We’d been to London a good many times before, but there were several major things we’d never done there and had always wanted to. One of them was to see the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and this seemed like a great time of year to do that.
SarahP and Jim decided to have an “admin day” at home … doing laundry and that kind of thing …. while SarahE and I went for it. The day was completely overcast, and rain was forecast, but that was fine. After breakfast we grabbed the SL1 back to the tube at Arnos Grove, and then the Piccadilly Line down to Hammersmith, where we switched to the District Line. The two tube lines parallel each other for several stops, but you want to change at Hammersmith rather than the other stops, because there you just have to cross the platform instead of climbing stairs, etc. We crossed the Thames and got to the Kew Gardens stop soon after that, and then walked down Lichfield Road, past several small cars and expensive city houses, to the Victoria Gate into Kew.
Paid for our admissions and got lots of advice from a very friendly attendant, and then started clockwise around the outside of the huge gardens. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this was delightful! There were very few other people there on such an overcast day, and we were in an exotic arboretum, separated from the city sounds and bustle by a tall wall. Some trees that I loved were the varied types of lime trees (called lindens elsewhere), the astonishing Atlas cedars, the ubiquitous English oaks, and the massive red oaks.
We both love trees, and this was a wonderland for us. I was gobsmacked by the majesty of the Atlas cedars we saw, some of them were so big there’s no way you could capture the sprawl well in a picture. The English oaks were also very large, but at the same time were compact, the distinctive oak-shaped leaves were about half the size of oak leaves I’m used to. And speaking of size, the red oaks they had there were thicker, and their canopies were denser than I’d ever seen. This tree originated in America but is very different from the ones we see in Maine. And speaking of American trees, they had a thick stand of tall redwoods.
We were having a great time, and this is a very large garden. We wandered by the Great Pagoda, which has some delightful toys in it, by Queen Charlotte’s cottage, where the royal family used to retreat to a country house in the middle of London, detoured on the Woodland Walk, and paused at the Syon Outlook by the mysteriously small Thames River (it’s so much bigger a few miles downstream).
Had a nice sit-down lunch outside at the Pavilion Bar and Grill (which outrageously had no beer on that day!?!), toured the large Temperate House greenhouse, wandered past the closed Treetop Walkway and the lake, and then it really started raining. We were prepared though, and it didn’t hurry us. We got up to the Northeast corner of the gardens and were just in time to tour Kew Palace itself before it closed. This is a handsome, small palace, with a small and tidy garden behind it, and the interpretive materials there are good, as is their reconstruction of the rooms. The royal family’s residence there was tragic, as it was basically done to discreetly sequester George III during the height of his madness, which was (probably) bipolar disorder and tore apart the family.
Wow, most of the day was gone and we had to time it right to rendezvous with the others for dinner at Mickey and Hakey’s house at 6:30. We stopped for a needed cup of coffee at the Orangery, and then walked down the Broad Walk back to Victoria Gate, and then to the tube stop. This was another efficient tube ride. We could see the Piccadilly Line train speeding into Hammersmith right next to our District Line train, and when we stopped, we just had to run the 20 feet across the platform to board it.
Got to Turnpike Lane, followed the directions we’d been given, and arrived at Mickey and Hakey’s house at exactly 6:30 and exactly at the same time as SarahP and Jim, and then Mollie, in their cars! It was wonderful to see Mollie again, and then Mickey and our great-nephew N upstairs, and Hakey when she soon got back from work. We’d last seen MM&H back in 2019 at Dad’s funeral and had never met N before. We talked and talked … Mickey got take-away from Nando’s delivered for dinner … and loved hearing about their jobs and seeing where M&H live. And it was fun to play with N and great to see a kitty again, a role ably filled by Xiaowo.
The evening ended too soon, but Mickey had to leave on a business trip the next day and it was getting late for us older folks. Said goodbye to them and to Mollie and then piled in the car for the short drive back to Friern Barnet. A little TV and then bed.
Digression on Cars/Transport
When we’d been to England before we’d seen lots and lots of Vauxhalls, Fords, and other West European cars such as Peugeots and Fiats. But this time there was a very different mix. As mentioned, we had a SEAT Ateca (manufactured in Czechia) in Scotland and did our driving in a Kia Sportage (South Korea) after that. There were other makes from Czechia, Poland, etc. and also many varieties of Asian autos, such as Hondas, Toyotas, and Mitsubishis. There were still a good number of Fords, but much fewer, and it was very rare to see a Chevrolet. There were fewer electric cars than in the States, but still a significant number.
Many London busses were also electric or switched off their engines automatically when stopped. In fact, the London transport system impressed us even more than it had before. The Tube keeps expanding and keeps running on time. We had a couple of great experiences on the National Rail network. And the reticulation of bus lines is just amazing. Even in the outer parts of London there were busses going in all directions, not just in toward the city center. And when we got out of a concert in Islington on a Saturday night, it was just one bus ride home.
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