Hampton Court Palace

I remember in one of the first episodes of The Tudors (on Showtime), King Henry VIII is riding in a carriage with Cardinal Wolsely. They arrive at Wolsely's estate, and the king is impressed. Wolsely politely offers it to the king and the king jokes about taking it. Years later, poor Wolsely would be eating his words when everything was stripped from him, including Hampton Court Palace.

(Since I don't own a helicopter, I stole this picture off Google)

Hampton Court Palace is about a 30 minute train ride outside of the City of London.

We all met up at Waterloo Station and decided to ask the information booth what the best plan of travel would be to get to the palace. Thank goodness we did, because the man behind the desk said "I will sell you four train tickets for the cost of two, and you can buy four tickets to the palace for the cost of two". We saved us a whole bunch of money.

Erika was excited because this would be her first train ride (excluding the underground, since subways are different than actual trains).

I was pretty excited to be on a train too...I was also pretty excited to have coffee, but we won't go into that.

We chatted about various things and looked through all of the 2 for 1 offers in the brochure we got at the station. Before we knew it, we arrived at our station and were a short walk away from the palace.

The main court had a few statues scattered around, so we enjoyed the photo opportunities that they provided.

Oh the political turmoil of the 16th century is just so depressing! ...at least, I think that is what we are so upset about.

Erika and I are using an old gypsy trick where I distract the man, and in his distaste for me and my wanting of his beverage, Erika manages to sneak a sip. Works every time.

After stealing all the mead, I found myself stumbling around the fountain.

Once I sobered up, I realized the fountain was really quite lovely.

We quickly learned that instead of tours, the palace has reenactments every hour. The reenactments center around a Baron, who has the favor of the king, and a Lady, who has the favor of the Queen. The Baron and Lady are enemies, and the Baron is not a fan of the Queen and her "dangerous intelligence" In between acting out a story, they would briefly talk about whatever room we were in, or what was happening at the time in terms of history, but in character and in a offhanded kind of way. They would also occasionally draw us in, either as group, or individually, to participate in what was happening. It was very clever and I loved it, I would have loved to have spent the whole day following them around and seeing how it played out. Sadly, doing that would mean that we wouldn't be able to see everything the palace has to offer (plus the boys were not really into it).

Here is an aging King Henry VIII with the Baron

After a nasty fight with the Queen, the King plots against her with the "Evil" Baron (I was team "Evil Baron")

We wandered around through the Tudor kitchens, which were massive.

This is a giant oven/walk in fireplace.

And cozy little alcoves where they kept boiling stews.

Ryan quickly learned that he was often too tall for some of the archways.

We became hungry and headed outside the palace to the gardens, where the cafe was. After lunch, we decided to try our luck at the hedge maze.

It was so. much. fun. Hedge mazes need to be everywhere...and longer.

Ryan is a cheater.

I also somehow got a picture of Matt smiling, which is a rarity.

Once I realized I found the center, I was uber excited, and it wasn't long before Matt and I were joined by the Ryan and Erika.

After the maze, Erika and I found a path that led to a bench

Then it was time to check out the massive gardens.

Erika and I took a stroll down the path, away from the palace

During our stroll, we discovered these magnificent beasts. They actually made me a bit homesick, and it took some serious self-restraint to not run up to them and love on them.

The fountain was beautiful

We continued to make our way through the massive gardens.

Ryan made a friend with this giant Hershey's Kiss bush.

The gardens reflected the various periods of time that Hampton Court experienced.

They were all beautiful.

After the gardens, we wandered through some of the state rooms.

This hall had a huge fresco that ran seamlessly from the wall to the ceiling.

And of course we know I love windows.

Matt discovered that he is also too tall for Tudor arches.

I am sitting in a throne marked "Katherine Queen of Aragon", Ryan is in "King Henry VIII" and Matt makes a pretty dour "Cardinal Wolsely".

Once we took pictures in this thronish seat, it was time to hop on the train (after we visited the gift shop, of course) and head home.

Once we got on the train, we were all pretty tired. The most exciting thing was spotting a fox along the train tracks. I don't think I have ever seen a fox in the wild before. It was cute, I want one.

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