Yesterday Mini, Nat, Jon and I decided to do something ‘London-y’. As it was such a beautiful day Kew Gardens seemed like the perfect option so we hopped on the train south…
On arrival we were presented with a map which took us all by surprise – Kew Gardens is huge and there seemed like A LOT to do in just one day!
Armed with our maps and a slightly larger itinerary than we had anticipated we headed straight to the Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway.
Opened in 2008 the walkway is a vertigo inducing 18m high, which may not sound like much but you realise how high you are when your eye line is directly in line with the top of a tree.
Along the walkway there are several information boards to explain what you’re looking at and lots of info about trees.
After the walkway we all felt like keeping our feet on the ground for a bit so we wandered over to the Pagoda. This was completed in 1762 and was supposedly greeted with disapproval by some, most notably Sir Horace Walpole who complained as he could see if from his home in Twickenham. It stands at an impressive 50m high and at the time was the tallest reconstruction of a Chinese building in Europe.
We wandered from the pagoda down the beautiful Pagoda Vista to the rose garden and palm house where we saw the first of the Bompass and Parr 2013 IncrEdibles installation – the tea party.
The IncrEdibles installation is a celebration of the amazing edible plant world. There are more than 12,000 edible plants but people get 80% of their calorie intake from just a dozen of cereals and tubers so their aim is to educate the world about the bounty of edible plants. The most interesting fact I found was that cherry pips when chewed create cyanide – something to note in the future!
The tea party featured tea pots filled with tea plants, herbs in tea cups, trees and lots of information about each of the plants.
The next IncrEdibles feature we saw was the Tutti Frutti Boating Experience…
We couldn’t resist getting on the water so we donned our life jackets, - a sexy look…
… jumped in our boats and rowed over to Pineapple island through the Banana Grotto. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise so you’ll have to go yourselves to see what that entails! Jon did a great job of rowing while us girls relaxed in the sun.
We then visited the bit I was most excited about, the Waterlilly House which houses the giant Victoria amazonica.
We could only spend a few minutes inside as it was overwhelmingly humid on such a hot day. But we did manage to check out the Flavour Fiesta exhibit telling us about the world’s hottest chillis.
For the rest of the afternoon we wandered through the rock garden…
…saw Kew Palace…
… went through the Princess of Wales Conservatory to see the cacti…
…walked through the Palm House (the palm fronds were enormous!)…
… and lastly went to the Japanese Minka House situated in the Bamboo Garden. The house was donated to Kew in 2001.It originally stood in Japan in suburb of Okazaki City and was used as a family home. When the Yonezu family died in 1993 the house was relocated to Kew. Inside the house signs taught us all about the silk trade in Japan and the use of bamboo.
By closing time we were exhausted from all the walking and feeling hot and sticky so we sauntered back to the station via the ice cream van and the pub for some much needed refreshments.
I would definitely recommend Kew for a day trip. It feels like a little piece of countryside in the city and on a day like yesterday it was pretty much perfect!
On arrival we were presented with a map which took us all by surprise – Kew Gardens is huge and there seemed like A LOT to do in just one day!
Armed with our maps and a slightly larger itinerary than we had anticipated we headed straight to the Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway.
Opened in 2008 the walkway is a vertigo inducing 18m high, which may not sound like much but you realise how high you are when your eye line is directly in line with the top of a tree.
Along the walkway there are several information boards to explain what you’re looking at and lots of info about trees.
After the walkway we all felt like keeping our feet on the ground for a bit so we wandered over to the Pagoda. This was completed in 1762 and was supposedly greeted with disapproval by some, most notably Sir Horace Walpole who complained as he could see if from his home in Twickenham. It stands at an impressive 50m high and at the time was the tallest reconstruction of a Chinese building in Europe.
We wandered from the pagoda down the beautiful Pagoda Vista to the rose garden and palm house where we saw the first of the Bompass and Parr 2013 IncrEdibles installation – the tea party.
The IncrEdibles installation is a celebration of the amazing edible plant world. There are more than 12,000 edible plants but people get 80% of their calorie intake from just a dozen of cereals and tubers so their aim is to educate the world about the bounty of edible plants. The most interesting fact I found was that cherry pips when chewed create cyanide – something to note in the future!
The tea party featured tea pots filled with tea plants, herbs in tea cups, trees and lots of information about each of the plants.
The next IncrEdibles feature we saw was the Tutti Frutti Boating Experience…
We couldn’t resist getting on the water so we donned our life jackets, - a sexy look…
… jumped in our boats and rowed over to Pineapple island through the Banana Grotto. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise so you’ll have to go yourselves to see what that entails! Jon did a great job of rowing while us girls relaxed in the sun.
We then visited the bit I was most excited about, the Waterlilly House which houses the giant Victoria amazonica.
We could only spend a few minutes inside as it was overwhelmingly humid on such a hot day. But we did manage to check out the Flavour Fiesta exhibit telling us about the world’s hottest chillis.
For the rest of the afternoon we wandered through the rock garden…
…saw Kew Palace…
… went through the Princess of Wales Conservatory to see the cacti…
…walked through the Palm House (the palm fronds were enormous!)…
… and lastly went to the Japanese Minka House situated in the Bamboo Garden. The house was donated to Kew in 2001.It originally stood in Japan in suburb of Okazaki City and was used as a family home. When the Yonezu family died in 1993 the house was relocated to Kew. Inside the house signs taught us all about the silk trade in Japan and the use of bamboo.
By closing time we were exhausted from all the walking and feeling hot and sticky so we sauntered back to the station via the ice cream van and the pub for some much needed refreshments.
I would definitely recommend Kew for a day trip. It feels like a little piece of countryside in the city and on a day like yesterday it was pretty much perfect!
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