Glasshouse and duck pond
Tropical rain forest
Definitely not bluebells, but very pretty anyway
Anyone for a picnic?
Treetop walk - and we both climbed up and back down!
Bushwalking
Looking for badgers
Kew Palace
We have been so lucky with the weather since we arrived in London – today was again clear but very crisp, especially early in the day. However, we did take our jackets off for a short while after lunch. The Londoners were obviously enjoying the sunshine, with a number of men even sporting shorts, shoes and very white legs and some of the young women giving their light, summer dresses an airing.
Today we visited Kew Gardens, travelling via the Underground, which was mainly on top of the ground for the half hour journey. The area around the gardens was definitely a rather jolly pleasant village, with most of the houses having a rather posh car parked on the front gravel (not lawn, gravel!); a Maserati, large Porches, Mercedes and BMWs were rather common.
The Royal Botanic Gardens lived up to expectations – very green and with the daffodils and blossom trees in full flower, along with large carpets of other small flowering plants. Unfortunately, we were probably a week too early for the bluebells. Not all the Gardens have manicured lawns, in fact a large area is left quite wild (blackberries in abundance) but with small pockets of mown areas for picnics. Needless to say, with the sun shining, there were many, many family groups enjoying a day out, along with the numerous tourists.
We visited most of the large greenhouses; poor Cat really struggled with the sudden changes of temperature and humidity. The tropical rain forest areas reminded us of Far North Queensland, with the palms, rattan, understory and humidity. The Princess of Wales (Diana) Glasshouse had ten different climate zones, but did have some quite beautiful orchids in flower. The water in the waterlily pond had black dye added to the water to contrast with the flowers and improve the reflections – certainly looked stunning.
Kew Gardens were originally owned by Kings George II and III and still contain two buildings from that era – Queen Charlotte’s picnic house and Kew Palace (still a royal palace today). The picnic house is a small thatched cottage surrounded by natural woodland and was built specifically for picnics – in the upstairs room of the cottage! Kew Palace was the residence of George III and is a very modest building by today’s standards.
During the train journey back to Victoria Station, we were treated to some folk music by a couple of buskers who moved between carriages at station stops. Of course, the hat was passed around for donations!
This evening we are having dinner with Les’ nephew, Justin.
No comments:
Post a Comment