UK Day 6: In Which There Are Silly Trolley Videos Featuring Allan, Among Others, at Kew Gardens

You’ll be pleased to hear that we avoided being knifed overnight and that it also cooled down nicely on Sunday so that we could enjoy a Great Day Out at Kew Gardens in Richmond. If you are not familiar with the British invention of the Great Day Out, you are missing out. It's a nice idea: whenever possible, British families pack up the family and a picnic, put everything in the car or on the bus or the train or donkey and head out to a local destination for the entire day. Leaving after mid-morning is not permitted, nor is coming home before dinner. The day must include the following elements:  packed food/snacks, as many children and family members as possible, some form of weather be it hot sun or cold rain, a playground or park, and some kind of attraction like gardens or a beach or a petting farm. There must also be an Unfortunate Event such as young Nigel getting stung, or Aunt Edith having a fall. Typically the car park must be full requiring a trip to the overflow lot in the next village, and usually, the husband must be tasked with carrying everything whilst the wife or mother-in-law shouts at the children that they won't get an ice lolly if they keep that up. If all these components are present, then the Great Day Out has been successful.

Our Great Day Out started with the Unfortunate Event, which would normally have thrown the entire order of the day out, but even though the trains were not back up and running from our station, we bussed it instead and arrived at Kew Gardens just in time to see Jacob.

This picture doesn’t really do it justice but we were all freaking out at how similar this fellow looked to Jacob. This has happened before in the UK, but this guy really looked like him. I'm sure he was wondering what the hell I was doing...
Anyway we stalked him for a moment and then moved on to the gardens, which were extensive (300 acres!) and lovely, but possibly a bit dull in description in words, so I will instead say that an appearance was made by several members of the British Royal Family and Friends who rode the trolley around the grounds, as one does. I really enjoyed the trolley, and especially the driver, Allan, whose conversational style of narration added greatly to our enjoyment.

And because I am using technology from the 1800's, you will have to click the link below to see the first silly video, if it works at all. I could probably have more success asking a monk in a monastery somewhere to hand illustrate the still frames from the video and post those instead...

Silly Kew Video Featuring Allan the Tour Guide and Various 'Celebrities'


So nice of them to join us.

Kew has an installation art piece known as The Hive, which is a giant structure meant to replicate the sensation of being in a hive. It is covered in LED lights and speakers which are connected to sensors inside the actual hives on site at Kew. 

The vibrations of the bees triggers the lights and speakers in The Hive. It is a pleasant sensation, if you like droning, and not really if you don’t. There is an interactive experience that involves something about inserting a small wooden stick into something and holding it in your teeth and being able to feel the vibration of the hive. This experiment would perhaps be more effective if a) there were little sticks available and b) Kew wasn’t on the Heathrow flight path with a 787 overhead at a couple thousand metres every 5 minutes. Apparently I wasn’t alone in my thoughts…

Other highlights of the gardens included a really good display of carnivorous plants, giant lily pads, and a fantastic kitchen garden. We also passed signs pointing out that we were near a large badger set or den, but I didn't see a single badger - disappointing! I am beginning to think there are no badgers here at all any more as I haven't even seen one since I got here.
Anyway. That's enough about badgers (for now...).

One of the best things at Kew is a treetop walkway installed in a grove of trees (thanks, Captain Obvious). It was lovely but only if it wasn’t windy; it became terrifying when the breeze picked up and I tried not to make a scene by clinging to the railing. Also slightly disconcerting was the Elevator of Death featuring the Door to Nowhere. It seems very sketchy, even if it were working, which it wasn't...

Apparently, for some years in the 1990s and 2000s, Kew was home to Britain’s Largest Flagpole, which was made from a single Douglas Fir gifted to the country by BC. Unfortunately, woodpeckers had their way with it, as they do, and it met an early demise (the flagpole, not the woodpecker). The gardens are now home to a solitary Douglas Fir which looks like it needs to go home to its family in BC. You likely can’t even see it in this picture…

As this was our last day in London, we finished the day with a pub dinner at The Fox in Church Lane in Twickenham and went back to our place to pack and get ready to leave in the morning.
I always hate to leave a good place and this was one for the books.

Good bye, Eel Pie...you've been fantastic.
More tomorrow, including the Train Ride from Hell. Stay tuned...

Cheers,
Jane