Kew Garden - A week in London - 7
Fri, Sept 5, 2025 - Kew Garden
Jürgen feels ill and stays at the hotel. He quickly books Freya a new ticket for Kew Gardens [↗], and while he goes back to bed after breakfast, she sets off for west London. She will spend five hours here and claim later that she only saw half of it.
The first stop is the wonderful old greenhouse with its iron spiral staircases. This is followed by a pavilion with a pond and giant water lily leaves. She then walks over to the castle and takes a look at it. The Diana greenhouse is also fascinating, although there are areas that almost take her breath away due to the hot and humid climate. In contrast, other areas are clear and fresh. From the borders, she goes to the Hive, a fantastic installation. Freya spends what feels like an eternity here. She listens to the soft humming on C and enters the installation.
Now it's time for the shop. But once again, there is too much on offer. She also visits the two galleries. Her favorite artist is Barbara North.
Finally, she takes another slightly longer tour, crosses the larger pond on the middle bridge, and then, very slowly, walks back toward the exit. Not long after, she arrives at the station, and a subway train arrives immediately. The strike is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. today, and she wants to be back at the hotel before then.
Freya is now hungry too and hopes that Jürgen feels the same way. But he doesn't. He got up at noon and went to Spitalfields Market [↗], where he organized something to eat. He suggests that she should do the same. Okay, so she goes off on her own again. Jürgen mentioned a market with lots of food stalls. She has Maps on her phone and sets off.
For a long time, she walks toward her destination, and then suddenly she doesn't anymore. But now when she checks, there's also a food hall here, so she simply goes there. The food she chooses isn't particularly bad, but it falls into the category of “calories you could have done without.”
Freshly recharged, her ambition now drives her to find the original destination. She would have been better off just going back the way she came 🙁.
The next thing she knows, she's at Barbican subway station. That's definitely not the closest one. And the strike has already started. So she starts asking friendly-looking passersby for directions. One of them even sets up Maps so that she only has to walk along the line. She's supposed to be away from the hotel for over half an hour, and now she's being guided through a car tunnel. So she deviates from the specified line and turns into a side street. But no, that was the right way.
At the next metro station, she sees lots of people rushing in. Is there still something running here? Yes. So Freya first goes to Aldgate and then to Tower Bridge. That was faster than expected.
Jürgen is sitting on the bed, fully dressed. He has already waited, so we set off again together. Once again over Tower Bridge, today to the left. Nice area, but Jürgen would have been better off staying in bed.
