[ July 2017 ] We went up the Shard for the first time, which is the tallest building in western Europe.
This is the work of the famous Italian architect, Renzo Piano.
It was completed in 2012, so we have been used to seeing this building from afar as one of the landmarks in London, but we did not have a chance to go up.
It cost about 26 pounds per person to do that.
There were two observation floors and the highest one, the 72nd floor did not have a ceiling.
I wonder if they close it in winter or on rainy days.
The height of the building is about 310 metres, but the 72nd floor is about 244 metres.
The atmosphere of the observation room was similar to Sky Costanera in Santiago in Chile.
It had the roof of heaven, too, there.
We had checked the timing of the sunset and booked in time for it, so we could see that the colours of the sky was changing and the view of the lower world changed accordingly.
Although it was not as spectacular as Tokyo Sky Tree, we could see the main landmarks of London such as Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the London Eye and so on, which was nice. 
The most interesting thing was the view of London Bridge Railway Station, just below us.
The roofs of the platforms were making the interesting stripes.
I have never imagined how it looks from above.
It was a pity, though, that the glass of the observation room was not clean.
We know that we have to take care about the reflections when we take photos through windows, but the dirt on the windows were really regrettable.
In the observation room, there were two virtual reality attractions ; one was to let you feel walking on a narrow beam which is high in the sky, and the other let you feel as if you were sliding on a extremely long slide.
My husband aptly stated “it will be the same if you do them at home”, but I think it is more realistic because you do it here on the highest point in London.
We did not do that, though.
There were bars where you could buy some expensive drinks and a lot of people were drinking Champagne.
I was tempted to take a glass of Bellini (£12), but because I found that they use Champagne instead of Prosecco, which I think is not correct, I did not have one.
According to the website of The Shard, the design of this building was inspired by the spires of churches in London and the mast of tall ships painted by Canaletto, the 18th century Italian painter.
And it is an image of a sculpture looking like a spire emerging from the Thames river.
During this building project, the financial crisis happened and apparently it was nearly collapsed, but it was helped by Qatar who put a lot of money in.
Well, I have seen some photos of Doha with many skyscrapers.
They must love those high rise buildings.
