Hampton Court Palace

Royal day today. We headed off this morning to Hampton Court Palace, home of Henry VIII and a reasonable selection of his wives.

Managed the trains to get us there mid-morning, again as the rain started to fall. Gotta love this English spring!

The palace is imposing and is very impressive. They have sectioned the tours up into 5 or 6 themes and we spent a good deal of time in the areas of Henry VIII apartments, his early life and William III’s apartments. Scary as it may seem the people are all starting to fit together with Queens Anne and Elizabeth featuring and this all linked nicely back into Oxford and Jesus College we visited at the weekend.

They do the presentation really well here with actors playing the role of the key characters who lived in the palace. The apartments are stunning and when you are looking at a 500 year old tapestry hanging on the wall it is quite empowering.

Henry VIII was certainly an interesting character. Lunch was in the palace and we went for the traditional British lunch being steak and kidney pies with mash and gravy. Given the weather quite appropriate. The gardens are also massive and spectacular. We spent some time in them. They are very famous for their maze. Given it was the last week of the school holidays, we saw but did not partake as we would have needed to beat off hoards of small people. Another spot well worth a visit.

After a short rest we met up with Mike and Jo in the city for dinner with a friend of Jo’s, Kath and her parents. They are mad keen Munster supporters (Dennis has the Muster v All Black ticket where Munster won framed on his wall at home) and Kath had met up with Jo in NZ some years ago.

Very pleasant evening.