About a week ago I had a wonderful long weekend with Steve and Ingrid, two good friends from university who live near Windsor and who are just the nicest people ever. They had both taken a couple of days off from work for my visit and it was great to spend so much "quality time" with them, since normally we would only have one or two days at most. As a result we were able to take the time to do quite a few things, which included trips to Kew Gardens on the Friday and London Zoo on the Sunday.
I'd been to Kew Gardens with them a few years earlier and it was nice to go back and wander around the various Victorian glass houses - I even faced my fear of heights to wander around the "tree-top walk", which wasn't so bad (but I was glad to get back to terra firma at the end). Much of Kew's grounds are essentially parkland, so if you lived in or around London and were able to make the trip there a few times a year then buying an annual membership would be an excellent investment.
I don't think any of us had ever been to London Zoo before, and I think we were a little ambivalent about the ethics of keeping animals in zoos. However it seemed quite different to how I remember other zoos being when I was a child - there seemed to be fewer of the larger animals (no elephants here, for example), and a lot of effort seems to be going into giving those that remain much more natural (and much larger) environments. One example of this is that the famous Lubetkin Penguin Pool has been deemed no longer suitable for the penguins, and so they have moved to a new and less dangerous pool (the Lubetkin pool is a design classic however and still remains, unused); another is the Snowdon Aviary, which is an impressive wire mesh tent for some of the larger birds. (There is a great page on the London Zoo website about these and other bits of the zoo's architecture.)
It *is* amazing to see many of the animals so close up, and given that the zoo is basically in the middle of London, it seems much bigger than you might think - we spent all day there and didn't quite manage to see everything. So I'd certainly consider going back again in the future.
Aside from the day trips, much of the time was spent just hanging out at their place. I was completely spoilt by their excellent cooking (my measly contributions started at peeling some apples and ended at helping to clear the table) and by the fact that they looked after me pretty much the whole time. Steve also introduced me to a wonderful Playstation game called LittleBigPlanet, which I'd never heard of before but which turned out to be incredibly addictive (as well as being beautifully rendered eye-candy and with a great soundtrack - check out the LittleBigPlanet website, go to "Game Info" and watch the trailers to get a good idea of the game's look'n'feel).
The weather overall was very pleasant for late February, with a goodly share of sunshine - perfect for a bit of cycling around the local area on the Monday. On the way out Steve took me past Dorney Lake near Eton, which is used for rowing practice as well as for triathlons (it also has a really nice cycle track around with a surface that was as smooth as cream to ride along!). But there are lots of other nice places along the Thames too - including the pub we stopped at for a pint on the way back. I finally asked him if he would be my best man when Kyle and I get married - a big thing to ask particularly since other than the fact that it's going to be in New Jersey, we don't even know when the wedding will be yet, but luckily he said yes. Alright!
The weather had turned darker and wetter by Tuesday, they both had to go back to work, and it was time for me to return to Warrington. It was a shame to leave after having such a great time, but I know that we'll all meet up again sometime soon.
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