Today we took a day trip to Hampton Court, which is about 30 minutes southwest of London by train.
This is the castle of Henry VIII and a few royal families that followed him.
We negotiated the Waterloo tube and and upstairs to the Waterloo train station with ease, and added five pounds onto our Oyster cards to pay for the extended trip outside of London.
The train drops you off just across the Thames from the castle. Just cross the bridge and you are there!
There are self-guided tours with audio guides. Apparently this is a very popular destination for school field trips, as there were many groups of children everywhere at the castle.
As the Rick Steve's guide book says, the castle is very nice and it tries real hard, but it just does not measure up to the Ludwig castles in Germany. Sorry, but it is true... :-)
That being said it is an essential stop when in London. We enjoyed every minute of it. There is also a cafe which serves hot soup and sandwiches.
I particularly was interested in the kitchens. They ate twice a day, around 10:00 and 16:00, and they feed 800 people every day. The diet consisted mostly of meat. We spoke with an employee who was monitoring the kitchen rooms and she was very knowledgeable and told us all about how food was prepared and stored.
Another room of great interest was the great dining hall. It is still today a treasured room. The ceiling is magnificent.
There is of course a great garden surrounding the castle. You could easily spend the better part of a day just exploring the gardens. Included in the garden is fun hedge maze, which of course we had to do. And it was fun! There are also these amazing yew trees, which are 400 years old. While the castle was interesting because of the history, the gardens steal the show and are the most beautiful part of the castle.
After returning to the hotel we sought out the Ciao Bella Italian restaurant which we had seen on a previous day during a walk with Carmilla. We found it with no problem and acquired a table outside on the sidewalk patio. Nice ensulata caprise, spaghetti bolegnese and spaghetti carbonara, and a bottle of Chianti, and of course tiramisu for dessert. Wow, what a great end to a great day!
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| Front entrance to Hampton Court |
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| Decorative chimneys |
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| One of the great fire pits for roasting food. The school children help to give scale to the picture. |
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| The wine cellar |
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| Stained glass in the great hall |
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| The ceiling in the great hall |
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| The fountain courtyard. One of several courtyards at the castle. |
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| The Maze |
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| The Gardens and manicured Yew trees |
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| The gardens |
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| The gardens |
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| Pat at the base of a 400 year old Yew tree |
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| The gardens |
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| The gardens |
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| The clock tower. Take a close look at all of the dials on the face of the clock. |
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