Bob Hobden wrote:

You can walk to Kew from Richmond either along the River Thames path
or the road in half an hour, certainly a bus would get you there in a
few minutes. Even the Underground (District Line) has a station near
there. Fancy missing Kew Gardens with all it's horticultural history and
you
a gardener too, shame on you. :-)
Excuse for another trip?



Well I'll come clean...I went to Richmond, because I promised my aunt
(family historian) that I would go there and take photos of the Star and
Garter Vets Home. It was once a hotel owned by my grandfather's family.
(Joseph and Charles Ellis), so I thought I'd combine a visit to the gardens
and a visit to Richmond.
As I was saying at Lancaster Gate, I decided to go to Richmond via the
underground. It was probably the scariest thing I've encountered for years
and being it was only a couple of days after I'd had my purse stolen in
London, I was rather nervous. I had to change trains three times and was
quite bewildered about the whole thing, I found it very hard to get anyone
to help me and point me in the right direction, people were either rude or
did not speak English. LOL believe it or not, it was some fellow Australians
(they were going to Kew Gardens) who helped me find the right platform for
the last leg of the journey.
After taking photos of the building and having a chat with the lovely lady
receptionist, I decided to have a look at Richmond Park, I spent quite a few
hours wandering around there, then walked back to Richmond and spent some
time wandering around. I thought I would catch the rain to Kew Gardens, have
a scout around and then come back a few days later and spend a day there.
When I went to catch the train my Oyster Pass wouldn't work and I was very
confused, once again it took me a little while to find someone who would
help me, they pointed me in the direction of the ticket office, where a very
large, very arrogant woman told me in no uncertain terms, my pass was only
for inner London, so I had to hand over some money to buy a ticket to get
back to London, but this time I was wrung out and just wanted to get back to
my hotel room, so didn't make a stop at Kew.
I did intend to go back to the gardens on another day, but to be honest, I
just chickened out, I just couldn't face using the underground again, but
like you said, it is an excuse for another trip, maybe next year. :-)
LOL tell you have naive I was, I was all set to go to the Chelsea Flower
show, luckily I checked it all out on the internet the night before I was
going to go there..I didn't realise all the tickets are pre sold, I thought
I could just rock up and walk in...wrong!