Day 12: Kew Gardens and the Phantom

Posted on July 10, 2011 by mreece85

This day was hot.  We took the train in the morning to Kew Gardens.  Kew is a quaint little town that is worthwhile to spend a little time in, especially lunch.  The gardens at Kew are huge.  I do not think I have been to such big gardens before.  I walked my way around the paths and found some treasures.  I saw some lupines, but they were not as impressive as the ones I saw in Ireland.  These were in isolation and much smaller.  I did enjoy the lilies.  You walk down to the water level which provides a nice perspective for the flowers.  At one point while at Kew, I thought I had seen a good portion of the flowers, but then I looked at the map and realized I was very wrong.  I only had seen maybe a fourth of the gardens.  So I got back up and tried to make my way through the rest.  If you go to these gardens, I would recommend being aware that you probably won’t see everything unless you are planning on staying all day.

We ate lunch at Kew where I had a really good Macaroni Cheese.  It was in a pottery dish and baked with delicious cheese and chives.  We took the train back to London and made our way to the theatre area.  I was not as excited about Picadilly Circus or Trafalgar Square as I thought I would be.  It was dirty and really crowded.  I knew it was going to be crowded, but it was hot and crowded.  We were going to go see Les Miserables, but the tickets were 85 pounds which was too much.  So we decided to see Phantom of the Opera.  While we waited for the show at Her Majesties Theatre, we grabbed a bite to eat and some drinks.  We found a place called Grace that had half price drinks for happy hour.  I just had rosemary garlic mozzarella bread for a snack.
The show was very good.  The singing was truly beautiful.  This is the first time I have seen Phantom.  I thought the story was okay, but it is not the strongest plot I have seen.  The ending is not very happy.  I couldn’t decide if I pitied the Phantom or if I even liked him.  I think the Beast is a more interesting character.  Theatre is a little different in London (or at least at this theatre).  People bring in their bottle of Pepsi and ice cream.  During intermission they sell literarily good ice cream.  I thought that was funny.