300 m above London

Hello all!

London is a multicolored metropolis. As the capital of England, it has to prove that it’s strong enough to represent an entire country, a nation. An ideal capital city should be old, classical and valuable on the one hand, and modern, up-to-date and innovative on the other. London incorporates both of the above listed trends. One district is full of cranes, machines, construction is going on, architecture and infrastructure flourishes. In another district there’s the Queen’s residence and court. In another part of the city Chinese people live and established a little Chinese society, called ‘Chinatown’. In the city centre skyscrapers, multinational companies and business-centres can be found, streets are crowded by business-men hurrying, drinking coffee, always being in contact with their mobile phones, wearing elegant suits. One part of a district in London is dedicated to Hindi people, it’s like a ‘mini-India’ located in England, with Indian restaurants, shops, temples, and of course inhabitants. And London has a stunning old-town as well. London actually has everything. Except good weather. And one more thing: river Thamse was also a disappointment for me. It's exceptionally beautiful how wide and winding it is. I know it fulfills an important role in international and national transportation. But the water was brown and polluted. And I didn't liked this.

In the 5 days which I’ve spent at London, the Sun appeared for approximately 30 minutes in these days. And even when appeared, didn’t impress me with its heat. Sightseeing in London at the beginning of September is like sightseeing Budapest in Wintertime. But keep calm, the weather is windy and rainy all year long, so there’s no better timing for discovering London. You just need to have an umbrella or raincoat, good water-resistant shoes, and eventually some cash for drinking some warm drink when getting exhausted after walking so long. Now I’ll make a list with the places worth visiting. I try not to enumerate those ‘mainstream’ places, everyone is familiar with from English books at school, but some special, rafinated destinations, not so popular among tourists. Pay attention, the journey begins!

1st Station: My favourit. Shard, London. Shard is a skyscraper higher than 300 metres close to London Bridge. It’s the tallest building in England, and it’s in TOP5 tallest buildings around Europe. Shard is a steel and glass skyscraper. Reaching its top by an elevator, and enjoying the view from the top was one of the most memorable experiences of my lifetime. The only thing to do is, booking a ticket on the internet, and leaving claustrophoby and fear of hights at home. The elevator took us on the 72nd floor (in less than 1 minute! ). On the top there are organized events, there’s a restaurant, even a gallery where exhibitions are held. The view from Shard costs 25 pounds (almost 30 EUR), but it’s worth it. The entire capital city can be seen from the viewpoint. I also noticed where the horizont ended, and observed finally that the planet I live in is actually round and 3 dimensional. I also realized that London is the second biggest city I’ve been at. NYC was the biggest, but there I could not measure the parametres exactly, because I haven’t been at any high viewpoint. The view of Shard will leave everyone breathless at the beginning. Watching airplanes was the most exciting part, because we were ‘almost’ at the same height with them.

2nd Station: The second biggest boom in London: Sky Garden. If You search on Google for photos, it’s going to be similar with Shard, but it’s altitude is smaller, ‘only’ half as big as the Shard. Skygarden is an exotic place with a tropical garden, fusion cuisine, fancy cocktail-bar and amazing lights. Skygarden is close to the Shard and to London Bridge, and visiting it doesn’t cost a penny, it’s absolutely free. You just have to book a free visit here. Both Skygarden and Shard offer observation decks, and both places are sometimes venues of parties. Watching the sunset or the sunrise from these heights is miraculous. Thames, Tower, bridges on Thames and all in all the city is spectacular from this point.

3rd Station: Emirates Cable Line on river Thames, sponsored by Emirates Air Line. Cable cars connect Greenwich Peninsula and Royal Docks. The journey lasts for approximately 15-20 minutes and costs 10 pounds. The cabins hang above Thames. Many iconic places can be seen from it, like O2 Arena, Canary Warf island or the Tower. Railway station and skyscrapers can be observed, and actually the whole time spent in a moving cabin is priceless.

4th Station: Buckingham Palace and the old town. And now we’ve arrived at that chapter from our English books about well-known sightseeing attractions. I checked in at Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower, The Houses of Parliament. Each attraction can be visited in circa 1, 5 hour. I didn't enter any of them, just explored from the outside. The cool thing about this places is their majesty, architecture and dignity. The sad part is that there are crowds of people taking photos, stepping on each other’s feet, running in slalom, and making noise. But once in a life I could support it, and I was satisfied that I could see live in HD these giants. The guard mount (switch of shift) at the palace was impressive and funny at the same time. I appreciate royal traditions and ceremonies, but that ‘hairy helmet’ worn by guards belongs to a new dimension of beauty and fashion. And their motionlessness and seriousness terrifies me. The change of guards was a strange ceremony. Even the walk and gait of these guards was absolutely artificial and awkward. But it was worth seeing it, it imprinted in my brain, and I’ll always remember it. Suddenly a black cab appeared from the direction of the palace and went out of the court in the direction of the city. Its windows were shaded so we couldn’t see who was sitting in it, but I hope it was Kate or Queen Elizabeth I waved to.

5th Station: King’s Cross Railway Station. Familiar from J. K. Rowling’s romans. It’s the departure place for wizards in the direction of Hogwarts School. Platform 9, 3/4 is the place where Harry Potter and other students of Hogwarts waited for Hogwarts Express. This station is very popular among London’s visitors. There are queues of tourists waiting to be photographied. There is a professional photographer who captures each tourist (wizards in our case) in the moment when he or she is running/going through the brickwall with his/her suitcase. Just like Harry and his friends ran to the wall, well more exactly: ‘in’ the wall, and stepped into a different universe afterwards. Tourists also get scarves, dress-up in uniforms and hold a magic wand in their hands. Thus the whole image is more authentic. Besides this funny photo-shooting near platform 9, 3/4, there is a cool ‘Harry Potter’ store close to this. There tourists can buy magic sticks, books of Hogwarts, owls, mices, magic serums and many more tools, needed in witchcraft and wizardry.

That was all for today, but I'll be back soon.

P. s. : Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I'm not a professional photographer.

Thanks for reading, Dora

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