Wednesday 13 February 2013

The Shard.

Last Saturday, Mark and I took a trip to London to visit the Shard.

This is the tallest building in the capital and is located at Southwark.  There are 71 floors, with viewing platforms being situated at levels 69 and 71.  The first few floors of the Shard are devoted to offices, above those is the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel, then the ultra expensive apartments, and finally we have the viewing levels.

Mark had pre booked our tickets, which saved us £5 off the rather extortionate on the door entry fee of £29.  When you arrive at the Shard, after having walked past the historic Guys Hospital; you are firstly asked to queue outside, waiting for your relevant time to be called.  All visitors are able to book a half hour 'stay' at the top, adequate time to take in the sites. 

The Shard foyer is rather cramped, lined on one side by the automatic ticket machines, where all pre booked tickets can be collected. We soon printed off our tickets and were able to take our place at the start of the snake like queue for the 1.30 pm ticket holders.  A rather jovial security guard made sure we were entertained while we waited.

We didn't need to wait for long, and were summoned forward to go through the airport style security scanners.  After this we were both  called to one side by the official photographer, and had a cheesy shot taken of the two of us.  He handed us a receipt thinking that we looked foolish enough to pay the £22 for a single photograph, that could be collected when we came down.  We then moved on to the first lift, this was manned by a very chatty girl and whisked us up to the 33rd floor. It seemed to cover the distance in seconds and the only sensation you had of moving was a slight popping in the ear.  The next lift covered the floors to the 69th level, and was as fast as the first. 

Then, we had finally arrived at the first viewing platform,  enclosed from the elements;  which was a good thing on that cold February day, From all angles you could see for miles, the Tower of London looked miniscule,  HMS Belfast seemed to be a toy!  Two flights of stairs took us to the open platform,  although it was partially covered so as not to cause too much discomfort to the visitor.

My score out of 5

Would be 6, an absolutely superb experience and something that I shall never forget.  I have booked tickets to go again in March with my Mum.

Saturday 2 February 2013

A day trip to Oxford.

Saturday usually means a little trip out for Mark and I, and today was no exception.

For some time now we had wanted to see the film 'The Impossible' but it only seemed to be showing in Reading at the ridiculous time of 10.30 pm. Having checked various cinema listings,  I saw that it was showing at the Odeon in Magdalen Street,  Oxford.  As both of us are fond of Oxford,  and have long associations with the town, we thought a trip there would be a good idea.

From Reading a half hour train trip to Oxford costs just under £6 return.
We arrived at around 12.30 and headed towards the Oxford prison area in search of lunch.  Now, for those of you who don't know, the prison is now a chic Malmaison hotel surrounded by various eateries.  We chose to visit Prezzo and had a fairly uneventful meal.

The time was approaching 2 pm by the time we finished,  and we quickly headed to the cinema.  The Odeon is a shadow of it's former self, as the powers that be have decided to sublet space in the foyer to Costa coffee.  The box office no longer exists and even the automatic ticket machines were not working! We had to buy our tickets from the sweet counter.  They cost the absolutely exorbitant price of £9.95 each, an absolute con.

We went into screen 2, and were very disappointed to see that there were approximately 6 rows of seats and the screen was tiny. Both of us decided we could not sit through 2 hours of discomfort in what was also a very hot room. I got up to enquire about a refund, which we were fortunately able to get.

We then moved on to look at the shops, ending up in our favourite place - the Covered Market.  I absolutely adore this place for all its quirky shops which sell everything from food to clothes.  David John butchers produce delicious sausages and we bought their Sicilian sausage and their pork and leek.

They also make wonderful pies, and tonight I shall be enjoying their chicken and ham variety.

Outside we wandered around Turl Street, the winter sun in full force. I considered doing some clothes shopping,  but could'nt face carrying it all on the train.

Oxford is a very lovely place to visit and does live up to all your expectations.

My score out of 5

Would be 5, worth visiting for the day or maybe even longer.