61,000 Steps

6 September 2024.

Not a bad pedometer count for 2-and-a-half days. I struggle to get to 10K on any given day at home.

Richmond, UK, turned out to be a perfect post-Transatlantic flight stopover between Portland and Italy. Instead of taking a second hop to the continent, with the inevitable 3-hour layover at Heathrow, we opted this year to sleep where we landed for a few nights. (Last year the haul from PDX to LRH to ZRH was exhausting.)

We knew we wanted to visit some locations in Richmond and not stay in central London. We did not know how much walking we’d manage to do. Excellent weather helped.

Kew Gardens is magnificent. This was our third tour there and we are still finding corners we had not explored. Kew is 330 acres of forest, groomed gardens, conservatories, a horticulture school, and research facilities. They claim status as “the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world” according to Wikipedia. Kew (see map) is four times bigger than Bodnant Gardens, which impressed us so much in Wales last year.

This visit we discovered a few areas previously unknown to us, including a magnificent collection of rock gardens organized by geography, and the (seemingly) boring “Grass Garden” was actually a stunning display of ornamental grasses, not a field of Kentucky Bluegrass. Makes me want acreage to be able to plant in such masses. The biological diversity in these 330 acres is astounding. We have visited in spring, late fall, and now late summer. Each season is spectacular, so if you are in London, take a day away to visit charming Richmond and Kew Gardens. By train, no less.

Day two for us was to be a visit to Hampton Court Palace, one of Henry the VIII’s country homes. Sadly, a few days before we arrived, we received word that they would be closed for seasonal maintenance on the only two days we had to visit. Due to fascination with Henry VIII (thank you, Wolf Hall) we have had HCP on the list for a few years and there it shall remain. Next visit.

Top row: The 1844 Palm House; Autumn color creeping in. Second row: The Grass Garden. Third row: Rock Garden.These photos do not begin to show the extent and the beauty. Fourth row: The Broad Walk, colorful borders.

Instead, we chose to walk a section of the Thames River Path. Imagine if the major river where you live had a walking path along it the entire length of it. With few exceptions, you can walk the 180-mile length of the path from near the source of the Thames to near the mouth. For reference, the main stem of the Willamette River in my state of Oregon is 187 miles long, so you could walk from Eugene to the Columbia River.

First Mate Siren

180 miles and 10 days were not in our plans, but a perfectly lovely stretch of about 6 miles suited us and included a ferry crossing at Twickenham with Siren the first mate and coffee at a garden café, plopping us back into Richmond near Kew, just in time for lunch.

Great signage; Ferryman (Siren’s dad); wide path, at least here, much used by locals; view of Richmond; Richmond Bridge

Richmond is a wonderful place to spend a few nights recovering from overseas travel or just because. Many restaurants and pubs, highly walkable, convenient to central London via public transportation if that is in the plan.

Walkers, take note. Nothing difficult but you will get your steps in!

Tags: Kew Gardens, Richmond on Thames, Thames River Path, UK, United Kingdom