I Love Kew

I woke up a little earlier than normal and wrote a tiny bit more for my Islam paper. Then I went to class. Our final class was just spent talking about a news article about Western views of Islam. That was about it. It was kind of anticlimactic. Oh well. We said goodbye to Hadi (I really liked him) and then left. It was a magnificent day out and I really wanted to go out and see one last new thing around London so I went to Kew Gardens. It is just a short Tube ride (20 minutes) west of London. I got off in the town of Richmond and then walked along the Thames to the Kew Gardens entrance.

Richmond takes its name from a palace that Henry VII built in 1500. There are a lot of houses from the 1700s and still retains a very village feel, kind of like Greenwich but different. I got out of the station and walked around the town a bit. I saw the Richmond Theatre which was built in 1899. I really liked the red brick (picture 1). It is right across the street from Richmond Green which is a big expanse of grass where people were hanging out and enjoying the sun. The town really owes itself to Henry VII. The part of the palace he built is now a bunch of homes so doesn't really look like a palace anymore. Elizabeth I died in that palace which is cool. I left Richmond and spent a large chunk of time walking east along the Thames. The path had the Thames on the left and a creek on the right with trees and stuff (creek picture 2). The creek reminded me a lot of Shingle Creek park where I used to run in high school (kind of by Park Center and Brookdale Park for those who know the area). It made me miss it. The river was at low tide which made it pretty much ugly but that's ok. It was still pleasant with the sunshine and loads of people walking, running, and biking by. I finally got to the village of Kew and walked by some of the houses on my way to the gardens. The houses had wonderful gardens and plants in their extremely tiny "front yards" (picture 3). They were still cute. I made it to Kew Gardens. It was 12 pounds to enter but worth every pence.

The Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew are the most complete public gardens in the world. They were started by Royalty but have since become public. There are 6 greenhouses (yes, 6). Therea re over 40,000 different kinds of plant on display (!!!!) and it is a center for research.

I am an ambition person sometimes (that is an understatement) so I wanted to hit all the major sites which means walking around basically the entire complex. That's about three miles. I started my tour at the Secluded Gardens. There was a little grove with a stream and bridge. The flowers were very nice (I could say that about everywhere). My next stop was also my favorite place, the Princess of Wales Conservatory. It is a really cool looking building. It has different levels and is very angular. There are 10 climate temperate zones inside. Everything from heavy rainforest to arid desert is represented. Like I said, this was my favorite room. It seemed that everything was in bloom and the sheer variety of plants was astounding (picture 4). I saw a sign that said, "Don't throw your money in the pond, it's hard to get out. Throw it in the gift shop." I thought that was funny. There was a really big pond inside that had stingrays. You could down below water level and look in at them. They are very interesting creatures. Just tons of awesome flowers and plants in this place. I left the greenhouse and went out into the Rock Garden. This had rocks, obviously, and other plants (picture 5). I liked the set up a lot and it was cool walking around the stepped rock formations. I walked through the Grass Garden (pretty obvious what that was). It was on to the Bonsai House next. AMAZING. There were 10 Bonsai trees but they weren't the normal Bonsai trees. There was a maple Bonsai tree and a pine Bonsai tree (picture 6). They were awesome.

I walked up to the Temple of Aeolus next. It is set up on a hill in the Woodland Garden. The guy who originally designed the gardens liked having these little Greek Temples all over the place. A few are still there. I walked to the Palm House next. It is pretty obvious what this is as well. When the building was built in the Victorian Age, it was held as a perfect example of Victorian ingenuity and craftsmanship. It was stifling humid and hot inside. The palms were massive. They were hard to take pictures of though because there were so many leaves and they were so tall. I did get a picture of one of the sweet palm things (picture 7). I walked up some stairs and got a bird's eye view of the palms. The rainforest must be spectacular. I walked over to the House next door which was the Waterlily House. It was really small but had a pond in the middle of it where some HUGE waterlilies were growing. They bloom in late May/June though...

The flower garden outside the Palm House was awesome (I am going to run out of adjectives). There were SO MANY FLOWERS!! I don't know the name of a lot of them but they were all so pretty. The color combinations were great too. Pink, yellow, orange, green, red. I loved it. I walked on and past some trees and grass areas until I arrived at the Temperate House. This house had wood type and other plants arranged by where they come from. Every continent was represented (except Antarctica). I didn't like this one as much except one set of flowers (picture 8). I was getting tired so I sat down outside the house on the steps looking over the Cherry Walk. The Cherry Walk is a path with cherry trees along each side. I ate lunch here. Two men and a little boy were walking down the path (picture 9). The boy didn't want to keep walking so the two men left him there and kept walking. They never turned around and the boy got the idea and ran after them. Funny.

I walked over to the Pagoda next (picture 10). It is a five story pagoda designed by an Englishman. The English were kind of obsessed with Asia for a while (like at the Royal Pavilion at Brighton). It was cool but very strange to see. I walked by a Japanese Garden. This had a real rock garden where there is no grass but pebbles instead. It was interesting. The next part was along a woodland gland which had some flowers growing among trees. Very pretty. I got to Queen Charlotte's Cottage. This is where that Queen stayed when she visited. The house is located among a bunch of flowers and woodland scenery. I walked some more to the Bamboo Garden. I didn't know there were so many kinds of bamboo! I thought there was only like one kind of something. There are tons of them. I was nearing the end and walked through the Rhododendron Dell. Rhododendron bushes lived both sides of the path. The reds and whites and pinks and greens created an incredible atmosphere for the path (picture 11 is not a rhododendron but it was on the path and I liked it a lot). I stopped off for a little bit at the indoor kids playground, Creepers and Crawlers. Little kids running around all over the place. Reminded me of the Beacons field trips (the after school program I worked at last year). From there I walked by Kew Palace (picture 12). It is a big red building. Admission price and I was tired and not interested so no go. I sat down on a bench before I left and soaked up the sun. It felt glorious.

I left the gardens and took the bus back. I had to take a bus to Hammersmith and then change for the bus to my flat. It took longer than I thought it would but was ok. Lots of people getting on and off. It's amazing to me that after all the places I have walked and scene and explored in London there are still so many areas that I don't even really know exist. One could spend a lifetime getting to know this city.

I came back to the flat and ate dinner. I did the second and third days of Paris blogs and then was all blogged out and went to bed. I loved Kew Gardens and I picked a great day for it.