exploring london's kew gardens (very picture heavy!)

after the morning spent at the wimbledon village fair, we had a quick pit stop back at mum's place in putney before jumping on another bus - this time headed to richmond. from richmond we surmised that our final destination for the day couldn't have been that much of a walk if it was only one tube stop, and not wanting to get on that particular sweat trap, we took our chances. well, we were right; despite locals telling us otherwise and suggesting numbers of buses for if we got tired, we soldiered on. and you know what? it really wasn't that far. so dear old guy in richmond - i challenge your idea of 'a long walk'. fyi - it took about 10 mins. literally. maybe 15 at a push (on the way home).

we entered the gardens and mum immediately did what mum does best; got out her map. i meaaaaan. i'm very much of the "let's have a wander and see where we end up" school of thought while she is very much the opposite. she'd been to the gardens on her last trip to london, and i'd never been, so... i was quite happy to be lead around by someone who knew (sort of) where they were going.

man alive it was hot! really, very warm. and then, there was a glasshouse. dear world, if you're already warm, here's a top tip for you: don't enter a giant house made of glass that's filled with tropical plants. you will surely choke on your own air and maybe lose all hydration from your pores. i don't claim to be a scientist, but this is what happened. to me. that day. it was haaaaaaaht in there!

and then we climbed the stairs to the top of the glasshouse, and somehow it was even worse up there! but, there was a fantastic view of the tropical plants and palms and sweaty tourists, oh my!

below the glasshouse was the aquarium, which was sooooo much cooler. i tried to make mum stay there forever... she was having none of it. none! some of the fishies weren't really keen to play though, but did see a few really gross ones. like that worm looking thing that's supposed to be an eel? ok, whatever. and the upside down jellyfish? er, ok. the tiger fish was cool though.

then we went into some exotic glasshouse (another!) and saw some more flowers. i mean, the general theme of the day was essntially flowers. yeah. which i accept and was totally on board with. but, please don't expect me to remember what genus or specimen or whatever they are, ok? some were pink, some were in water, some grew on rocks. others were cacti or succulents or whatever the cool kids are calling them now... oh! and the giant lizard that nobody but me even noticed was perched on this massive rock right by the main waling path... creepy sick!





then there were aussie trees and flowers! gum nuts and bottle brush! so aussie! (they didn't even smell like eucalyptus though, so they're fooling noone. actually, i bet they fool a bunch of people, but not these aussie lasses!) and then there was this super ooooold tree - look how old it is! all of the rings. and, it's still producing so much sap (i touched it - it was sappy!).

then we stopped at the orangary so i could buy the most expensive egg and cress ever sold in the uk, and so mum could buy a stiffling hot coffee on the hottest day of the year. yeeeeeep. i could feel my shoulders were a little tender from the sun, but despite all of the trees, there wasn't a lot of shade on the main paths. i was definitely getting burnt. and maaaan alive it felt good to sit down and drink a drink.

next we wandered around to the tree top walkway. mum did this walk by herself the last time she visited the gardens, but with the amount of people walking around on the rickety walkway 18 metres up in the sky, there was absolutely no way i was going up there. i have real issues with heights at the best of times (which, funnily enough i got from my mama - no idea how she managed this by herself last time!), and especially after reading what becky thought of it when she went recently... i said no thank you and we moved on.

aaaaand then we were done. we made our final stops by the japanese gardens, but after wandering for the best part of... more than three hours, we were hot, bothered, and still had the walk back to richmond and the bus back to putney to look forward to. thankfully at the end of that journey was a delicious home cooked meal from my mum (my first since she's been here?!), a rest, a recharge of the batteries (literally, this phone, i tell you!), and then some hours of location, location before jumping on the train home.

saturday was a loooong but really glorious day... according to my sunburn.

have you been to kew - what did you like best?