Dear all,
Am very behind - almost bought the computer at my last effort in Bath.
Finished tour today with a trip from Bath to Hampton Court Palace for the Hampton Court Flower and Garden Show. It was an incredibly hot day c 33 degrees and announcements were coming over all the time to drink plenty of water. Similar announcements were also happening on the tube. The heat wave must be a rarity here.
I think all of London was at the garden show - the crowds were huge. It was too busy for us all to stay together so Roger mostly sat in a shady spot while I explored more. The floral displays where they sold plants and bulbs was excellent and housed in a huge air conditioned marquee. There were thousands of stall but these were not much use to travellers. There was also a shopping marquee with quality goods - clothing, jewellery painting stalls and even a place for tasting Brown Brothers wines. The display gardens were mixed as were the small gardens. This was enough for me - no need to see Chelsea. Pictures on line will be fine. Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show is just about an achievable size for me. In retrospect -this was the one event that I did not enjoy. Last night Julie was talking of smaller gardens closer to London that are worth seeing. I would have preferred this or a visit to Kew Gardens. ( I had wrongly assumed we were visiting Kew Gardens as part of the tour so did not visit this on our time in London.) I have been there in the seventies so it was not too disappointing. Botanica could then make The Hampton Court show an additional extra. Margaret didn't come to the show as we farewelled her in Bath to reunite with Jim who had visited a cousin in Salisbury. Our numbers continued to decline as Jan and Robert left the coach soon after we left the Hampton Court show. This left Roger and I and two guides. Just before the coach pulled into Harrington Hall it passed our street so we too saved ourselves a couple of blocks of walking by jumping off early. The bus returned to Harrington Hall with Sara, our brilliant guide, Julie the botanical expert, Phil the driver and no passengers returned to Harrington Hall. This was ironic as I think we all thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the tour and had no complaints at all. It was such a small group and everyone was really lovely and we hope to keep in touch in the future. We arrived back at Henley House Hotel in quick time as it was very easy as we only had to wheel our cases less than half way that we had done on the first day. We then decided to check our moves for the next day. We took a couple of trains to Euston station but this will be too difficult with cases. Have decided to order a taxi as this will save a lot of energy as it is quite a long way even if we take the Piccadilly line to St.Pancras. Have decided to leave our luggage at St.Pancras rather than Euston as this is close to where our train from York arrives. This will be much easier so am pleased I thought of it after tea. Gwen will be glad to know that we dined at Le Pain Quotidien that she had recommended. I had spotted it on the day we had arrived at St.Pancras on the Eurostar from Paris. This helped me plan our decisions for the start of our Brit Rail journey. We now have tickets booked for tomorrow's trains so shall arrange a taxi for the morning. Hope to return to finish where I left the blog in Oxford. Unfortunately the memory gets a bit blurred but will do my best.
Cheers
Jo and Rog
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