London Parks & Gardens
Our first stop on our Parks & Gardens tour was at Richmond Park. This park is in the borough of Richmond upon Thames and was created by Charles l in the 17th century as a deer park. It is also the largest of all of London's Royal Parks. We discovered it is of national and international importance for wildlife and conservation being as it is a natural nature reserve. This park is a top UK site for ancient trees, birds, bats, grasses and wildflowers. We walked through the Isabella Plantation, a 40-acre woodland garden crammed with an amazing variety of azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias and they were all blooming in their full glory.
Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in the southwest of London that houses the largest and most diverse botanical and mythological collections in the world. Founded in 1840 from the exotic garden at Kew Park its living collection includes some of 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens while the terrarium is one of the largest in the world and has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungi specimens. 
We walked through the Palm House which felt like we were in a rainforest with all the tropical plants on show. This was followed by the Temperate House then the Waterlily House. The Princess of Wales Conservatory was our favourite as we wandered around the glass labyrinth through a series of fascinating ecosystems. We were all totally amazed by what we had seen.
A day in the city where we were proper tourists exploring the sights. We walked along the embankment to hop on the Thames Clipper River taxi. Once on board we sailed down the river, giving us a great view of all the iconic London landmarks including the MI5 & MI6 buildings, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye and The Shard. The boat stopped right outside the Tower of London which was a very impressive sight.
Our second stop of the day was in the Sky Garden which is the city of London's largest public rooftop space. At 15 storeys high, Garden 120 offers spectacular 360-degree views of the city and greater London. It was designed by German landscape architects Latz & Partner and is home to 85 Italian wisteria trees and over 30 fruit trees. There is a 200ft long flowing water feature with a relaxed seating area, which we made the most of enjoying with a refreshing drink.
A lovely morning was spent in Kensington Gardens and Palace. With formal gardens, water features and 265 acres of parkland, Kensington Gardens must be one of the most beautiful of London's park. Open to the public, we were lucky again to stroll around the manicured gardens and tree lined avenues. We saw the Albert Memorial, dedicated to Prince Albert who died of typhoid, which is located in front of the Royal Albert Hall, another impressive landmark. Next, we made our way to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which felt very calm and peaceful. This then took us over the bridge across the Serpentine River, through into Hyde Park being one of the four Royal Parks. We strolled along through wooded areas and manicured gardens and found ourselves at the pagoda and some of us made it up the 10 levels, consisting of over 200 steps to reach the top giving us some incredible views of the grounds. Some of us were daring enough to do the woodland aerial walk which was high up in the treetops but it was worth it for the breathtaking views.
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