London - Kew Gardens

We decided to get out of the city today and take the Tube out to Kew Gardens, a World Heritage Site located south and west of London.   I’ve visited several botanical gardens over the years but this one is most impressive.  The size alone is over 300 acres, it has been in existence for over 250 years, and is quintessentially English.The Palm house was built between 1844 and 1848 and was the first large scale structural use of wrought iron and all of the windows are hand blown glass!

This is the Temperate House was built sometime during the 19^th century  and is now the largest Victorian glass house anywhere. This too is a very large building so one is of the entrance and the other was taken from the Tree Walk later in the day.

  Kew Palace is the smallest of the British palaces.  It was built in 1631 by a Dutch merchant, thus the architecture and the garden behind which was a delight to visit contains only botanicals that are thought to have medicinal qualities and grown during that era.  It was another one of those scenes that just took me back in time.

I was somewhat surprised to discover the Pagoda in the SE corner of Kew Gardens.  It made for a good point of reference though to find our location on the map, several times during the day.  It stands about 163 feet tall and was built about 1762.  We didn’t view it close up.

Below was one of our first stops in touring, the Princess of Wales Conservatory.  Princess Diana opened it in 1987.  This was really beautifully designed because without a map it would have been difficult to locate since it fits into the landscape so well.  It’s a series of glass roofs that are in a stair stepped design and just sitting upon the grounds.  There are 10 different climates represented here with the cooler ones towards the outside and the rest closer to the center. The largest plant zones are the Dry Tropics and the Wet Tropics.  In total, it encompasses nearly 4,500 square feet.  There were many students either drawing or painting plants.

 

The Treetop walkway was Tom’s favorite of course.  This addition opened in 2008, is 660 feet long and about 59 feet tall.  No, it doesn’t sway like a suspension bridge but apparently will move a little if it’s quite windy.  This was another structure that was well designed because without the map it too would have been difficult to find.  The steel supports purposely rusted so they blend right in with the surrounding trees.

We had a nice lunch outdoors at one of the 4 restaurants on the property.  It was so relaxing with a couple of chickens, a duck here and there, just enjoying the beautiful surroundings.  Another little factoid I picked up was that Royal Botanical (Kew) Gardens works with the Missouri Botanical Garden on a complete plant list!

London - Day in the City

This morning we set out to view the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  Westminster Abbey was on the way, and it would have been interesting to see the inside, our previous stop a couple days before it was closed, but the idea of going on a tour was quickly put to rest when we saw the lines.  There were literally busloads of people there.  It was nuts!  It is quite beautiful from the outside though.  I did get a couple of close-ups of the south doors.  Besides, any of us that watched any of the royal wedding a few weeks ago got to see quite a bit of the inside, so we called it good and moved on.

Onward to Buckingham Palace.  We didn’t actually make it for the ‘changing’  part of the ceremony but did get to see some of the other.  There were lots and lots of folks there so we just took a very casual approach and still got a couple of decent photos.The gates are incredibly ornate and beautiful.  The flower beds surrounding the Queen Victoria monument were under post-wedding renovation so not much color there.

We decided to spend the afternoon at the British Museum.  This was another incredible place, a sort of National Geographic encyclopedia walk about.  I don’t think we’d seen these sorts of ancient artifacts since the King Tut exhibit 30 years ago.  Everything was just magnificent.  There were several highlights.  First was the Rosetta Stone.  I had no idea there was such significance to the name. The stone contains one ancient text in three languages on a piece of black basalt (written 196 BC) which measures about 4 feet tall by 2 feet plus wide.  It was found in 1799 by one of Napoleons explorations in Egypt. These hieroglyphics were deciphered in 1822 bringing to life these people.  The deciphering tools gained confirm the historical accuracy of biblical references of the same peoples.  Just incredible!

The other exhibits were numerous large (and smaller) sculptures, many Assyrian and mummies and sarcophagus.  The quality and sheer number and variety was mind boggling.

London - A Day at Two Museums

Imperial War Museum

Today was spent at a couple of museums.  The first was the Imperial War Museum.  It’s quite large, with a beautiful rose garden and some huge guns that maybe used to be on a war ship.  It was an amazing place.  Neither of us recalls seeing that much machinery or weapons in some of the Washington DC museums, but maybe we missed it.  Anyhow the main floor has quite the assortment to keep a child young or old fascinated.  They had a few exhibits especially for children that these old kids enjoyed just as much like the submarine and how it was for those sailors to live, and what type of things they kept in their “ditty box”.  One of the photos is of the “Monty” (Lt General Montgomery), the American made tank that gave Britain the edge over the Germans in Africa.  It became instantly recognizable by its 75mm gun

Check this out.  These are the instructions posted above the toilet on a submarine : 

1.    Charge air bottle and open sea and N.R. Valves.

2.    Open Flush inlet valve with extreme care.

3.    Free lever and bring to pause.

4.    Bring lever to flushing.

5.    Bring lever to discharge

6.    Bring lever to pause

7.    Return lever to normal and lock.

8.    Close all valves..

Another part of this exhibit focused on the First World War.  I really didn’t know much about it and wanted to gain a better understanding since my grandfather Rowland served in France.  My grandmother Sadie said he wasn’t the same man afterwards and my mom believed he suffered from post-traumatic stress.  There was one part that was set up like the trenches they spent so much time in.  They had been reconstructed, and they smelled nasty even before we entered.  (If you can imagine a boys locker room after a serious game…….well, you get my drift.  Ick.)  I snapped a few photos in the dark to remind myself.

Churchill War Museum

After lunch we headed to the Churchill War Museum in Kensington.  You walk through the front door and immediately go down a flight of stairs.  This entire exhibit is underground, the exact same space Prime Minister Winston Churchill and self-appointed Secretary of Defense and his teams worked during world war two.  They used original furnishings, documents, and mannequins the made you feel like a ‘time traveller’.  It was fascinating.  There were also some interviews done with some of his co-workers (I listened to a secretary) that shared how it was to actually work with the man.  Apparently Churchill had a speech impediment of sorts and could be difficult to understand until you got used to it, didn’t like paper clips on his documents but preferred a “Klop” (one hole punch) and a tag, and of course expected perfection from his clerical staff mostly due to the pressure he was under. Here is a photo of one of the rooms and on the right hand side there is a blackboard that still has the statistics for 15 September, 1940:

London - first 2 days...

London Day 1

Our first full day in London, we headed to Leicester Square to buy discounted tickets to a musical.  Les Miserable wasn’t an option so we opted for Billy Elliot that evening and were not disappointed.  On the way to the show we stopped by a noodle restaurant named Wagamama a couple folks had recommended for dinner.  It was a sellout at the Victoria Theatre.  We had great seats and enjoyed every minute of the show.  We have always enjoyed Elton John’s music and he did a nice job with this score.  It’s the story of a coal miner’s son who decided to become a dancer.  His father  as was everyone else in the village was on strike.  Dad instructed him to take boxing lessons for 50 pence, which he did try, but in the end discovered he preferred dancing which was held in a nearby space.  The 12 year old actor who played the lead was amazing and had endless energy.  The singing was good as well but this youngster was just dynamite.  He started acting at 5 and  then dance beginning at 7 years.  This show was the stage for tap, ballet, and everything in-between.  Lots of fun!.  So to back track a bit earlier in the day, we explored Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Museum.  The square is quite the ‘hang out’ place and is periodically in the news for demonstrations and the like.  The Portrait Museum, the building behind the square, was amazing.  They have all these really, really old paintings that go back hundreds and hundreds of years and the sheer size of them, let alone the quality for being around for that many years boggled the mind.  They used to mix their own paints.  I can’t help but think that played a part.

London Day 2

This day we opted to take a double decker bus tour of the city.  It gave us the ‘lay of the land’ so to speak but the second part of the tour got old fast because of traffic, detours and construction projects.  Part of this deal was we got a cruise on the Thames and that was fun.  There are a lot of construction projects all over the city and the contrast between hundreds of year classic Roman, Venetian, styles next to contemporary glass shapes is interesting.

 After escaping the tour, we headed to Covent Gardens for some lunch and a look around the area.  Below is a photo of a couple of guys cooking paella on huge sauce pans.  That was our yummy choice.  The market place also had some performers in the Piazza, and lots of artists and crafts men selling their wares.  Great place to people watch!

Later we hopped off our ‘cruise’ and headed towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament.  The House of Parliament building is enormous and is quite the contrast in architecture.  Apparently it had a couple of fires, one in 1512 and another in 1834, bombed in WWII, and then they started reconstruction in 1840 which lasted 30 years or so.  It’s also the location of Big Ben.  The story of Big Ben actually refers to the bell only – not the clock, but over the years the clock has been known as Big Ben.  This is the largest clock that ticks.

The Borders

The drive through The Borders was just stunning.  The large rolling hills, colorful spring shrubbery dotted with sheet and cattle was ‘eye candy’.  Aside from the usual curves in the road, we experience three hairpin turns approaching the English border, the many dips and rises where the cars in front of us would just disappear for about 10 seconds or so. There were so many other photos of the countryside I would have like to capture but couldn’t due to all the above, but the ones below were taken near Melrose Abbey our first stop.

Melrose Abbey

This was our first of two Abbey ruins.  It was first build in 1385 but destroyed by English armies.  What is visible today was rebuilt in 1400.  All that is left of the original is the small ruined wall directly in front of the Nave.

Jedburgh

This Abbey took 120 years to build and the artisans pushed the limits of design and construction.  The Nave was built later than the east end, the Presbytery, because the shape of the windows required pointed tools which weren’t available earlier.  When Jedburgh Abbey was built, it was built because the ruler at the time wanted to show his power and that he could build an abbey.  When the king of England wanted to show his power, Jedburgh abbey was the first in line for the cannons.

We found a great little fish and chips place across the street that only did “take away” and it was really good.  It came with one piece, a fillet of Haddock in a very thin yet crisp crust and hand cut chips.  They also serve all the pizza at this establishment with chips and a Chinese restaurant we went to in Glasgow substituted fries for rice for one gal.  I’m not sure what the deal is with the Scottish and their fries. 

 . 

Hadrian’s Wall

This wall was built about 120-130 AD by the Roman emperor Hadrian.  It roughly runs 73 miles from east to west with the purpose of keeping the Scots out of England.  We visited the Housesteads site which is the most complete ruin and only about an hour or so drive from Jedburgh.  The countryside is amazing with all the mountains (rolling hills to us), and variety in vegetation which include conifers this far north.  We were told it is windy here all year long.  Being there was similar to standing in one of the wind tunnels in the Snoqualmie valley in November, but the wind here is constant.  They do get snow here in the winter as well.