunday at 6:30 PM. I’d have preferred to go during the day, but with limited time and limited availability, we decided to go for it and shell out the nearly $40.00 per person for a swift elevator ride up to the 69th floors (quite a deal compared to the $155.00 they charge you if you don’t book a ticket in advance).
The weather on Sunday was beautiful; cool but crisp, bright and sunny. The kind of day where you just want to throw on a warm sweater and wander around outdoors (which is exactly what Pam and I did). As the day went on, it started to cool down a bit, but it was a surprisingly pleasant day for February in London.
We arrived at London Bridge tube stop about 20 minutes before our scheduled entry time and found the queue for the Shard started just outside the train station. The area where we had to wait was under an overhang, so we were not able to get an ant’s eye view of towering building. No matter…soon we’d be on the 69th floor overlooking the city.
We arrived at London Bridge tube stop about 20 minutes before our scheduled entry time and found the queue for the Shard started just outside the train station. The area where we had to wait was under an overhang, so we were not able to get an ant’s eye view of towering building. No matter…soon we’d be on the 69th floor overlooking the city.
As our time on the viewing deck approached, we were ushered inside the futuristic lobby, made to pose for a souvenir snapshot and then shuffled into a large, sleek elevator that held about 20 people. All was going great until we stepped off the elevator and heard one of the Shard employees say in passing “I sure hope the visibility clears up for you guys”. Wait, what?? Visibility? It was a beautiful, clear day. How could there be any problem with visibility?
Well, we stepped out onto the viewing deck and instead of seeing this:
We saw this:
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| We paid how much for this view?? |
Yep – nothing but clouds, mist and fog. I suppose that more often than not that is the typical London view, but trust me, each and every person that got of that elevator was sadly surprised by what they did not see.
But all was not lost. We just had to laugh at our bad luck and at least enjoy a moment up in the clouds. If you go up to the highest floor of the viewing deck (which I highly recommend you do) you are actually outside as there are walls of glass, but no roof. Even though you couldn’t see more than a few feet beyond the glass, it still was a bit magical to be up that high and open to the elements. lspacing=”0″ style=”margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;”>
Nothing but fog and fingerprints
Nothing but fog and fingerprintsMy plans for a fabulous blog post with amazing unique views of London will have to wait until my next trip back to the Shard and for a much clearer day. So by all means make plans to go visit the Shard if you’re in London, but do yourself a favor and check the weather report before you go.
London is one of my favorite cities to travel to and have been there 6 times. I have turned London into a 4 day stopover for my trips to Italy and Greece and never seem to get enough of it. I have used London as a stop over to wind down from hectic vacations that way i can see some of the things i didn’t have time to see when London was the hectic vacation. One thing funny every time I go there I take a ride on the London eye and almost always go to the British museum.
Always happy to hear from folks who share my love for London. Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I have only been on the London Eye once (but would love to give it a second go) and the same for the British Museum. Can’t wait until my next trip!