UK, Chapter 1: Stonehenge and Kew Gardens

I have no idea what to blog about. Therefore, I am going to take a leaf out of my friend K Jay's book (find her blog at http://kayjayspeaks.blogspot.com) and write about my most memorable trip abroad. And no, just because I say 'most memorable' does not mean I have travelled a lot. It just sounds good, that's all.

It was a holiday to England. A very short holiday. 10 days short, in fact. And yes, I know you can't even explore Sri Lanka fully in 10 days, let alone England, but I was determined to try. I made a list of about 25 places that I absolutely had to visit. Fortunately, I have sensible friends who told me not to be daft, and to pick 10 places at most & go at a leisurely pace.

I still managed loads though. National Art Gallery, British Museum, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (and the Changing of the Guard), the Tower of London, Madame Tussauds, the Royal Botanical Gardens (Kew Gardens), and a place I've always wanted to see... Stonehenge.

Most of these are standard tourist-y stuff, except for Stonehenge. I don't think most people who visit England on short holidays would ever dream of having it on their must-see list. I don't think most people would be interested in a pile of stones anyway.

But Stonehenge is 'probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain' (according to its website). Made out of various types of stones, some up to 4 tonnes in weight, obtained from places that were as far away as 240 miles, it's purpose was most likely as a place of worship. How such heavy stones were carried over such long distances, and how they were placed in the manner seen below, is a mystery, and an engineering miracle. Similar in some ways to the building of the pyramids in Egypt.

Following Stonehenge, the next place I visited was Kew Gardens (there seems to be some grammatical error here, eh?). Kew Gardens are 121 hectares of gardens & glasshouses, housing the world's largest collection of living plants (wonder where the collection of dead plants is kept... ). An enormous variety of plants can be found here, not limited to just cold weather plants, but also those which are commonly found in the tropics.

The person who took me to the gardens is something of a gardening enthusiast, who is especially keen on growing tropical plants in UK. This of course meant that most of our time was spent in the hothouses. Unfortunately, when you come from a tropical island, banana trees hold no fascination for you. So there I was, staring at a weird, pink coloured banana, trying to ignore the heat of the glasshouse and the spray of water which was periodically emitted over the plants and the unsuspecting visitors.

   

Yes, these are, in fact, bananas :P

Discomfort aside, Kew Gardens are amazing. Obviously, you can't see the whole place in one day, or even a week. But rest assured, what you do see will impress you. Below are some more photos of Kew:

  

  

There was a lot more to my trip, but this is enough for one post, wouldn't you say?

Ciao then.