Hampton Court Palace

We were lucky to have such great weather today on our excursion to the Hampton Court Palace. Penelope and Francis picked us up from our flats and we traveled by car for about an hour and a half towards London to tour the home of the royals during the Tudor period.

Entrance to the Hampton Court Palace

Besides brief mentions of this time from the previous days lectures, I haven't studied the Tudors very much. I knew Henry VIII was really fat, there was a Boelyn girl, there was "another Boelyn girl," several beheadings, divorces, and still Henry was fat. Today I was able to put the story together, not to mention see where the characters lived.

Gardens modeled after Versailles

Occasionally actors would walk past dressed in costume and playing the part of a royal or a servant. I got great enjoyment from having King Henry bustle past me in the Great Hall and then seeing Francis stand to attention as the king passed him. One of the actors gave us directions to get to the gardens. As we were walking away he asked Cameron if us four girls were his girlfriends. "Yes," he replied, "but I haven't beheaded any of them...yet."

After exploring the inside of the palace, and stopping for a cup of tea, we wandered around the grounds. One end of the grounds has the oldest hedge grown maze, the Hampton Court Maze. Of course we went in and made our way to the middle. After our amaze-ing adventure we walked to the other side of the palace grounds were we explored the gardens modeled after Versailles in France.