British Life and Culture - #14

Today we had another day trip. We all left Hampden House at 9:20 and walked to Great Portland Street Station. We had to take the tube to another station to meet our tour guide. The tube ride itself took almost an hour. When we got to the tube station, we couldn't find our tour guide. We walked to the pier for our boat ride and he met us there. We were taking a boat to Hampton Court. At first I thought the boat ride was going to take 30 minutes. Then Mary told us it would probably take an hour. Then when we got on the boat, we found out it was going to take an hour and a half. The boat was like a bus so we kept stopping at docks and picking people up. At one point, we even had to get off and change boats. Any other day this would have been more fun but today was cold and rainy so there wasn't much to see. When we finally got to Hampton Court, we found out we could've gotten there by just another 30 minute train ride instead of the hour and a half boat ride.

A few of us on the boat ride.

When we got to Hampton Court, everyone was hungry so we went to the Hampton Court Tiltyard Cafe for lunch. The Tiltyard was once used for jousting tournaments that Henry VIII would watch for pleasure. Now the area is divided into several rose gardens. After we ate, we started our tour. Our tour took 3 hours!

Tiltyard Rose Garden

Hampton Court Palace was so pretty and had so much history. Our tour guide gave us a quick history of Henry VIII and his six wives before we went in. We toured Henry VIII's apartment and kitchens. The kitchens were huge and consisted of so many rooms. Our tour guide said they had to prepare 600 meals a day and about 20 boys would be working in the kitchens at one time. There was even a big room just for storing barrels of wine! I loved how most of the rooms were kept dark because back then they would only have the light of a candle. We also recognized that a lot of the castle was open so whatever the weather was, they felt it inside.

The front of Hampton Court Palace

The Clock Court

Stained glass window of Henry VIII and his six wives' crests

Then we toured the apartments of William III and Mary II. William's apartment was so pretty and decorated beautifully. The staircase and mural on the wall closely resembled that of the King's State Apartment in Kensington Palace. The apartment also had the best view of the gardens outside, which were so beautiful. Mary's apartment had an exhibition called The Wild The Beautiful and The Damned.  There was so many historic paintings there.

Then we walked around outside, which was probably my favorite part of Hampton Court. There was so many gardens and they were breathtaking. We also went into the Royal Tennis Court. We found out that you can pay to have a membership and play there. There were two men playing when we walked by. Anne Boleyn would even watch Henry VIII play tennis there. Then we saw the World's Largest Vine. If you go in August, you can actually taste the grapes! Finally, we did the maze before we left. It didn't take us long and it was so fun because that was the first maze I've ever done.