Europe Trip
We departed our lovely Cotswold home under overcast skies at around 10am. Taking Mil’s favourite M40 (I drove at around 130km/hr for part of the way), we arrived at King Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace just before lunch.
Hampton Court Palace is big and imposing from the outside, however it extends quite some way to the rear, so you really don’t get a sense of the size of the place until you’ve fully explored it.
The real “wow” factor comes from inside some of the main state rooms, particularly the Great Hall. Imagine a massive room of width and depth, with soaring hammer-beam cathedral ceilings, and intricate window panes. The walls are covered floor to ceiling in amazing Abrahamic tapestries, carefully restored to look as good now as they did a few hundred years ago.
Other state rooms were equally impressive, and our tour also took us through an exhibit of Young Henry, the kitchens, and the chapel with piping organs (still in use today).
It was fascinating to follow Henry's life and the fortunes of his six wives, easily remembered as “divorced, beheaded, died….., divorced, beheaded, survived”.
The kids loved the playground, and we all got lost together in the maze (and lost Oscar somewhere in there too), before leaving at around 3pm – much earlier than we would have liked.
We needed to return the hire car, and the choice was to stay out later, and then return the car to 24 hour Heathrow, or we could return it to a little branch in Vauxhall, only three minutes from our accommodation, however it closed at 4pm. As I didn’t feel like a three hour return trip to Heathrow, we decided on the second option, and managed to arrive at Europcar Vauxhall at 3.58pm.
After our spacious and character filled accommodation in the Cotswolds, we were a bit disappointed with our London accommodation. It was small and pretty basic with just the one bathroom, and set in an industrial area. We hoped that as we’d be out all day every day, we wouldn't notice it as much.
The kids played at a local park late in the day, and we then had dinner at a spicy Indian restaurant.
James Burnet
34 chapters
15 Apr 2020
Day 7
September 04, 2016
|
Hampton Court Palace
We departed our lovely Cotswold home under overcast skies at around 10am. Taking Mil’s favourite M40 (I drove at around 130km/hr for part of the way), we arrived at King Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace just before lunch.
Hampton Court Palace is big and imposing from the outside, however it extends quite some way to the rear, so you really don’t get a sense of the size of the place until you’ve fully explored it.
The real “wow” factor comes from inside some of the main state rooms, particularly the Great Hall. Imagine a massive room of width and depth, with soaring hammer-beam cathedral ceilings, and intricate window panes. The walls are covered floor to ceiling in amazing Abrahamic tapestries, carefully restored to look as good now as they did a few hundred years ago.
Other state rooms were equally impressive, and our tour also took us through an exhibit of Young Henry, the kitchens, and the chapel with piping organs (still in use today).
It was fascinating to follow Henry's life and the fortunes of his six wives, easily remembered as “divorced, beheaded, died….., divorced, beheaded, survived”.
The kids loved the playground, and we all got lost together in the maze (and lost Oscar somewhere in there too), before leaving at around 3pm – much earlier than we would have liked.
We needed to return the hire car, and the choice was to stay out later, and then return the car to 24 hour Heathrow, or we could return it to a little branch in Vauxhall, only three minutes from our accommodation, however it closed at 4pm. As I didn’t feel like a three hour return trip to Heathrow, we decided on the second option, and managed to arrive at Europcar Vauxhall at 3.58pm.
After our spacious and character filled accommodation in the Cotswolds, we were a bit disappointed with our London accommodation. It was small and pretty basic with just the one bathroom, and set in an industrial area. We hoped that as we’d be out all day every day, we wouldn't notice it as much.
The kids played at a local park late in the day, and we then had dinner at a spicy Indian restaurant.
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