Kew Gardens and Archives

Today was supposed to be the hottest day yet in London. I think it reached 90F.

We decided to go out to Kew Gardens for the day.

Kew looks green and cool, but that's deceptive. 

The gardens were sunny and hot.  We did enjoy looking at the extensive rock garden.  It has a large water feature which helped foster the sense of cool.

The flowers in bloom were overwhelmingly bright and sunny too.

This is Kew Palace.  King George III and his family stayed here when he first became ill and was diagnosed as mentally unstable. 

We stayed clear of the glass houses today.

We did tour the woodlands and found this little guy.

Kew has a large oblong pond and it was full of water birds.

There is also a really nice vegetable garden.

I found a few blues and purples too which helped to sooth my soul.

But it isn't a day, if we don't take a long walk...

So we walked the Syon walk...

...until we had a nice view of Syon House from across the Thames River.

Syon House was once the Duke of Northumberland's London home. 

Then we walked all the way back.  Thank goodness for bottled water and drinking fountains.

Along the walk, lots of wonderful trees including Ginko, and Monkey Puzzle trees, and a rare Wollemi pine from Australia (bottom row - 2nd from right). 

The town of Kew is also home to The National Archives.  I spent about three hours there - mostly learned how to use the catalogue and order items to view.  I did, however, manage to look at one item on my Genealogical To Do List.  Then it was back to the apartment - a 45 minute ride on the very hot Underground.