Exbury & Beulieu

This is post is kinda long overdue... :P... anyway a colleague of mine is really, really fascinated with gardens, so we thought he has a huge orchid or flower garden... then he said he only plant useful plants... and then only found out his "useful" plants are veggie and fruit trees... :P. So he found out one of England's famous garden is abt 50 mins drive away... so away we go...

So this is it... 4 GUYS... going to one of the most scenic spots around here... ishhhhh.... anyway The Exbury gardens cover 200 acres of various flower and plants but mostly are rhododendrons, azaleas and camelias.

Rose among the thorns

Stream running through the gardens

Lane full of flowers in a riot of colors

Reflections on the lake within the gardens

After the walk around which took us about 2 hours, we drove by to a place called Beaulieu, a small village nearby. You actually have to pay an entrance fee to enter this tourist spot which set us back by 15 quid... after paying 7.5 quid to enter Exbury... :(. Anyway Beaulieu houses a few stuff... the British National Motor Museum, Beaulieu Palace House and Beaulieu Abbey. The British National Motor Museum has a huge collection of automobiles from bygone eras (T-Ford's... to the latest Bugatti Veryon). The Beaulieu Palace House is a huge mansion built during the 16th century and still in a perfect condition. The Beaulieu Abbey, or actually what's left of it is home to some monks from France during the 13th century.

From the old vintage...

To the record breakers.

The Beaulieu Palace House

The dining hall of the Palace House... supposed to be haunted...

Basically at the end there was a special exhibition which featured a lot of the original stuff featured in the James Bond movies from the old and new...

Remember this?...

Was it Halle Berry that drove this car?