Kew Gardens — Freaken Sweet

OK, fine! So this isn't my usual style of web site page, usual being travelling somewhere exotic and getting drunk, but either way, was fantastic to get out in to the sun for the last of the English "summer" (ahem, hack, cough, was the 7th worst on record). As I was wandering around with Bridget, I was taking a few snaps thinking "Gee, Mum would love this!". So Mum, this page is for you!

Was a brilliant day, only clouds in the sky were jet-streams. Plenty of old buildings around Kew Gardens to check out:

Complete with some weird ass statues:

and great gardens of their own:

There's different "styles" of gardens, like this Asian one:

A few lakes scattered around:

Here's a close up of a "Monkey Tree", yeah, I bet with a name like that you expected a pic of me acting like a monkey, well too bad :-)

There's also some fantastically large glass houses in Kew Gardens:

Nice and tropical inside:

More weird ass plants:

In the basement of the glass house (entrance is fairly easy to miss) is an aquarium! Showing off some plants that grow in and under water, along with some rays and sea-horses:

More mansions:

Here's another glass house, called the Temperate House (well, about a 3rd of it), was the biggest glass house in the world at one stage (and still the largest Victorian glass structure, for what that's worth):

And some more Asian influence:

Stick and berries, tee hee:

One of the coolest (and newest) structures is the treetop walkway, which is what it says on the tin, a walkway 20m up in the trees!

Looking back down at part of the Temperate glass house:

Bridget:

A war memorial:

And finally, a view up the Thames from Kew Bridge:

Kew gardens, a great place to go on a sunny day to burn up a few hours. Don't worry, I got seriously drunk at Putney Walkabout to make up for all this culture...