Day 6 – Friday 27 May 2016

Chelsea Flower Show today, so again breakfast at 6.30am & on the bus by 7.20am. The bus had to battle with the morning London commute traffic & closed roads so we had to cross the Thames River to south London, drive along a bit in less congested traffic (it was still very congested) then a roundabout with at least 3 sets of traffic lights around it – never seen anything like it. Ron couldn’t stop being grateful that he didn’t have to drive. London is such an amazing city – buildings are old & traditional & so many new buildings are popping up everywhere – steel & glass. Everywhere road work is in progress to accommodate for the enormous amount of traffic. We thoroughly enjoy our walks around the city but once again we just haven’t got enough time to see it all.

The Queen will be most upset with us because this time around we didn’t even get to Buckingham Palace.

We were in the gates around 8.10am just after the gates opened. What a clever move that turned out to be, by 11 am the place was a sea of people. At the entrance was a display of animal sculptures from driftwood, they were life size & very well made. Probably my pick of the sculptures.

We explored the main pavilion first, a huge & very high marquee that housed the flower exhibits. We had a lot of room to ourselves with hardly anyone in there and spent a lot of time admiring the bonsai trees (we were very impressed & proud because they know about our arboretum & where we have a wonderful house for our bonsais). Masses of flowers & myriad of colours. Some people are very talented at grouping plants. By the time we finished looking through the pavilion thoroughly it had started to fill with more people & we no longer had the opportunity to photograph from any angle. We then moved outside to the display gardens. There was such a big crowd starting to form, especially where the film/TV crews were. Some of the gardens are magnificent, others we could leave. Then there were some we would like to take home. The creativity of some of the garden designers is amazing. We do not know if the Australians had a display or not, these gardens were not identified enough for us cheapskates who didn’t want to fork out 10 pound (A$20) for a program.

We stopped for lunch around 11.30am at one of the many food stalls (without queueing) & managed to find a seat close by. At 1pm the food stalls had queues 20 or 30 long & not a seat anywhere.   People were sitting on the grass anywhere they could find a spot without getting trampled. The crowds had really started to get uncomfortable now (a wall of people walking at you they didn’t sort of have a 2 way walk way) & it was a real pain to walk anywhere or see anything. I could see a bit because of my height, poor Tereza was staring at the endless sea of people. One big plus, we managed to not lose each other. Inside the main pavilion was cooler (yes it was hot & sunny today) & a little less crowded (may be because it was lunch time) so we walked through it again & spotted a few things we had missed, then made our way out & back to our bus pick-up point by 1.30pm. We found some of our fellow tour members waiting & chatted with them until the bus arrived, then it was a slightly less congested drive back to our hotel for another hot bath. Our legs are certainly screaming about all the walking.

Chelsea Flower show is only a 5 day event – started on Monday & Saturday will be the last day. The area will revert back to the grounds of the old soldier’s nursing home.

Tonight was a dinner cruise on the Thames River & departed the wharf at 7.15pm on a long, low & wide river ship. We went upriver first for a little while before turning & sailing all the way downriver to the barrages that stop London flooding. It was interesting seeing all of the different old & new buildings hugging the riverbanks, including the London Eye, the Millenium Stadium & the Shard, which is a very tall new building that dominates the skyline, plus all the boats. The many bridges contributed to the interest. During our 4 course dinner we got to know a little better some of our fellow tour members, with one at our table celebrating her birthday today. The sun appeared very briefly before setting at 9pm & then the lights of the city added another dimension to the view. During dinner we also had a women singing supported by a saxophone player & a pianist, they were good, some people danced. All too soon we were back at the wharf and back at the hotel by 10.30pm to our motel.