Kew Gardens... but no Borka!

After a lie-in to recover from the Sci Comm celebrations, we had a late breakfast and caught a train to Kew, where we found the Royal Botanic Gardens in their full spring splendor. We had a nice walk among the flowers and around the lake, admiring the pansies & primulas, tulips and daffodils, as well as the coots and moorhens, ducks... and even a goose in a flowerbed!

We found a nice bench under a tree to enjoy our pasta lunch, and discovered it was such a nice spot that this jay wanted to share it with us:

After lunch we headed for one of the hothouses, which started with a desert clime. I've never seen so many different cacti! From tiny to huge, including this one which looked like it had tentacles:

The next section - forest - had a little side-room with carnivorous plants, such as these venus fly-traps and some pitcher plants.

After walking past a waterfall and a cocoa tree, we entered the orchid-rooms: apart from a whole array of different orchid species, there was a creeper-sculpture the Gardens received as a gift from Easter Island and a little nursery which usually houses the species of orchid which are flowering at that time of year - even though it was out of service due to some technical problem, I still liked the idea...

After the hot-house, we passed a lovely area with flowering almond and magnolia trees, took the mandatory romantic photo, and moved on in search of a cup of tea, but arrived at the café doors just after they'd been closed. As it was nearing closing time for the Gardens themselves, we made our way back to the gate, via a scenic little wooden bridge over a creek and a speedy walk next to the rock garden. Also en route, Hugo spied his first squirrel of the trip.

We decided to go back home via Kingston, since Hugo wanted to check out a photography shop there, but upon arrival in town discovered that not only was that shop closed, so was every other shop, including the shopping mall - at 6p.m.! The timetables in this country I still can't get used to... Eventually we found a café which was still open, and managed to have tea before heading back home...