London: Cutty Sark, The Shard, The Monument

22 November 2014

Focussed around a belated birthday visit to the Shard, we had a day out in London starting with a visit to the Cutty Sark and, heading back to the railway station, a stop at The Monument.

When we last visited the Cutty Sark in 2006, it was a visit before the refurbishment, little knowing that the ship would almost be destroyed by fire. So we looked forward to exploring both the restored ship and the new exhibition. Here the ship rides the glass wave, high above her dry dock. It makes for a fabulous view from underneath (see later) and some good space at ground level, but I think diminishes the ship as seen from this sort of angle - though of course it's not that different from how much we would have seen had she been afloat.

Looking upriver from the Cutty Sark, the Shard is just visible disappearing into the cloud on this miserable day.

The copper-clad hull in the glorious space of the dry dock

It's wonderful to see the ship "floating" above us

We then took a boat upriver for our visit to the Shard

The view of HMS Belfast from level 69 of The Shard

The weather was pretty miserable and not giving us anything like the best views, but it was still a great experience to see London from up here

From the partially open Level 72, looking up

The remains of the poppies in the moat of the Tower of London.

Level 69

The Shard

On the way back to the railway station, we stopped at The Monument, and Stephen climbed to the top, from where there was another view of The Shard

Tower Bridge from The Monument

Looking down the 311 stairs.

The Monument to the Great Fire of London is 202 feet tall and lies 202 feet from the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666