The View from the Shard

Last night was another birthday celebration. Six of us went to "The View" from Europe's tallest building, the Shard. I wasn't expecting too much from the Shard and the weather was terrible. How wrong can you be?

If you have walked outside London Bridge and looked at the closed off entrance to the Shard, you may, like me, have wondered when it will ever open and how people go up to the viewing platform. It's  actually downstairs at street level opposite McDonalds and is appropriately glitzy. Very well done and the ride up in the lift goes at 6 feet per second. I was told prior to yesterday that we had wasted our £25 entrance fee because a window table at the Oblix restaurant would give you the same view. I realised that wasn't quite the case as we passed the restaurant on the 33rd floor on our way to 68. 

You change lifts half-way as you move into the centre of the building. The viewing platform at 68 is panoramic and enclosed but there are steps up to 72 which is open above you to the elements. The steps continue up for what looks like another six or seven floors in the jagged piece at the top but these were closed off last night. Not to worry, the view was fantastic and the changing weather around London actually made it more interesting than had it been a clear blue sky. I will be back.

We rounded it off with a curry in one of London's finest - the Shad in Tooley Street. Curried Shepherd's Pie, very hard to beat.