Thursday July 17--Kew Gardens

We started the day with a new breakfast choice.  Hunger and frustration drove us to a coffee shop across the street.  It offered coffee that tasted like coffee and breakfast choices with actual protein.  Yay!  Sustenance!  With our tummies full and sufficiently caffinated, we headed for Kew Gardens.  Research showed that we could get there on the underground with only one change of line and before we knew it, we were debarking in the cute town of Kew where we got a loaf of sourdough and some cheese and salami, brownie and soda's to enjoy later, picnic style. 

At the meat and cheese market

A loaf of sourdough and a brownie and we're ready to go

Kew Gardens are huge--over 300 acres-- and we decided to get on the tram and take the tour to get our bearings and prioitize what we wanted to see the most. 

After our host, Gordon, showed us the main sights, we went to the Palm House, a huge greenhouse full of tropical plants and surrounded by lovely plantings and fronting a lake and mansion.

The Palm House

We stopped and sat on a bench in front of the rose garden and enjoyed our picnic while watching people stop and smell the roses.  The weather was getting hotter, but big fluffy clouds passing by provided enough shade.  What a wonderful, soul-soothing place to enjoy a meal.

We were finishing up when we heard someone yell, "Go Ducks!"  We met this family from Portland, Carla a Duck and Steve, a Beaver fan.  As we talked, Carla said she had graduated from Sheldon and had grown up on a street off Coburg Rd.  Turns out the street was Lariat, the street right behind the street I lived on, Tandy Turn.  She knew which house we lived in and remembered the path we gave to the city as a cut through between the two neighborhoods.  She also babysat Jody, my daughter Christine's best friend.  Wow small world to meet up in London!!

The gardens are immense

And they smell good too

Jeff enjoys his lunch

After lunch we walked to the Princess Dianna Greenhouse.  She dedicated it in 1987 and it has several different climate zones from dessert to tropical.  It was very hot in there, so we took a quick look and went outside and found a bench in the shade near a sprinkler.  After that we took a tour of King Charles lll summer home and waited for the tram to take us back to the entrance.

Inside the Princess Dianna Greenhouse

Jeff and the Orchids

Kew Palace--King Charles lll spent time here as a child and when he "went mental" later in life

It was a long, hot day! 

After we took the tube back to Russell Square, had a nap and a shower, we ventured out again.  This time we went the the famous Piccadilly Circus to see the sights. Piccadilly Circus is to London what Times Square is to New York.  In the middle of the street is a statue of Eros.  And down the street we found London's Chinatown and a Vietnamese Restaurant with good prices and wonderful food.  We both had Satay (peanut sauce)...I had chicken and Jeff had Prawns.  We had a nice walk around the streets and bought tickets to the "Comedy Store" for a show on Friday night.  We topped off the night with an ice cream cone and took the tube back to The President for a well-earned sleep.

The portal gates to Chinatown

At the Comedy Store

Eros statue in Piccadilly Circle