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Agatha Christie's Greenway (Devon, England) - The House

I can think of two places that we visited where I enjoyed the house more than the gardens. The first was Greenway, not for the house itself, which was surprisingly small and cramped, but for the history behind it and the fascinating mementos on display. Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan were enthusiastic collectors. You can see their collections on display throughout the house - European and Oriental ceramics, pottery, African tribal masks, Egyptian artifacts, Tunbridge ware, china, trinkets, and books. The Morning Room has a portrait of Agatha Christie as a child and her doll Rosie, sitting in a chair - The Drawing Room was where the family would gather in the evenings. Christie would entertain guests by reading chapters from manuscripts of her latest books.  Agatha Christie's bedroom. Max always slept on a smaller portable traveling cot (you can see part of it in the foreground). It was his favorite bed and he carried it with him on all of his archaeological travels. N...

Garden at the Grand Prince Takanawa Hotel


The Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa was our arrival hotel in Tokyo. Everyone was arriving at different times, some two days before, others one day before the official start of the tour. I was two days early so I spent two nights here before everyone left for Kyoto. Not much fanfare was given about the hotel garden in our itinerary, except to note that "there is a garden adjacent to the hotel". And what a lovely garden it was!

Very well-tended (it was rare to see a garden there that was not), it was larger than expected.

It was quite spectacular at night when it was lit up - a great introductory garden for our tour.














There was a massive arrangement in the hotel lobby. On the second day, an employee was trimming back some of the limbs.



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. It's an impressive garden for a hotel - and that's probably the best koi pond I've ever seen.

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  2. Gorgeous! How lovely to have a garden right there at the hotel to walk around. It looks like the weather was nice, too.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we were lucky with the weather. It rained the night I arrived and the day I left. In between, 60s and 70s.

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    2. What a lovely garden, and truly beautiful at night, Phillip!

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