When Travel Gives You Lemons
Kew Gardens’ revamped Temperate House re-opened the other day and it’s all over the press and Instagram this weekend. I went a few weeks ago and found the place a lot more building site than world class botanical garden.
It was a ‘glass half-empty’ kind of experience for me, I knew the Temperate House was still in the works, but nowhere was it mentioned on the main website or when you booked tickets that the famous Pagoda was closed for refurbishment, so I was a bit shocked when I saw it under cover as my bus approached…It was a day of mixed emotions, and got me thinking about the previous times I’d encountered hiccups in my adventures.
Times it wasn’t so good:
- Cinque Terre is known for its beautiful winding walking trails descending high above the Tyrrhenian Sea, aside from my time there, when half of them were closed.
- Hiking up the Alps in Innsbruck and joining Maria in the Sound of Music is every girl’s dream, except when the ski-lift is closed for the season and you have to walk all the way back down on blistered feet.
- Putting on my belle of the ball gown and dancing down to Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria was meant to be Disney-worthy trip of a lifetime- except the Beast had the builders in…
When every cloud has a silver lining and it turned out for the best.
- I went to take rightful place at the seats of gods at Athens’ Akropolis (I’d be the Goddess of Tea) and sections might have been closed, but you get a half discount, so more money to spend on souvlaki!
- Dover Castle managed to withstand the Avengers assaulting it, but when I headed down there, it was a tad too windy to be able to open for the public. But this meant I went on an adventure of mine own to nearby Canterbury and the following day the castle was empty so it was even better!
- In the paradise of Kotor, me and my friend thought we could just rock up and expect two beds in the town’s only hostel – of course it was fully booked, but the kind owner went out of her way to find us a lovely space in an old grandma’s house, which ended up being one of the highlights of the trip (local knowledge!!)
What was your best/worst ‘when travel gives you lemons’ experience?
