UK 2011 - The Final Days

With only 2 full days remaining in the UK Tour 2011, we are almost able to accept that there are really only a couple of things that we can realistically cram into that time.

So, on Sunday, we took the tube part-way to London and then a bus to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. These gardens are more than just patches of shrubs and bushes but have been important botanically in the collecting and growing of representative plant species from around the world. Scientists from Kew are also involved in conservation efforts for endangered plants and ecosystems in several areas of the world.

I remember hearing about Kew back when I was in Biology classes in the early 1970s, so it was nice to finally see the gardens in person.

It took us several hours to wander around exploring Rhododendron Dell, the Azeleas, a couple of large Victorian “glass houses” containing ferns, water lilies and more. It’s a great park-like place and the only down side were the large jets on landing approach to Heathrow passing overhead every minute.

Monday dawned sunny and bright so the main agenda item for the day was to find the James Caird. For those who aren’t up on your early Antarctic explorers, the James Caird was the small boat used by Ernest Shackleton and 5 other crew members to escape when their ship, the Endeavour, was crushed by ice. They sailed this boat 800 miles (1500 km) across the Antarctic Ocean to South Georgia Island where they then had to make a 36-hour trek over mountains and glaciated terrain to the whaling station of Stromness. Then, they had to take a ship back to rescue the rest of the crew (22 of them, I believe) who were nearing starvation on Elephant Island. Not one member of the crew was lost. It’s an amazing story and well worth reading if such things interest you.

Anyhow, the James Caird is now resting at Dulwich College, a private school that Shackleton attended back in the late 1880s. We made our convoluted way to the College (founded in the 1600s by a contemporary of Shakespeare, admits students aged 7 to 18, charges ₤500/term, 3 terms/year, where students wear white shirts, ties and suit jackets…), got our visitors’ passes and spent some time reading the various displays. Very interesting.

The remaining part of the day was spent on the tube, walking across London Bridge, past St James Cathedral, past where Dr Johnson’s house once was on Fleet Street, past the Royal Law Courts and back to our hotel near Heathrow.

Supper at a nearby pub (see comments in a coming post on British cuisine) and getting ready for our flight on Tuesday finished off the day. I have to say that London’s transit system is quite amazing and definitely the ONLY way to get around within the M25 ring road. London, it’s been nice. Very, very busy, but nice.