Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Part Two): The Never Ending Story (Post)

And... We're back. Part two of Kew Gardens. It is the never ending post. Like I said, this day was a massive day. I'm kind of feeling the fatigue all over again while I'm writing it.

I've sat here for the last 15 minutes wondering why I didn't just do one small post highlighting my favorite things. It certainly would have made life easier, and I'm sure there are people out there who don't WANT to read two posts about a Botanic Garden in England. Shocking. I know.

Then I decided that I don't really care. This is a place to leave memories, all of them, and hopefully get people interested in visiting these sites (with helpful hints for if/when they go).

Besides picking "favorite things" in this case doesn't make any sense. It's one whole continuous day and leaving bits out would feel choppy, incomplete and very wrong.

So, I will now unapologetically continue. But I will keep it as short and sweet as possible.

When last you left us, we had just finished lunch...

The other view from our bench. 
This is the massive lawn that appears to lead back to the Palm House. It doesn't.
Well, it might, eventually. But we couldn't stick to it long enough.

The Royal Botanical Gardens At Kew (Part One): It's Bigger on the Inside

For the past four days my darling boyfriend has been in Amsterdam. Without me. As in, I am still stuck at home, trying to make money and pull some semblance of purpose out of being a new graduate who doesn't quite know what she wants to do with her life (no, traveling the world with a beautiful man and not wasting any time working is not an option. Or so they tell me...) while he's enjoying a new city filled with amazing things (and two world heritage sites). 

I will grudgingly add that it's not his fault really. This is a trip he needs to do for his degree. Like a super grown up, undeniably cool, field trip. This still doesn't mean I'll stop pouting until he comes home  again. 

However, he did manage to call today and he made me realize that I need to put on my big girl panties and realize that while he is gone for another four days (who's counting?) I should get some work done. You know, all those blog posts/applications/one novel all sitting around mostly/partially/a little finished. 

My last post was about pack lunches. They are important. And what better day to take advantage of pack lunches than a sunny (mostly) day at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The iconic Palm House.
Awesome shot by the mister. It was not so sunny towards the end.

Moving the goal posts....

We're still hanging out at home but by the end of this week we should be able to get out by ourselves. Matt went onto the UNESCO site to look up some unrelated information and found something rather surprising. There are more World Heritage Sites added to the list. UNESCO have added 21 new cultural sites, 3 new natural sites and 1 new mixed site. Now instead of having a goal of 911 sites we have a shiny new goal of 936. All before we've even started. 


Barbados' "Historic Bridgetown and it's Garrison" really is my favorite edition. A nice trip to a world heritage site and then the sunning on the beach? Perfect much? Matt however seems to be most pleased about The Persian Garden in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Leave it to my darling to be happy about venturing into the war-torn middle east for some adventuring. 


You can find all of the World Heritage Site listings at their website. Each entry has amazing pictures of the sites and information on why they were chosen. 


Hopefully this weekend I'll be updating with some trip information and some pictures!


x T

A little bit about UNESCO (written with a ridiculous amount of help from Matt because I don't know anything)

If any of you are like me, you aren't familiar with UNESCO or World Heritage Sites. You have probably never even heard of them. Here is a short little blurb with some links to serve as a little orientation...

(Shortly after) The Beginning

I'm at great risk of sounding cliché but it's often hard to know how to start this kind of thing. It's a very typical girl meets boy story. Except this time girl mets boy while she was on her semester abroad.  My name is Taylor. I'm a writer and a reader and now, surprisingly, a travel enthusiast.

For my abroad semester in college I decided to move to Edinburgh, Scotland all by myself.

Didn't really think that one through if I'm being honest. 

I arrived in the middle of the night in the middle of January in SCOTLAND. You can imagine how that went. I literally fell flat on my butt about 20 minutes after arriving. For the most part, I'm extremely shy. I spent most of my time traveling with old school friends (for the shortest amount of time possible) or just hanging out on my own. Great way to spend my time abroad, I know. As luck would have it I met Matt the day before I was supposed to return to America. And then my flight home was cancelled. Even though it was only for a day, that was all it took.

Matt is my opposite in nearly every way possible. He's more open minded, extroverted, adventurous and a Londoner born and bred. Loving him is making me come out of my shell.

Amongst other things, Matt loves to travel. His dream is to see all of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. He's already seen 200 but we've decided that since I'm here now, we might as well start over together. As a writer, I felt we needed a place to document all of our attempts (hopefully with more successes than not) to see all 911 in our lifetime. Well, this is it.

It's taken 6 transatlantic flights, 4 cities, and one year to get to a place where we can finally start our travels :D

One half love story and one half travel blog. I hope you enjoy.

Christmas in Edinburgh <3

xT