(22/09/04)
London recently had an Open House for a bunch of the City's buildings. I took the opportunity to check out 30 ST Mary Axe, or "The Gherkin":
If you haven't already worked it out, it's call the Gherkin because that's where they grow Gherkins (it's really a huge glass house).
I tell ya what, it has the best view in London at the top! You can even see MY PLACE (and Canary Wharf as well - tall buildings to the left):
Another great view up there was of Tower Bridge (no, it's not London Bridge for all you uneducated people), Tower of London (below Tower Bridge), City Hall (round thing) and the HMS Belfast (floating in the water):
If you remember, David Blaine strung himself up between Tower Bridge and City Hall for a few weeks a year ago without food, just to prove that he could:
Did you know?!
The building can hold up to 4,000 Gherkin growers.
Five football (assuming soccer here) pitches of glass where killed in the making of the outside.
Depressed Gherkin growers will fall 180meters to their death if they jump from the top.
There are 1,037 stairs to climb if you want to use the toilet on the top floor (only to find that there is NO DAMN TOILET ON THE TOP FLOOR!).
The lifts travel at 6 meters per second, but space age gravitational inertial dampeners prevent you from getting crushed like a elephant standing on, well, you.
Oh yeah, and there is only one curved piece of glass on the outside of the building, which is the bit right at the very top (the "lens"):
And that was basically it, apart from getting hassled by some English dude because Tania and I jumped the 4 hour long queue. "Oh I DO think it is rather peculiar that you are behind us now rather than that lady", I said "Oh yeah?!" and he shut up, bonus of having a shaven head and looking damn hard.
If you wanna go visit it yourself, you'll have to wait until next year, ha ha!