London - but not as we know it

Working in travel, I have often told people how lucky I am to have gathered some brilliant and unusual experiences over the years.  But my most recent of these experiences was slightly different; it wasn't a VIP ticket to a Mozart concert in the Kursalon in Vienna, or travelling in first class on the Eurostar; nor was it salsa-ing the night away in Cuba - all of which were equally amazing in their own right. This was a little bit closer to home: this was The View From The Shard!

Early birds: The View From The Shard
As an office, we were lucky enough recently to be among the first people to experience The View From The Shard. Working in its shadow, my colleagues and I watched as the pointed tower crept ever closer to the sky, and there was, understandably, talk about its progress within the office. We were excited, therefore, when a travel-trade pre-opening invitation popped into our inbox. The travel industry has its perks, and this was one we were looking forward to!

In the shadow of The Shard, as viewed from outside of my office

As the day neared, there was more talk and some nerves before finally it was upon us.  At 12:30 on Thursday 24^th January 2013, 6 of us walked the short distance from our office to The Shard, to be amongst the privileged first few who would get to experience London from above.

The Shard Experience
The Shard has taken its cue from skyscraper viewing platforms the world over in that it recognises that the overall visit has to be an 'experience', and not just a nice view.  After the initial security checks, the visitor steps in front of a blue screen, where your photo is promptly taken to be mocked up into a shot of your group with a fantastic London view behind you – very much like the iconic shots of construction workers sitting on a steel girder which are recreated at the start of The Rockefeller Center’s ‘Top of the Rock’ viewing platform in New York, except the Shard obviously doesn’t have any steel girders to play with. 

From here, your wait for the lift involves a ‘Q&A’ session with one of the many friendly members of staff, who are happy to answer any questions you may have, offer up facts (did you know that the lifts travel at six metres per second?!) and point out the clever gizmo on the wall which shows where the various lifts are in the building.  It’s then onwards and upwards, firstly in one bank of lifts, upon which colourful leaves fall and seasons change, eventually stepping out onto a carpet inlaid with a map of the River Thames, which encourages you to identify the various landmarks described along the river as you wait for the final lift – the final lift which takes you up, up and away to the View From The Shard itself.

'Leaves' falling on the lift roof

The 'guess the London landmark' carpet, as you wait for the second set of lifts

London from above

Once you step out onto the 69^th floor, it’s rather high!!  And the height makes the views breathtaking: the river winding its way towards Canary Wharf and the Docklands, being able to see into the grounds of the Tower of London, Tower Bridge being reduced to the size of something which wouldn’t look out of place in a child’s play set....even the seeing the trains coming into London Bridge Station from this different, aerial perspective is interesting.  I think for me, my favourite view was the view directly across the river looking on to the Swiss RE building, commonly known, of course, as the Gherkin (my favourite piece of London architecture), the new ‘Walkie-Talkie’ and Tower 42.  The buildings have such an iconic, ‘London’ feel to them, and seeing them in such an up-close manner adds to their beauty. 

The view across the river towards the Gherkin, Tower 42 and the Walkie Talkie

The Shard has also embraced technology with the interactive telescopes dotted about at intervals: these touch-screen gadgets work by pointing the telescopic end at a London landmark, and the user being able to identify them on-screen and even learn more about the building in question.  These were impressive as they were, but another incredibly friendly member of the Shard team told us as we descended in the lift that they were still in the process of adding another 100 landmarks to them, to improve them still further.  There’s also the impressiveness of the structure itself; up on the floor above, floor number 72, the roof remains open-air – most Londoners will say that The Shard looks unfinished because the point at the top doesn’t meet, but I think having been up to the top, the open-air nature of the construction adds to the viewing experience, making you feel on top of the city and among the clouds.

Up in the clouds: the open-air nature of the top floor, reaching up into the 'unfinished' point

The verdict

There were some teething problems on the day of our visit – the lift, for example, on our descent didn’t want to work for the operator for quite some time, and we all stood wondering if we’d have to walk down the many flights of stairs to ground level – but that’s to be expected at a pre-opening.  At £25.00 for a pre-booked ticket, the price tag is also pretty hefty, but all of my colleagues said that had we been anywhere else in the world, and not on our home turf, we would have paid to have visited the viewing platform, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t succeed in London.  It’s different – and certainly taller – than anything else that London has to offer, and this uniqueness will stand it in good stead.  All in all, I feel very privileged to be able to say that I’ve been up The Shard – and viewed London, but not as we know it.

Tower Bridge in miniature

The River Thames winding its way towards Canary Wharf

You call this snow?!

It’s that time of year again when the UK suffers its annual dusting of snow and everything comes to a grinding halt.  When this yearly occurrence happens, my thoughts always turn to the year I spent living in Vienna – an academic year, to be precise, the year of 2004 – 2005, which happened to be one of the worst winters on Austrian record.  Snow covered every bough and rooftop as far as the eye could see, and the city was bathed in a brilliant white.  Now that was really what you call snow!

Schönbrunn, bathed in snow.  This was actually taken during its 

Easter Market (yes Easter Market!)!

Snow won’t stop us! 
Coming from the scarcely-touched-by-snow UK, I’d never seen snow like it, and it now forms one of the overriding memories of my year abroad.  But it isn’t necessarily a negative memory.  The snow started on the 20^th November 2004.  I was woefully underdressed for the occasion in a skirt, tights and ballet pumps; I soon learnt that for the next 5 months, the only form of footwear I would be wearing would be my snow boots.  It didn’t stop snowing until the end of March – I can remember going to the Easter Markets and being surrounded by beautiful coloured eggs, wicker baskets and clumps of snow.  What was so different to the UK, however, was the fact that the snow was no big deal: trains still ran on time, schools and businesses were still open, and my commute was barely affected, even if I did have to go and borrow an umbrella from the Hotel Schrannenhof in the market place of Klosterneuburg one morning, en route to work.

The Schönbrunn Easter Market sign, with snow underfoot!

The no. 2 tram - still running despite the snow!

Stunning snowy city 
And so as the snow descended on the city, and being woken up by the snow plough became a regular occurrence (so much so that I became convinced that the “Secret Sound” competition on the local radio station was someone shovelling snow – it turns out that the sound of someone moving a computer mouse over a mouse mat is surprisingly similar), a beauty took over what was already a stunning place to live.  Vivid memories of cars piled high with snow, sledging at a friend’s house in Klosterneuburg, shopping in festively white Christmas markets and a beautifully snowy trip to Salzburg are all highlights of my year abroad, and the beautiful scene through a tram window of tree boughs heavy with snow in Stadtpark will stay with me forever.  Snow might not excite me anymore, but it does fill me with a sense of wonder, and of memories of a beautiful white city which doesn’t stand still for snow.

Cars covered with snow in Klosterneuburg

Sledging in Klosterneuburg

 

A snow covered Klosterneuburg

 

 

The only way is Manchester: An Essex Girl Up North

I’m ashamed to admit that as of just over a month ago, I’d never been to Manchester.  All of these exotic climes I’d visited, and yet I’d not been to one of the UK’s most important cities – a city, I was to discover, which deserved my full attention: from the Lowry to the National Football Museum, and great shopping and restaurants thrown in too, it offers a whole array of delights for the tourist.  

When I think about the fact that my friend Tom has been living in Manchester for the past 6 years and my hubby had been to visit him 3 times prior to my visit, it’s really difficult to understand why I’d not been; every time Tom came back to Essex, he’d tell me about this new bar he’d been to, or this great shop he’d found, or even just about an excellent meal he’d had on the curry mile – and yet I’d still not been to visit.  So it was decided that 2012 would be the year that Essex-girl-and-hubby would be let loose in Manchester: and what a gem of a city we discovered! 

Season’s greetings!

Once it was decided that we were going, we timed our visit to coincide with the Manchester Christmas Markets; having once lived in Vienna, I am a sucker for a Christmas Market.  This does also mean that I have high expectations of what a Christmas Market should be like: Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is not for me, it’s not authentic enough.  Manchester, however, did not disappoint: street after street of tempting stalls selling a beautiful variety of food and gifts from Germany, France and Holland.  It was all so authentic!  And what’s more, I even managed to find a gluten free Lancashire sausage and bun – what more could this Essex girl want from a Christmas Market?!  The Glühwein was hot and delicious, and, most importantly for me, served in an authenticity-inducing mug rather than a polystyrene cup – fuelled up on warm alcohol and tasty treats from the market, even the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits as the lights twinkled away amongst the joviality surrounding the town hall.

 

Above: Tom and I enjoying a Gluehwein in the Market, and below, the mugs!

From Christmas Markets to Culture

But it wasn’t just the Christmas Markets we’d gone for: I also had my heart set on taking in The Lowry.  I wasn’t disappointed – what a wonderful space to display such fantastic works of art!  As well as the striking Lowrys – which aren’t to everyone’s taste, but certainly suited mine – we were lucky enough to visit during a Peter Blake exhibition.  Colour and music abound, and the added touch of the 50’s jukebox and interactive social media board blended musicality and modernity seamlessly.  

As Tom lives in the Salford Quays, we took the opportunity to walk up to the recently constructed Media City UK, the new home of the BBC, too, and then visited the Imperial War Museum North: an incredibly interesting museum, housed in an equally interesting Daniel Libeskind designed building.  I was so impressed by all of the regeneration which has taken place in the Quays - the architecture is truly stunning.

Some of the stunning architecture in the Salford Quays 

 

We headed back into town that night, as that first sausage in the Christmas Market had set a precedent.  Tom remembered a restaurant he’d been to where he thought he remembered them serving gluten free pizzas – the wonderful ‘Dough’ in the Northern Quarter.  He had remembered correctly – the only thing on the menu which I couldn’t eat was the Caesar salad!  It was over that gluten free pizza that talked turned to Mancunian stereotypes.  Liam and Noel Gallagher have got a lot to answer for.  Tom advised that the city is actually an incredibly large melting pot of people and cultures - rather than one stereotype - all of which seem to get along.  This was later proved by our visit to the geek-chic TV21 bar – complete with scary alien at the entrance, where else in Britain would you find a sci-fi bar alongside quirky restaurants?!

Pizza!

Shopping, shopping, shopping!

After all that culture, it was time for some shopping on our final day (well, you can take the girl out of Essex, but you can’t take the Essex out of the girl!).  However, this wasn’t really shopping as I knew it; none of the generic shops of our Southern Lakesides or Westfields: this was shopping in the eccentric Northern Quarter.  What a treasure trove!  Tom took us to the likes of Afflecks Palace and the Oxfam Originals shop for a mooch around.  What surprised me was how friendly everyone was; of course, they were probably trying to make a sale, but I couldn’t put my finger on what was different about the atmosphere in Manchester as opposed to London.  

After the shopping, there was just time to visit the National Football Museum (well, the husband’s got to have some fun too!), which even I as a very-much-non-football-fan found interesting, with its many interactive exhibits, before a final visit to the Christmas Market.  “Ooh look,” Tom said, “They’ve got a pop-up Afflecks Palace in the Town Hall!”.  And so in we popped for more mooching around, amidst independent traders selling bright carnival masks and Christmas jumpers.  It was as we were leaving that I turned to Tom and said, “I like it here, it’s friendly and there seems to be always something going on.  It’s not as aloof as London.”.   “That’s exactly it!”  Tom replied, “That’s exactly how to sum up Manchester: More friendly, and less aloof than London.”  And that I think says it all: Manchester really is beautiful.  Oh and it’s more friendly and less aloof than London to boot!

Oh Vienna!: Reverse homesickness from the first district and beyond.

Vienna: my second home.  The reverse homesickness hit the minute I saw the ‘Niederösterreich’ sign.  Well, to be truthful it had hit almost a year before, when I was assigned the Vienna tours to work on in the office, but not long after crossing the Slovakian-Austrian border, on seeing that sign, the excitement kicked in big time, and a feeling of almost homecoming settled over me.  The über-efficient public transport system, the Aida cafes on every corner, the friendly locals: everything reminded me with more than a touch of nostalgia of my language degree year abroad spent in the Austrian capital.   More on all of this later; and yes, an Austrian or German blog is the only place where the use of the word ‘über’ in English is acceptable!  I was home, if only for a few days.

Experiencing the new....

I always think I know Vienna really well - and I suppose, in most ways, I do.  It therefore surprises me, although perhaps it shouldn’t, that there is always something new to see, or something I haven’t seen previously, when going back to visit.  The spectacular ‘Le Loft’ cocktail bar and restaurant at the top of the Sofitel Stephansplatz was one such place on this occasion – offering wonderful views across the whole of the city centre, it was the perfect place to meet with friends I hadn’t seen since my last visit to the city almost 5 years prior.  Another visit I’d never made before was to the interior of the Upper Belvedere Palace, which is currently exhibiting ‘150 years of Gustav Klimt’, a collection of dazzling works by one of Vienna’s most famous artists, and I was also lucky enough to take in a fantastic Mozart and Strauss concert and enjoy a glass of champagne at the beautiful Kursalon concert house in the Stadtpark.  

The Upper Belvedere Palace

But perhaps the most surprising excursion of the three days spent in Vienna on this occasion was the day spent on the Danube.  With a first stop at Melk Abbey, whose beautiful Baroque Church is the highlight of the Benedictine Abbey tour, the day got off to a good start.  We then continued by car along the winding course of the River Danube, amongst the beautiful scenery of the lower Austrian wine growing region, the Wachau Valley (if you ever get a chance to try out the lovely Grüner Veltliner wine, please do, as it is exceptionally drinkable).  We made our way towards Krems, one of the biggest towns in Lower Austria, where we were going to stop for lunch (and where we also managed to get embroiled in the crowds visiting a market staged to celebrate Leopoldi-Tag – St. Leopold’s day, the patron saint of Lower Austria), but firstly, en route, we stopped at a little gem of a town: Dürnstein.  I was bowled over by how beautiful it was; perched high on a cliff face above the river bank is Dürnstein Abbey, painted a brilliant shade of blue to match, fortunately, the sky on the day of our visit.  The jewel coloured spire towered high into the sunlight and crisp autumnal sky, and was reflected in the river below; Dürnstein truly is Austria at its very best.

Dürnstein

 ....Reliving the old

As well as experiencing everything new, or as yet unvisited, which Vienna had to offer me, my recent work trip also offered me an opportunity to revisit my old haunts and generally experience the Viennese way of life as I remembered it.   Everything about every-day life in Vienna gives me a profound sense of reverse homesickness, from the dulcet tones of the U-Bahn announcer through to Kaffee und gluten-free Kuchen in the bright pink Aida coffee shops which adorn most street corners (the ones at Oper and Stephansplatz are, and always have been, my favourites).  There is something so unbelievably calming about the city, even though I have been known to exclaim ‘Geh bitte!’ with the best of the Austrians when the ‘D’ tram is running late (this is slightly ridiculous for two very good reasons: (1) Viennese public transport is very, very rarely late – I can remember only one occasion of it being late in the whole year I lived there; and (2) I have to deal with Transport for London on my daily commute and therefore should be used to delays!!).   

 Gluten free Kuchen at the Aida Cafe at Oper

Vienna is one of the most friendly cities you’ll ever visit – whilst enjoying a glass of the aforementioned Grüner Veltliner in one of my favourite cafes, the Cafe Theo on Franz-Josefs-Kai, I struck up a conversation with a couple about their lovely St. Bernard dog, who was also enjoying the atmosphere in the traditional Austrian Gaststube.  They assured me that the St. Bernard “wasn’t lovely but was very friendly”.  As friendly as the Austrians themselves, indeed.  I’m ashamed to admit that my German is now decidedly rusty and has more than a twinge of Essex accent to it, but I still love talking to the locals and using the wonderful Austrian dialect, including ‘Erdapfel’ (potato – think French ‘pomme de terre’), ‘Palatschinken’ (pancake – nothing to do with ham at all!) and ‘Marille’ (apricot, the flavour of choice for all Austrian jams). 

It feels like coming home

It’s actually quite difficult for me to sum up in words just how Vienna makes me feel.  Walking the cobbled streets of the first district, where I was once lucky enough to live, there’s a sense that nothing has changed; time cannot alter the regal, imperial feel of this beautiful city, no matter which shops and brands come and go.  Stephansdom presides over it all, with Kaiserin Sisi keeping a watchful eye on the city and Mozart being present everywhere, even if only in the costumed concert-ticket-sellers around Stephansplatz.   The sight of the Fiakers and traditional coffee houses and the general atmosphere of this wonderful place is able to soothe my soul in a way that nowhere else can.  It’s like stepping back in time to a much simpler way of life – or so it seems, at least, with my possibly rose-tinted glasses on.  All I know is that at the end of day two I’m sending my husband a text which reads: “Can we move to Vienna please?!!!”.