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.