Kew Gardens and

I woke up to a sunny and warm day. Didn´t feel like walking the streets of London, so what better place to visit than Kew Gardens. I took the District Line direction Richmond. Kew Gardens is the second last stop. From central London it took about 45 minutes. It´s only a short walk from the tube station down to Victoria Gate.

The gardens are absolutely beautiful. I guess because of its size it did not feel crowded at all. From Victoria Gate I started my visit at the Palm House, then continued to the Waterlily House. It´s a small, but wonderful little house with a pond filled with all kinds of waterlilies. It was extremely hot and humid in there. The Temperate House was my next stop.

In this green house they have vegetation from Asia, the Americas, Australasia and South Africa. There were a couple of plants that caught my interest. The Angel´s Trumpet being one of them. This tall, deciduous shrub is actually from the same plant family as the potato! It grows wild on the forested mountain slopes of Colombia. The flower´s sweet scent is strongest at dusk and it was once believed their perfume could induce sleep. The second plant I found interesting was the Rice-paper plant. The paper is made from pith inside the stem. It is used in China for making toys and flowers, paintings and even surgical dressings. This large evergreen shrub can grow to between 5 and 10 meters. It is native to Taiwan and South China, but now also grows in many tropical and sub-tropical regions.

As I continued down to the Pagoda I stopped for a while and watched all the planes that were on their final approach to Heathrow airport. That was actually the only annoying thing about Kew Gardens. It is such a wonderful place, you just want to enjoy its beauty in tranquility. Next to the Pagoda is the Chokushi Mon (gateway of Imperial Messenger). This is a replica of the Karamon of Nishi Hongan-ji Temple in Kyoto. It is made of hinoki wood (Japanese cypress) and have magnificent carvings on the panels and transoms and the metal ornamentation over the whole gateway.

My next stop was the The Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway. When you have climbed the 118 stairs to the walkway, watch out for low branches when you have reached the top. From the walkway there is a fantastic view of the whole garden. This walk is also educational. Along the walkway there are signs teaching you about how the trees live, how they grow, how they reproduce etc. The signs are specially interesting for children, as they are well made and easy to understand. When I walk down again I realized that I had lost my jacket. What to do? Should I just forget about it or should I look for it. It would be like looking for the needle in the haystack. I decided to walk back the same way I had come and half the way back, on a bench, I found my jacket. Glad I went back.

It was now time to head for the other end of the gardens, to the Princess of Wales Conservatory. A walk through the conservatory takes you through ten climatic zones. The two zones with carnivorous plants were the most interesting. Next door is the Davies Alpine House with its unusual alpine plants and the Rock Garden resembling a Pyrenean mountain valley.

By now my feet were hurting, I was tired of walking and I had had a wonderful day, so I decided to end my visit to this fantastic Botanical Garden. There is no doubt that I will come back for more visits. I spent about 4 hours there and probably saw half of the gardens.

At the end of the 80´s I went to the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum. I remembered that they had a small coffee shop where you could have afternoon tea, so I decided to pay them new visit. When I finally got there I could not find neither the street number nor the museum. I walked up and down the street, but no luck. I stopped by the hotel in the next street and the receptionist could tell me that they had closed down 2 years ago, but no one knew wether it was final or if they had relocated. I guess I was not having afternoon tea after all. Instead I walked down to the Thames, crossed London Bridge and walked down to Tower of London and The Tower Bridge, before I went to Covent Garden for something to eat.

My final "activity" today was a play at the Novello Theatre. Grumpy Old Women had already been successful on television, so when it was no live in the theatre I just had to see it. "Grumpy Old Women Live 2: Chin Up Britain" is a show packed full of handy hints on getting through these hard times the grumpy way. The audience was delighted to see the Grumpy Old Women tackle such pertinent issues as: grumping through the ages, why the recession is good for our kids, celebrity culling, plus The Grumpy Guide to Safe Grumpy Rumpy Pumpy! The testy trio offer tips about coping with Excessive Cleaning Disorder, overcoming menu masochism and combining household chores with safe sex. The play was an absolute delight. Can´t remember last time I laughed so hard. It also made it very funny when the actresses lost it and burst out laughing themselves.