Day 3: Tuesday 7 July 2026 - Kew Gardens

We woke up to the news that Belgium had beaten USA which, after Trump's antics yesterday, pleased us very much.

This was the last day of our mini break so we had a relaxed breakfast and then set off for the journey to Kew Gardens. We had a couple of false starts but managed to get to Kew and lose our cases at a left luggage facility near the tube station and the gardens.

It was another very warm day. Our first stop was the famous and impressive Palm House with beautiful colourful borders outside. It was very humid and, of course, very green. Next stop was the Princess of Wales Conservatory - again hot and mostly green, although there were some lovely water lilies.  By now we were feeling hot and tired so we set off for the Pavilion Bar and Grill which took some finding and, when we did find it, the offer was rather limited and the service slow. However we did eventually get our drinks which were very welcome and enjoyed sitting in the shade albeit under the Heathrow flightpath - as are so many places in London.

There was an exhibition of Henry Moore sculptures but I must confess that they were wasted on us.  We then had a wander to the Orangery - a really lovely room serving quite pricey scones, cakes and sausage rolls. We had a cream scone each and we both thought it was delicious, better than at Wimbledon in fact!

Overall we were underwhelmed by Kew.  Having visited the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Colombia, the Keukenhof in the Netherlands and the Botanical Gardens in Singapore, we felt it lacked colour (except green!). In fairness, it has been extremely hot and things were very dry but we didn't think it was worth the £25 entrance fee.

The tube journey to King's Cross was not as crowded as we feared and we were able to get a table at Greggs on the mezzanine level at the station until our train was ready.

The journey was smooth and on time and Sarah met us at the station for the lift home.