UK Trip 2005

The crowds. Hmmm. Yes. Ah. Kew Gardens is a beautiful place, and it's a terrific piece of major parkland to have so close to London, alongside Hyde Park, Hampstead Heath, Kensington Gardens and the rest. But, at least on a May Day Long Weekend Saturday, which is when it turned out to be practical for me to get a visit in, Kew Gardens is almost a victim of its own success. I suppose it depends what you go to a place like that for, but relaxation, quiet and opportunities for silent contemplation must be near the top of most peoples' lists. I was in the Gardens for five hours, on the move walking for at least four of them, and yet with so many people there chattering and jumping around and yelling and screaming (and that's before you get to the kids, the under-7s making up nearly half of the visitors, most of them seemingly unwillingly), it was very hard to get any real chance to unwind anywhere in the place. I got more peace and relaxation out of the last 45 minutes when almost nobody was there, and all the kids were safely tucked up at home with more red cordial and their Kill Everybody Amazingly Violently Because Nobody Understands A Man Without An AK-47 PS2 games, than I did the whole rest of the afternoon. And for how long has Kew Gardens been directly under the Heathrow flight path? The end result of this was that the Birds of Prey man wouldn't let his birds fly freely for us to see because of the undue stress the jets would cause them and, as the rumbling noise of each jet faded away into the distance, the next one was just fading in behind it. A shame that a place so unbelievably beautiful and good for the soul, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site on top of everything else, could not be spared the endless queue of 747s waiting to bring people (like me) into London. I'm not saying it's hopeless, just be prepared if you're going to Kew that it might get a bit crowded and/or noisy. For all of that, it's a wonderful, amazing place, and definitely worth devoting at least half a day to on a trip such as this one. Next Previous

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Andrew L

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ukmay05@yahoo.co.uk