Kew Gardens and Canterbury Cathedral

So I have a double feature for you this week- Kew Gardens and Canterbury Cathedral (with a construction interlude)
The Gardens are amazing just for the sheer number of plants it has, but a few stand out)

One of the Famous Giant Water Lillies at Kew Gardens. This is the underside of one of the pads. This particular one measured about 3 ft across.

The Gardens are also famous for the Victorian Era Glass Houses. Towering structures of ornately styled Iron and glass, they are impressive in their own right. Thin beams of worn and peeling Iron Criss-Cross the pains of glass, creating the impression of fragile, beautiful and aged structure with-holding plants that could easily outlast it. It's an amazing contrast- the bright green rolling sea of plants, against the stiff framework of the House.

There is construction everywhere in London in preparation for the Olympics- underground, above ground and in the sky. It seems as though almost every corner and by-way is being worked on in some fashion.

The Choir stalls at the Canterbury Cathedral

Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. That much is agreed upon. How and why it happened is contested to this day as I found out. It's amazing how important minor details can be in history. The guides and literature at the Cathedral seemed to suggest that King Henry the II ordered Thomas to be killed, which happened was while in prayer at the Cathedral. Going down the road a bit to the castle of Dover, the guide there hotly contested this version, instead proposing that the act was carried out by the Kings thugs without his direct order. This seeming tiny distinction in fact drastically changes the character of the King, and maybe this is why it is still a contested matter.