It’s funny to me that we went to the top of the Shard, but I didn’t even get a decent picture of the Shard itself. Oh well.
Simon is obsessed with the Shard. It’s a convenient obsession because it’s easy to spot, wherever you are in the city.
“The Shard!” He shouts. Really loud. On the bus and the train and the DLR and walking about the city.
I booked tickets for us to go to the top of it on an afternoon after I picked him up from school. It’s tricky planning things to do that I don’t think the other kids will be too disappointed about missing out on. This one was expensive, so it was a practical choice.
There is a train station really close to Lucas Vale school, and from there it’s a really short ride (12 minutes, with only one stop) to the London Bridge Station, which is where the Shard is located. We walked to the station (or rather Simon ran out of excitement) and then we found a small cafe nearby The Shard to eat lunch.
It’s sometimes hard to find a sandwich without cheese over here, so they made this one especially for him. Just plain white bread with peanut butter. What’s not to love about THAT?
The Shard is 87 stories high (72 floors – someone explain that to me…), and the lift goes so fast it literally made me dizzy when I stepped off of it. It was finished in 2012, and the observation deck was opened in 2013. So it’s all really new, modern and overstimulating. It is the tallest habitable building in the European Union. (But nearly only a third the size of that EPIC hotel in Dubai, which is now on my bucket list…)
Interestingly, it is jointly owned by a property company and the State of Qatar. Crazy.
It wasn’t a perfectly clear day, which was disappointing but those are hard to come by so I’m not complaining. And there was amazing technology up there, where you could look through a camera that showed you what it would look like on a perfectly clear day.
I love this picture because it shows how wonky the roads are in London. Nary a road that runs north-south or east-west for more than a few hundred yards.
The other “sky scrapers” in central London.
Awesome view of the Tower of London- with the ceramic poppies in red.
Tower Bridge
I love this shot of the Thames and Canary Wharf- unfortunately the reflection from the glass is there. Obviously I understand the safety of the glass, and it’s actually open at the top, but I liked it better at the Eiffel Tower where you could stick your camera lens through the wide chain-link protective barrier.
“I’m at the top of the Shard!!”
St. Paul’s Cathedral
West London- the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc.
It was really fun. Simon is a great little companion. Even though I try to choose things he will enjoy, sometimes a kid just wants a playground.
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Just Your Average Jo 
Those are some pretty spectacular pictures! And the aerial shot of those red poppies in a sea of gray is so awesome!
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Wow I can’t believe how red the poppies show from so far up. The pictures are amazing.😀 even though it wasn’t perfectly clear. What a fun surprise for Simon.
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