Kew Gardens and
London Travel Blog
› entry 3 of 4 › view all entriesMay 24th, 2010 – by: sarahsan

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.

Kew Gardens, Victoria Gate
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.

Victoria Gate Café
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.

Temple of Arethusa
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.

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.


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London Sights & Attractions review
A delight of a botanical garden
Kew Gardens is beautifully situated by the Thames in the south west of London. To get there take the District Line to Kew Gardens Railway station. Fro… read entire review