Saturday - Hampton Court Palace

Today we got up and headed to Clapham Junction by bus to catch the train to Hampton Court Palace. The train was easy to take and only took a half an hour. From the station we were able to walk across the river to the very imposing Hampton Court Palace. Our London Pass got us in free again and we were able to walk right up through the gate to the Base Court to get an audio tour. The palace was originally built by Cardinal Wosley for himself but he "gave" it to Henry VIII.

We started in Henry VIII's Kitchens which was fascinating! There were plates and pots out filled with (fake) food of the time to give you an idea how it all worked. Several actors were dressed in period clothing and that explained the process of the daily cooking. There was even a large fire going on which they put a hunk of meat on a spit and invited children to come up and turn it.

We continued into the wine cellars and then into Henry VIII's apartments. It was amazing to see the carved wood panels with Tudor Roses, huge tapestries and painted ceilings. During this part of the tour our audio guide was a "page" of the time and it was all around the day 6th wedding day of Henry VIII's to Katherine Parr. It was an interesting portrayal of the monarch, who is usually painted as a tyrant. There were great portraits of all the important Tudors and we had access to the Chapel Royal as well. The Chapel has a gorgeous blue ceiling that seems not to have aged at all. It was very surreal to be in there and think that Henry VIII's and potentially all six of his wives could have attended mass there!

We stopped for lunch and walked out of the main palace past the rose garden to the Tiltyard Cafe. As always with museum food it was expensive but pretty good. We tucked in fairly well and afterwards headed back into the Palace. We went into a nice exhibit about young Henry VIII's that detailed the change in his relationships with his first wife Katherine of Aragon and Cardinal Wolsey. These changes were symbolized by three large wood high backed chairs; one chair representing each of the three. In the beginning of the tour the chairs for the Queen and the Cardinal were directly behind and to the side of the kind showing their support of him. By the end of the tour, the Cardinal's chair was off set as he fell out of favor (and was eventually locked up) and Katherine's chair was beginning to be distant as well. It was an interesting way to portray it all.

From there we continued into the apartments of William and Mary who originally wanted to demolish the whole Palace but couldn't afford it so they just made additions. Some of the original Tudor areas were converted and they took several cost-saving shortcuts. We continued into the Georgian rooms (the time period of George II) and finally came out into a cloister near the back of the palace. We walked out into the gardens which are expansive and beautiful. Several are carefully manicured in the old style; courtiers of the time would have walked around the gardens much of the day.

We visited the gift shop for postcards and then headed back to the train station. It was an easy ride back to our area. We got back to John & Maggie's and had a chance to unload before catching some dinner. John was out at Snape so it was just the three of us for dinner. We decided to use a coupon and go to Pizza Express so we walked towards Wandsworth's main street. The pizza was okay, just very sparse. We only saw our waitress once and Mike had to actually go up to request the bill. There was a very loud drunken party in the back that kept singing "Happy Birthday," "He's a jolly good fellow," and something else we couldn't recognize. Mike ended up leaving a 60 p tip or something because it was so bad. But we headed back to the house and back to bed after another long day.