4th day in London

Hampton court was on the agenda today. It is a royal palace further out of London. We took the Southwest over land train to get there, and I got to see a completely different view of London. I saw neighborhoods with houses rather than flats, Tenements, and factories. The palace was of course wonderful. It was so big and had a maze and many different styled gardens throughout the property. I got to see Henry VI’s apartment, as well as his last wife’s and his daughter Mary II’s apartment. Each were so big, I found myself lost! There were also spots on the property where there was modification for each of Henry’s five wives. For example, the entrance to Henry’s apartment was designed for his third wives liking. His daughter Mary II was not the same religion as his; he was Anglican and his wife was Catholic, so their daughter Mary decided to stay catholic. You can see this in the completely different architectural designs of their apartments. Henry’s side of the castle is at the entrance to the tour, and Mary II’s side of the castle is facing the gardens and is a completely different style; I found this quite interesting that he would allow her to deviate so much. The gardens were mind blowingly beautiful! So much work has had to go into them to keep them pristinely stunning. The gates encasing the property were made from gold and were simply amazing. Hampton Court does a very cute reenactment of Henry’s marriage to his last wife that children come on field trips to see. They get to meet Henry and his wife, give them their best wishes, tour the castle, and have a celebratory dinner. It is very cute. I got to catch a glimpse of him as I was touring the grounds. Because the kitchen on the grounds was pretty impressive (served 1200 meals a day in the 1500’s when Henry would stay), the court has a restaurant where you can eat a ‘medieval’ meal with dressed up cooks. Shannon and I stayed for this because it was just so cute. We were going to go see the play “Les Mis” at the Westin Theatre, but we weren’t able to get tickets, which was very unfortunate. I would have loved to attend an authentic English play. We had a much shorter day than the rest of the week.