6 Spots for Summer Roses in London

Somehow July is already over and I’ve tried to find the time to write this new blog post about summer roses in London.

Here in London, our summer weather has been basically crap. We had a couple hot days in June and July, but generally the skies like to remain gray, often rainy, with temps only in the low 20s C (around 70F).

Still, I’ve found time to get around on my precious days off to explore some of London’s beautiful gardens. Did you know that London’s land includes nearly 6% of park and garden space, with eight Royal Parks, and a total of 47% of Greater London is considered green space (according to the Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC, 2015)?

The Brits seem to love their roses and I’ve found quite a few garden spots to recommend for you. Peak bloom time for roses is June and July, but I found some blooming as early as May and some still going strong in late July. With our cooler weather, I’m sure some of these rose gardens still will be blooming in August.

1. Queen Mary’s Rose Garden

Situated in the heart of Regent’s Park, the Queen Mary’s Garden is home to the largest collection of roses in London – a staggering 12,000 roses to be exact! The world-famous gardens, named after the wife of King George V (the grandson of Queen Victoria), opened in 1932. Today, they feature more than 85 single varieties – from classic to the more modern English roses, including one called the “Royal Parks” rose.

If you’re a romantic at heart, plan ahead like some of the couples I saw here and bring a picnic blanket, some nibbles, and of course, some bubbly.

2. The Rose Garden at Hyde Park

With as widespread as Hyde Park is you could easily miss The Rose Garden, located in the southeast corner of the park, south of Serpentine Road near Hyde Park Corner. Opened in 1994, the garden was designed by Colvin and Moggridge Landscape Architects in the shape of horns sounding one's arrival into Hyde Park. I’m not sure if I could figure out that design, but the summery gardens are lovely!

Here, you’ll find several different varieties of roses, especially some wild roses that smell amazing, mixed in with hollyhocks, columbines, statice and more. The mix of flowers reminded me of the gardens both my mother and my grandmothers had when I was a child growing up in the Midwest.

3. Holland Park by the Orangery

Formerly part of the grounds of Holland House, Holland Park incorporates the remains of 17th, 18th and 19th-century park and gardens, which originally covered 500 acres. Following restorations and repairs after World War II, the grounds opened as a public park in 1952 and contain several formal and informal gardens. Next to the Orangery, found in the southwest corner of the park, you’ll find wonderful wisteria blooms in the spring and bountiful rose blossoms in summer. Stop at a nearby café and bring a take-away lunch to enjoy in the gardens.

4. Hampton Court Palace

Before you even set foot into Hampton Court Palace, you’ll find a lovely walled garden complete with formal rose beds set amongst green lawns and beautiful statues. I couldn’t find any history about these gardens, but the best thing is they are free to visit! However, I highly recommend visiting the entire palace including the 60 acres of spectacular formal gardens within the palace’s walls. During the past year, I’ve visited the palace three times with visitors and once by myself.

5. Kew Gardens

I love going to Kew Gardens during any season, especially when I get to see the free-roaming peacocks! Did you know that Kew is London’s largest UNESCO World Heritage site?  Kew has a formal Rose Garden by the Plantation House as well as a beautiful rose-filled archway in the gardens that contain 102 separate beds of plants and flowers.

6. Morden Hall Park

Back in mid-June, I ventured to Morden Hall Park in zone 3, and I didn’t even feel like I was in London anymore. I took a quirky little tram from Wimbledon to the Phipps Bridge stop and then stepped across the tracks into a giant open field. Was I really in London?

Morden Hall Park is a National Trust park, located on the banks of the River Wandle in south London, covering more than 50 hectacres of parkland. Once home to a fancy manor house and deer park, a 2.5 acre rose garden was added around 1921. It is believed that Morden Hall rose garden represents a very unusual example of an inter-war period rose garden, featuring a design well ahead of its time with 48 irregular rectangle and circular beds of roses. The National Trust is in the process of trying to re-create that historical garden, and I simply think they’ve done a good job as the roses are spectacular!

You can easily make a whole day or at least an afternoon by strolling through the Morden park, having lunch at The Potting Shed café, which served a delicious seasonal soup, and the attached greenhouse and garden store.

Don’t forget to take time to stop and smell the roses!

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A-Z Guidebook: Zeugma Museum in Southeast Turkey

Z is for Zeugma Museum

For my final contribution to the A-Z Guidebook posts, I’ve dug back into my photo archives from five years ago when we visited the Zeugma Museum located in Gaziantep, southeast Turkey.

In 2012, the museum, less than a year old then, was fascinating because it is the world’s largest mosaic museum – containing 1700m2 of priceless mosaics from the ancient Roman town of Zeugma, which means “bridge” or “crossing” in ancient Greek. 

Wandering through partly reconstructed ancient Roman villas, excavated on-site around the Euphrates river, one can almost travel back in time to nearly 2,000 years ago when Zeugma was a popular trading center along the Silk Road route to China. Zeugma was founded along the river in 300 BC by one of the generals of Alexander the Great and reach its peak in the 3^rd century AD before being abandoned due to raids and earthquakes.

Today, much of the ancient town and its modern counterpart of Belkıs lie under the reservoir created by the construction of one of Turkey's largest dams in 2000. The massive Birecik Dam is located less than a mile from the site. 

Fortunately, international archaeologists were able to save many artifacts and these impressive mosaics before the dam flooded the area. The Zeugma Museum attempts to recreate the atmosphere that once prevailed in this prosperous Roman town. Though you’ll find plenty of Greek and Roman gods preserved in the mosaics, my favorite is the Gypsy Girl, known for her emotive eyes that seem to follow you wherever you go in the dark room where she now lives.

Looking back now, we were very lucky to travel through southeast Turkey when we did. The people we met were wonderful, the food was delicious and the historical sites were memorable. And that is what travel is all about for me!

I’m linking this post to the monthly travel guide link up organized by Fiona, a fellow Australian blogger, at Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures, who has kindly hosted this link-up for the past 26 months! Thank you! Each month featured a new letter of the alphabet. This month is the letter “Z.” Please pop on over to Fiona’s blog to read more A-Z travel stories or feel free to link up your own!

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AZ Guidebook: Yerebatan Cistern in Istanbul

Y is for Yerebatan Saray Sarnıçı in Istanbul

Hidden beneath the historical area of Sultanahmet in Istanbul is one of my favorite sites to show visitors, especially during the hot summer months.

After walking down a few flights of somewhat slippery steps, you’ll find yourself in what is commonly known as the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıç in Turkish) because it lays beneath the Stoa Basilica, a grand Byzantine public square. The cistern also is called the Sunken Palace Cistern (Yerebatan Saray Sarnıçı) because of its gorgeous 336 Byzantine marble columns and impressive size – nearly 9,800 square meters (2.4 acres)!

Did you know that this dark chamber has the capacity to hold near 80,000 cubic meters of water (21 million US gallons) of water?

In fact, when Istanbul was Constantinople, hundreds of Byzantine cisterns were located underneath the old city and were used to store fresh water. The Ottomans used the Yerebatan to supply fresh water to the Topkapı Palace. You can still find a few cisterns around Sultanahmet that are used in restaurants or simply forgotten about.

The Yerebatan Cistern is the perfect retreat from Istanbul’s sweltering summer days. The cavernous room is cool and dark, lit only by lights along the elevated pathway and to illuminate some of the columns. Water droplets of condensation fall down on you as you’re exploring this underground treasure.

I also always imagined that the cistern would be the perfect location to fill a horror movie as well!

Did you that one of the old James Bond movies was filmed in the cistern? Not too long ago, I had to rewatch From Russia With Love especially the scene when Bond is seen rowing a small boat between the cistern’s columns?

When you visit the Yerebatan Cistern, don’t forget to look for the mysterious Medusa-like head as well!

I’m linking this post to the monthly A-Z travel guide link up organized by Fiona, a fellow Australian blogger, at Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures. Each month features a new letter of the alphabet. This month is the letter “Y.” Please pop on over to Fiona’s blog to read more travel stories or feel free to link up your own!

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Popping my English High Tea Cherry

Afternoon Tea in Bath, UK

The idea of nibbling on dainty sandwiches and sipping tea out of delicate English tea cups did not seduce my husband.

However, he finally gave into my pesky demands to try this English tradition when I suggested the champagne afternoon tea option. Back in February, we took the train out to Bath, about 90 minutes west of London, and spent the weekend there. Besides sightseeing, I booked us in for Afternoon Tea at The Bath Priory, an elegant 1835 Georgian manor (now hotel, spa and a-Michelin-starred restaurant) nestled within four acres of beautiful gardens.

The setting couldn’t have been lovelier for my first time…noshing on afternoon tea that is. But the weather was typical English crap, and we walked nearly 2 km from the city center past the Royal Crescent building and botanical gardens in an ugly, drizzling spring rain. Once we shed our damp jackets at reception, we settled into a corner table overlooking the wet gardens. The hotel has a splendid terrace for dining when the weather cooperates.

The Bath Priory offers its Afternoon Tea with champagne for 44 (30 without) so the cost makes the tea a special treat (though definitely far cheaper than the ones I’ve seen in London.) Like I said I had to tempt hubby with the booze option, so we chose the champagne menu. We also received an unique tea menu where we actually could smell the different teas before selecting the one we wanted. I had no idea it would be so involved!

Soon the tower of afternoon tea treats arrived. Basically, you better come to tea hungry because you are eating a full lunch. We ate breakfast around 10 a.m., knowing that tea would be at 3 p.m. We started with the finger sandwiches, and although well made, the flavors didn’t really wow me. The sandwiches included: roast chicken with tarragon, local ham with mustard, egg salad with watercress and smoked salmon with cucumber.

But then we dived into the petite pastries and scones. OHMIGOSH…the scones! These were like nothing I had ever eaten before. Picture the most tender, flakiest buttermilk biscuit you’ve ever had in your life – served warm with a giant mound of English clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam. Holy cow! The clotted cream reminded me of Turkish kaymak (a clotted cream made from water buffalo’s milk).

 

Forget about calories and just eat the damned scones! They were sooo delicious! I wanted to spread the cream on everything and just eat the scones!

Surprisingly, the British tradition of afternoon tea is only about 200 years old. In the 1830s, Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, is credited with first making Afternoon Tea into a formal social occasion. Finding herself quite peckish in the gap between lunch and dinner, the Duchess began inviting friends to enjoy tea and light snacks at the Woburn Abbey. When she returned to London, she continued the practice and thus Afternoon Tea became a fashionable ritual for the upper classes.

In the 19^th century, tea rooms were becoming quite popular and were THE place to meet friends and gossip. They were also considered respectable places for young women to meet without chaperones, so a perfect excuse to get out of the house, in my opinion. In Bath, there are several cafés and formal tea rooms that offer afternoon tea. Reservations are highly recommended, even weeks in advance if you are going to Bath on the weekend.

Just like anything else when it’s your first time, afternoon tea started out a bit awkward for these two Americans. We weren’t quite sure what to do or how to properly act. Should we have our pinkies out as we sipped tea, perhaps? Well, we ended up devouring nearly our entire tower of treats so I’d say we mastered Afternoon Tea and had a grand time doing so. Maybe I could convince hubby to do another round?

One of the formal sitting rooms at The Bath Priory.

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Safari Hunt for Chelsea in Bloom

I never thought I would end up hunting for lions and elephants in Chelsea, one of London’s posh neighborhoods!

But since I missed out on snapping up 350-pound tickets to see the famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show, I decided to take a walk on the wild side and attend my first Chelsea in Bloom event. Earlier this week, I read about the event in my weekly Timeout magazine on my evening commute and instead of forgetting to check out said event as I usually do, I went on my day off yesterday. Chelsea in Bloom has returned for its 12th year, transforming this posh neighborhood into a street flower show with a “Floral Safari” theme in honor of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The event is only set up through Sunday, May 27th.

Local boutiques (such as Jimmy Choo, Club Monaco, Rag & Bone and Kiehls) have transformed their storefronts into a wild parade of elephants, monkeys, lions, giraffes and more. I started at Sloane Square, where the information kiosk is located, and then walked along both Sloane Street and King’s Road and past the landscaped Cadogan Gardens. (Map here.)

The amazing displays seem to be crafted from a mix of fresh and dried flowers and grasses. I love taking photos of gardens, so I had fun with my camera, but was annoyed to find so many people in the middle of my free day. Ha!

Anyway, I thought you all might enjoy seeing what these creative florists got up to in central London this year. Cheers!

Which animal is your favorite?

One of the cool giraffes in front of the Rag & Bone shop - one of my favorite displays.

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