I’ve been to London twice before, so I felt that doing the typical sightseeing and going into the center of town wasn’t necessary. Sure, the British Museum is amazing, but I’d rather see something new than try to make it through the tourist crowded London streets. So Maija and I decided to spend my London Sunday at Kew Gardens instead.
Kew Royal Botanic Gardens is, according to their own website, the finest botanic garden in the world, old, huge and in 2003 made into a UNESCO World Heritage Site (I’ll really have to make a list when I’m done with this trip, to see how many World Heritage Sites I’ve visited. I’m guessing MANY). The garden was first created in 1759 and now covers 121 hectares of land.
The Temperate House. Beautiful architecture.
So classy, but really, these old greenhouses felt worth seeing more for their actual design and structure, than for the plants growing in them. I could really see the 19th century society ladies walking around on these wide paths with their long silk skirts and lacey gloves.
But they did have other, more lush greenhouses too.
The little waterlily greenhouse, that more or less only consisted of a round pool full of waterlily leaves, was such a lovely little place, and so warm. London was cold and raw on this particular Sunday, and going into the humid and fragrant laterlily greenhouse was such a lovely prespite for the constant threat of rain outside.
They had a little rose garden too, in front of the Temperate House. Not in any sense comparable with the rose garden in Portland, but still. It smelled lovely, and Maija’s rosey trousers fit right in.
They also had a Mediterranean garden with a waterfall, pretty similar to the one in Edinburgh. But I must admit, the Edinburgh rock garden felt like it was done with more precision, aesthetic consideration and thought.
There were peacocks walking around in the park, completely undisturbed by the visiting humans. At one point, an especially arrogant one basically scared Maija to jump off a path, so that he could walk there instead.
Mostly, though, the garden was made up of what felt like an airy forest with many different kinds of trees, and it was only when you happened to look at them from just the right angle and you saw that the trees actually grew in straight lines, that you realized that everything in the park was planted at one point.
I think, if the weather had been a bit better and we’d had a pic nic with us and maybe some more friends to kind of make it into an all day group thing, the Kew Gardens would have been the perfect place. But now, with a visit to actually just look at the plants, I must say that I prefered the more concentrated and intense nature of the Edinburgh garden. They had some really lovely trees at Kew, though. And spending a day with a lovely friend is never a waste of time, whatever you do.
Katja Malmborg 