England and the Chelsea Flower Show

Friday 16 May

Off to England today but there is no rush as the train doesn’t leave Brussels until noon and hotel check out is 11:00.

Check in at the station was similar to an airport, boarding pass through a machine to open the entry gate then all luggage through the x-ray machine and passengers through the screening machine. After collecting our luggage we proceeded to the Belgium counter for a passport check and thought next stop would be the waiting area but no we then had a UK passport check.

When we were called to board we had quite a walk along the platform as the escalator deposited as carriage 14 and we were in carriage 2. The train departed within a few seconds of the advertised time and we were soon speeding through the Belgium countryside at up to 300 km/hr.

About an hour after leaving Brussels we noticed large green chain wire fences topped with barbed wire on both sides of the line, these were built to stop refugees trying to cross to England through the tunnel, shortly afterwards we entered the “Chunnel and popped out the other side in about 25 minutes. An hour and forty five minutes after leaving Brussels we arrived at Ebbsfleet International Station near Gravesend in Kent.

Avis had our car waiting and a signature on the bottom of the form saw us on our way and we were at my cousin’s home in Maidstone half an hour later.

Saturday 17 May

The weather forecast was correct, rain! We hadn’t planned anything for today so we were content to sit around and talk; I think after all the walking we have done over the last weeks it was good to do nothing.

Sunday 18 May

We awoke to clear skies although the breeze was rather cool, we had suggested we go out for lunch so my cousin thought Port Lympne (pronounced Lim) would be a nice place to go. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up at a wild life park and not the seaside.

Port Lympne is owned by the Aspinell Foundation and has the largest and most successful gorilla breeding colony in the world. We started on their African Safari, one hour on the back of an old army truck fitted with bench seats, driving around the large enclosures with various animals roaming free. At the end of the drive we walked for about three hours past the many exhibits but decided we wouldn’t have lunch in the park but would go to a little country pub appropriately called the Tiger Inn.

The pub was an old derelict building which was purchased by the local farmers and restored and is now run as a co-operative. Lunch was nearly supper as it was after 4:30 when we arrived but meals were still being served so we had a tasty pork roast whilst .sitting in a little cosy dining room. After a pint or two we left the pub around 6:30 to drive back to Maidstone, a rather late lunch.

Monday 19 May

After breakfast we drove down to Tenterden to visit another cousin, we have done the trip many times over the years and took a wrong turn early in the trip, however the roads are sign posted so well it only took a few minutes to work out our slight detour and get back on course.

When we arrived they were baby sitting their four year old granddaughter who is called Amber, the same as our first granddaughter. Rather than eat at home we drove to a nearby garden centre which has a very nice restaurant and enjoyed our lunch surrounded by seedlings and plants. After a four hour talk fest we headed back to Maidstone.

Tuesday 20 May

After breakfast we headed for London, one problem with driving to London is if you stray into the Congestion Zone you are charged eight pounds or ten if you don’t pay by midnight. Before leaving I accessed the Automobile Association web site and downloaded three pages of instruction how to get from Maidstone to Earl’s Court. Without these instructions I doubt if we would have found the hotel as roads suddenly become one way and we had to drive in a loop to get back on the road when it became two way again.

We eventually arrived at the hotel after being directed by the instructions which appeared to have us driving around in circles, our last turn from a main road was only 200 m from the start of the Congestion Zone; well done AA. Because parking was almost impossible we dropped our luggage at the hotel and continued on to the Avis depot to return the car and walked back to check in. The hotel is only a few minutes walk from the Earl’s Court and West Brompton underground stations so it will be easy to get around in London over the next few days.

Wednesday 21 May

Today was going to be a quiet day in London as we hadn’t planned anything, I have been coming to the UK for 56 years and Ann for 33 years and over the years we have just about “done it all”. So after breakfast we set off for the museums and walking up to Earl’s Court Road we crossed over intending to walk along some quieter streets rather the Cromwell Road. When we entered the side street off Earl’s Court Road we noticed a big red “C” painted on the road and a series of overhead cameras, this was the start of the congestion zone so yesterday if we had turned left instead of right we would have incurred an eight pound charge.

Arriving at the Natural History Museum there was a very long queue and one of a similar length at the Science Museum so we walked on to Harrods to have a wander through the food hall and to have a look at the height of bad taste and an old man's delusion, the ring and wine glass supposedly used by Diana.

From Harrods we walked up to Hyde Park and watched a squad of young mounted Horse Guards soldiers being put through their paces by a drill sergeant, I have seen a “bag of spuds” ride with more style and grace, they didn’t have a clue. When they dismounted, some of them were so small and looked so young I thought they may have been on a primary school outing, but after their drill they crossed the road into the barracks, so they must have been new recruits.

From the park we walked back to the Science Museum and after about an hour realized that we covered all the floors on previous visits, so walked around to the Natural History Museum where we spent an enjoyable few hours on the ground floor in the Dinosaur and mammal exhibit, so we will have to return to check out some of the upper floors as I’m not sure which ones we have covered in the past.

For tea we decided to walk up to one of the many pubs nearby and after a meal and a beer we returned to the hotel to watch the final of the European Cup between Chelsea and Manchester United, which had started while we were in the pub and at the moment it is 3 – 2 Chelsea in the penalty shoot out.

Stop Press: Manchester United won 5 – 4 on penalties.

Thursday 22 May

Today is our day to visit the Chelsea Flower Show so we caught the train to Sloane’s Square and walked down to garden site and joined the queue to have our bags searched before we entered the show. The days of arriving at the gate to buy a ticket have long gone; all tickets are pre sold months before the event.

After entering we walked down the first lane which was lined with stalls selling everything from multi coloured or floral Wellingtons (gum boots), artists original flower drawings, statues, garden tools and seeds. After we walked along the lane we set off to view the 21 gardens designed and constructed for the show. As expected most of the gardens were designed using plants normally associated with English gardens, a large number also contained water features. It was interesting to see a couple of gardens had Australian tree ferns and other natives incorporated in their display, and the one that attracted a lot of attention was the one designed by Jamie Durie which featured 100% Australian native plants, the first time ever at Chelsea.

To quote the BBC web site; “Capturing the essence of Australia has been the main inspiration behind this year's garden design by Jamie Durie. The garden is representative of the different facets of the country with a vast sweeping and undulating deck that represents both our vast golden beaches as well as our deserts, while a stylised pool at the foreground of the design is representative of wetlands found in Kakadu. The heartland of the country is highlighted by the work of Australian indigenous artist, Gabriella Possum, at the rear of the garden. Her work is painted onto a 20-metre-long wall, which represents the deep red earth of Central Australia. Amazing Kimberley sandstone, mined from Western Australia, forms a stacked stone wall that holds the garden beds apart from the deck. The plants are all Australian natives and feature some of our iconic plants including Macrozamia moorei trees and Xanthorrhoea species typical to the Western Australian bush.”

If you want to see a video of the garden and Jamie describing it go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/show_gardens/flemings.shtml

And to view all the gardens check out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/show_gardens/

After we walked around all the garden displays we entered the huge pavilion to see the displays provided by many nurseries, bulbs, cacti, tropical plants, carnivorous plants, roses, Australian natives, liliums, just to name a few. For anyone interested in gardening the range and types of plants, flowers and vegetables were wonderful, but frustrating when we realised that while many could be grown in Australia, our water problems make it impractical to attempt to cultivate them.

After six hours of delight we headed up to Sloane Square to meet a friend for coffee before returning to our hotel.