Why I love the bus and more flora

Temperate House - Kew November 2005

Dragged myself out of bed in time to have breakfast at the Club. It is now all non-smoking which is great. It caters to many different cultures so there is a combination of toast racks, french yoghurt and olives and cucumbers. I love it. I didn't love the guy who came in all sweaty from his workout in his shorts, this is definitely not that kind of place.

TH got up, ran into club to get a latte and then we went towards the tube station to go to Kew Gardens. The weather was cool, but bright. We took the camera, a book and our scarves westward to see the Chihuly exhibit and for a putter. The District Line has great nostalgia for me. As a child I lived in Orme Court (off of Bayswater Road) and used the District and Circle line to get places. As a young girl, I visited my aunt when she lived off of Chiswick High Road and the Stamford Brook station. The District Line emerges from below ground while in the center of London so you get to see things, even if they are as mundane as clotheslines and volunteer butterfly bushes cropping up the wierdest places. The trip to Kew isn't very long and the area around the train station/underground station has some pretty cool places to eat and shop. It now has a Starbucks and a Tesco express. The Tesco has a decent range of sandwiches and drinks for the visit.

We used a 2 for 1 ticket which saved 10 GBP. It wasn't very crowded when we got there and we were able to walk around the Palm house, the lake, the Prince of Wales Conservatory and the Temperate House and see the different installations in each place. I went by myself in August and it was strange to see how fast they take out the summer plantings to prepare for the winter season. All the bedding plants for early spring were installed along with the plant tags. What a change from the hot and wild summer plantings. (I really should get things loaded into flickr eh?).

We had a quick bite to eat at the Kew Orangery, puttered about a bit more and then decided that the crowds were starting to kill us and that maybe a nap was in order. We had to go to Finchley that night, so we needed to steel ourselves for that. However, at Earl's Court, TH made a request for a trip to the Orangery at Kensington Palace (gardens) for a piece of Orangery Cake. So that we did. It is yummy and the recipe is posted in a London Cafe's cookbook, so I'll post it soon. I had a bowl of sweet potato and rosemary soup that was pretty damn tasty. Did a quick run into Habitat and off we went into the darkening dusk (bad, bad, bad).

Orangery Cake November 2005

Made it back to Portman Square, ran to buy a book I had been remiss in picking up yesterday, went to check on a cheese thing at Marks and Spenser and back to room to pick up stuff to take to aunt. Now, this is where the fun comes....

I love to take the bus in London, I love being above ground, I love to see things and the people who ride the bus. I do not like to take the bus when everyone is done with their shopping day and have tons of packages and talk incessantly on their mobiles about the stupidest things.

Riding the bus gives you a sense of what a jumbled up place London is. The bus that we take, the 82 starts at Victoria, goes to Oxford Street and Baker Street, to Swiss Cottage and then down Finchley Road by Golders Green and to North Finchley. You go from a major transportation hub, to the biggest shopping district, to a really posh part of town, to a very Jewish part of town, through a very Japanese area to end in North Finchley, which well, has a new coffee place, which is really exciting. If you were taking the underground, you would see nothing of interest -- not the kosher butcher, next to the Iranian greengrocer two doors down from the halal doner kebab place. You would not see the storefronts, the decorations, the traffic and the life on the streets. I love it as it just is soo real and on occasion, the air is fresher.

It took a while due to all the stops, but we had a nice dinner, discussion and a short ride back to the hotel to sleep, dream and then in the morning --pack.