Luxury Stay: Shangri-La at the Shard London
There is no better British summer time tradition than Wimbledon.
Centre Court Wimbledon
The start of The Championships signals all the wonderful things in the world. Firstly two weeks of watching gorgeous tennis players on telly and secondly, it’s summer! Woohoo 🙂
Summer Time Cheers at the Shangri-La
In what has become nearly a tradition in our family, my mum and I headed over to London for the first week of Wimbledon.
We had great plans to go a day early and shop till we drop, or least that was my plan, but once we had arrived at the Shangri-La at the Shard we didn’t want to leave, ever.
The Shard – photo credit by the Shangri-La
A stay at the Shangri La London
This beautiful hotel is London’s first elevated hotel with the reception being on the 35th floor!
The Shangri-La chain is based on creating the vision of an imaginary place called the Shangri-La described in the novel ‘Lost Horizon’ by James Hilton.
To Hilton, The Shangri-La is an idyllic hideaway, an earthly Asian paradise, a place where life approaches perfection.
View from our room at the Shangri-La
To say I am a fan of this concept is a total understatement. My global yoga poses and zen quotes have gotten a fair few comments at this stage, so for me to have found an entire hotel chain based on the principles of zen is like hitting the jackpot!
Zen Times in Kenya
I honestly wish their chilled out Buddha Lounge lobby music could be the background tune to my entire life.
More Zen Times in Marrakech
The ultra relaxed music actually followed us to the room where it was playing on the TV, excellent.
But let me hit pause, so we can be sufficiently stunned by this room!
This is when I learnt I need a new wide angle lens for my Nikon – – photo credit by the Shangri-La
No words.
Though as I do have to write some words, I will say kudos to whoever thought of putting binoculars and a viewing map in the room, such a neat idea.
Early Morning View
I feel like every blog post I say “this bath is the best I have ever seen” but really this time.. look at the view.
I later found out that the top ten floors of the Shard are going to be turned into apartments… yes that’s right, people are going to be able to come home to this everyday.
Next question is how do I get to be one of those people? Hmmm
View from the Shangri-La London – photo credit by the Shangri-La
Our trip to London coincided with the heat wave so naturally we quickly abandoned struggling through the crowds on Oxford Street to go for a dip in the pool.
The pool being 53 floors up and the highest pool in Europe.
What impressed me more than the gorgeous pool was that beside it was a selection of hair ties just incase guests forget to bring their own… thinking ahead, I like it!
Of course when dinner time came around we ate and ate, despite having sworn to stay on a strict summer diet, but as there was so much foodie goodness I will save the details for a later post and jump ahead to Wimbledon Day!
Dinner… just kidding these were our welcome treats!
Ok I give in, can’t do a full post without any food pictures.. so here is breakfast.. a fat free chocolate muffin and the danish pastry…well I hear you actually burn more calories eating it than you take in, or was that celery?
A photo of tea with a view just to make everyone jealous.
Then a quick change into my Wimbledon outfit, nothing too fancy as it tends to be a long day on your feet.
Wimbledon 2015
Last year I wrote a mini guide to Wimbledon which you can see here, but rather than recover old ground I will give you a quick round up.
We saw Djokovic making a grand slam match on Centre Court look like a stroll in the park.
Next on was Serena: more strolling in the park.
Then Cilic versus Berankis, which was a fabulous 5 set thriller.
Spying on the Royal Box
We wandered around and had Pimms.
Marvelled at how fast the players are and how terrifying it would be to be on the other end of some of those serves, eek!
At the end of the day we got the bus back, far better than the tube where you would be packed in tighter than your average can of sardines!
If you want to find out more about the Shangri-La you can check out their website here. Happy Travels!
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