Josh: London has been hit by a heatwave! Not super hot by the standards of many other places on the planet… but two things make it particularly challenging. One… the humidity. It’s humid, and it makes the heat more uncomfortable. Two, it’s usually really mild in London (or so I’m told) so many houses and buildings don’t have air conditioning. Places that are typically hot have air conditioning in all the homes, so it’s easy to say “oh, that’s not very hot”…. it is when you’re trying to sleep on the third floor of a house with no air conditioning! Fortunately, we’re heading to Inverness in Scotland Monday which is the UK’s northernmost city and MUCH cooler.
On Saturday we chose to visit Kew Gardens. The grounds were beautiful, but it was not the best day to be outside. What we thought would be a mild day wandering through shade turned out to be a sweltering march. We had Addie and Bonnie in carriers, and having a kid strapped to you makes things just a bit warmer. Also, many of the buildings in Kew Gardens house tropical plants in huge greenhouses… so rather than going into a greenhouse and coming out to relieving London air it was simply a transfer from one hot muggy place to another.
Needless to say we ended the day early and were completely drained and exhausted by the end of it. The kids did really well despite the heat and there was some cool history, so take that heat wave, we still had fun!
Here’s a picture. There was one afterwards with some smiles but it doesn’t capture the true mood of the day.