Remember The Monument?This is the inside. I managed the 311 step climb at my lunch break today - it's a good thing the view wasn't breathtaking because there was little breath left to exhaust.
The sun was shining (London's weather has yet to meet its widely-held reputation as far as I'm concerned) and I could see quite a distance. Canary Wharf to the east, St Paul's dome to the west and crane after crane after industrial crane stretching their necks in all directions. They looked like giraffes poking their heads beyond concrete tree tops.
I must say that the view of London is much prettier from the bottom up. I suppose that feature comes with being older than elevators. Rooftops are less than dramatic, laboured with ventilation pipes, studded with rain drians and circled by pigeons. A closer look did reveal quite a bit of detail, however; some of the older buildings in view were laced with beautiful butresses, but the detail was so sharp that it could only truly be appreciated with binoculars, of which I was lacking.
Anyways, I hung around for a good half hour; snapped a few photos and did some healthy people watching. Then I spiraled downward back to work.
