Day 3 of London on Flickr has been added to the set:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157646667980697/
Kew Gardens was quite expensive at 15 pounds for an adult (I save a whole 1 POUND as a student, whoop-de-freakin-doo), but it was somewhere I had wanted to go, and hadn’t gone last time I was in London. It’s a truly enormous Royal Botanical Garden about half an hour by tube west of the City of London.
There was so much to see as well. From when we went in, we headed northwest towards the Temperate House and Queen Charlotte’s Cottage. Both were closed - Temperate House for 5 years (!) and the cottage, we found out later, is only open on weekends. But in that half of the park, there’s basically no manicured anything, just a green space with a couple of Oriental buildings and one of the largest compost heaps in Europe. Whaaaatt??? Who thought that was a selling point?:
West half of Kew Gardens
The eastern half of Kew Gardens was much more interesting for me. Full of old buildings and manicured flower beds. Some of the buildings there included the Royal Kitchens, Kew Palace, an Orangery, an enormous Palm House, and a conservatory with all sorts of exotic desert and rainforest plants:
East half of Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is renowned as a place where you can see a peacock or two. We saw two, and on both occasions people acted like complete fools around them, scaring them off. No, do NOT sit on the bench showing it the photo you just took with your iPad. No, do NOT let your 10-year-old chase after it. Fools:
Peacocks of the gardens
The second half of the afternoon was devoted to seeing more of central London. We wandered through Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, past Carlton House and into Trafalgar Square. There were so many highlights:
London as the sun goes down
We (well, dad and I) also got up on the Trafalgar Square Lions and took our photos. Apparently you might not be able to for much longer - the lions are suffering damage from years of being clambered on:
Trafalgar Square Lion
M&Ms World just past Leicester Square was incredible. The ground floor was the highest floor, with second more storeys extending below ground. There was M&Ms everything, from make-your-own bag mixes to stationery, shirts and fridge magnets. No, I didn’t buy anything:
M&Ms World
After that we shared a couple of pizzas near Leicester Square before heading back to Croydon. That’s it from London, tomorrow we journey to King’s Lynn to meet one of mum’s relatives. Until tomorrow!
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