Petersham Nurseries, Richmond

I finally made it here. I thought I would go to China but instead took this European trip and made to Petersham Nurseries, in Richmond, just outside of London. It was pretty easy by public transportation. Take the tube, the District line to Richmond, take bus 65 from tube station and ask to be dropped off at Petersham Nurseries. It is a real nursery, selling plants and garden things but more than that, it has a tearoom and a restaurant with a celebrated chef. One has to book months ahead in order to eat at the restaurant. The tearoom is always opened but being the poor and stingy travelers that we are, we didn't eat here. We just took a lot of free photographs. I have read so much about this place and seen so many photographs about it. Even Martha Stewart showed a video clip of her visit here. Restaurant reviews have been written favorably about this place. We came here the day we arrived in London, we flew in from Los Angeles, dumped our luggage at some fleabag hostel near St Pancras station and wandered around the tube till we finally found our way here. We were glad, we had a great time, we like free things, we took a lot of free photos.

We had amazing weather through out our trip, it was still very warm but it turned a tad chilly towards the last few days of our trip. Here am I, feeling jet lag but still able to enjoy our visit to Petersham Nurseries.

There were still lots of flowers in spite of it being fall. Even in the European continent, flowers were everywhere and they were so beautiful. It's a lovely time to be in Europe. The leaves were turning a touch of red. The grapes were ripe and the growers were busy harvesting the grapes. There was a hive of activity in the vineyards. It was just an amazing time and beautiful too.

The greenhouse doubles as a tearoom and a shop. We took our time and wandered all over the place.

Since we were taking Eurostar train out of St Pancras station, we stayed at a hostel just 6 minutes away. It was 15 pounds per person, in a 12 person room. The room was so tiny and had 4 bunk beds each with 3 tiers. I slept on the upper most tier, I've never slept on a bunk bed before. We shared the room with a bunch of young girls, some were from Spain. We stayed one night, that was plenty. This was the cheapest place I've ever stayed in, of all the places I've stayed in on my travels. It was a nice experience. We left the next day on the train for Lille, France.