Kew Gardens

There are four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in London, which is a lot for one city! Until last month, I had been to three of them: Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Maritime Greenwich. These three are all (sort of) free to visit, although you have to pay to go inside some attractions.

Based on the title of this post, you might be able to guess that the fourth one is Kew Gardens!

This is a place that I'd wanted to visit for a while, but the high prices had put me off, as it costs around £25 if you're over 29 (which unfortunately I am, but only just!). If two of you are going, that works out as £50, which is a lot for a day out.

However, after doing a little search online, I found out that you can get 2 for 1 entry with a coupon from Days Out Guide, provided that you travel by train to Richmond station and show your train tickets on entry. As we'd planned to go by train anyway, this was really ideal for us!

After travelling to the park and successfully obtaining our 2 for 1 tickets, the first sight we went to see was the Great Pagoda, which stands at 50 metres high and was inspired by similar buildings in China.

After that, we explored another Asian-inspired area: Chokushi-Mon & Japanese Landscape. Interestingly, Chokushi-Mon (Gateway of the Imperial Messenger) is a near replica of the Gate of Nishi Hongan-ji (Western Temple of the Original Vow) in Kyoto, Japan. I've always loved Japanese gardens, and this one is super peaceful and beautiful.

Our next stop was Queen Charlotte's Cottage (I did not know I had a cottage in Kew Gardens, haha). This building was built in the 18th century and is more like a mansion than a cottage!

Kew Gardens is a huge place and it sometimes takes a lot of walking to get from one spot to another. However, the entire area is really picturesque and filled with exotic plants, so you're never without some kind of sight to take in.

When crossing the lake in the middle of the park, we were very lucky to see a cute fox hanging around in the hope of being offered some food!

We were quite hungry ourselves by this point, so decided to have lunch at the Orangery, one of the cafés on site. The building was beautiful both on the inside and outside, but the place was crowded and chaotic, and we definitely expected better from the food. We spent around £20 for two average sandwiches and two Pepsi Max (we wanted coffee, but both machines were broken!), which was a little disappointing.

After lunch, we went to take a quick look at Kew Palace. It's a bit small to be a palace really, but it's a nice old building all the same.

The next part of the gardens that we visited was our favourite. The Palm House features various tropical plants from different parts of the world and has a walkway around the top, from where you have great views of the plants inside and the gardens outside. It is very hot and humid inside and made us feel like we were back in Thailand again!

We then went to a completely different part of the world, passing by the Mediterranean Garden, which even has a little temple.

We then visited the Temperate House, which is similar to the Palm House but with plants from the temperate zones of the world (unsurprisingly!). This building is filled with beautiful plants and a little indoor waterfall.

The third greenhouse we passed through was a smaller one that was filled with plants from Western Australia.

We finished off our day by walking along the Treetop Walkway. This is pretty similar to the one in Westonbirt and is a great way to see both the trees in the park and views of the city of London in the distance.

Overall, our visit here was long overdue and we enjoyed it a lot. I really liked how the park had different sections that were reminiscent of different parts of the world, such as China, Japan, Australia, the Mediterranean, and tropical jungles, so going there was like going on a little global tour. I don't know if we'll go back there any time soon because of the price, but it's definitely a place worth seeing at least once in your life!

Côte d'Azur Day 4: Antibes

Our fourth day on the Côte d'Azur was sadly our last (for now, at least)! So we knew we had to make the most of it. 

To start, we went for a swim after breakfast in the beautiful swimming pool at the hotel. Then it was time for us to pack up our things and check out, which is always a bittersweet moment when you've had such a nice holiday, as we had.

However, our trip wasn't completely over just yet! We decided to take the bus over to the nearby town of Antibes for a last bit of sightseeing. I was quite excited about this, as I'd never been there before, despite having visited the French Riviera several times in the past. 

This town is famous for inspiring various well-known artists; in fact, many years ago (maybe 2014), I visited the Courtauld Gallery in London, and bought a postcard of Antibes by Claude Monet as a souvenir. It has been on my bedroom wall at home ever since then, and I always had the intention of visiting the place that inspired it at some point in the future!

After all these years of anticipation, Antibes did not disappoint. The first thing we did there was take a walk along the coast, taking in beautiful views of châteaux, beaches and gorgeous houses.

We visited Le Nomade, a famous sculpture overlooking the sea. You can actually go inside it, but we didn't because there were two boys climbing up inside it (which isn't allowed!).

Our next stop was Phare port d'Antibes, a little lighthouse overlooking the harbour. Next to it, there was a little table with chairs, where you can sit and take in the view of the Mediterranean and the star-shaped Fort Carré.

We then went for lunch at a place called The Brooklyn. On one side of the street, they have a more general menu with things like burgers and pizzas, and on the other side they have a sushi restaurant, which we opted for, as sushi is one of our favourites. The food was pretty good, and the portions were nice and big!

Afterwards, we went to get gelato (another of our favourite foods!) and spent a while wandering around the picturesque town and buying souvenirs.

We finished off our day in Antibes in the best way, with a paddle in the sea.

Sadly, it was now time for us to return to the hotel for the last time to pick up our luggage, and head for the airport.

The journey back home definitely felt like coming back to reality with a bump! Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, meaning that we missed the last train home from Gatwick and had to get a hotel at the last minute for a few hours sleep before returning to Reading the next day. We arrived in our flat at around 8:45, and I didn't have much of a turnaround before I had to go into the office in London for a meeting.

Despite the travel chaos, the holiday was a much-needed break, and we returned to our normal lives feeling more rested and motivated. It had been 8 months since we'd last left the UK, and we really needed the change of scenery, especially after having to cancel our April holiday. We've realised that, going forward, we want to try to go abroad at least every few months, even if it's just a couple of days in Europe.

Overall, our time in the south of France and Monaco was really special. We spent loads of time swimming in the sea and the pool, ate lots of delicious food, and of course, explored some beautiful towns and cities. It's easy to see why this part of the world is as popular as it is, and I'm sure that we'll be back at some point in the future!