Last Friday we went as a group to Hampton Court. I have to admit, I had no idea what Hampton Court was before we went but it is really cool! It is a royal palace that was originally built by Cardinal Woolsey as his dream home but Henry VIII came for a visit and decided he really liked it. Well, what Henry wants Henry gets so the Cardinal "gave" it to him and then Henry and all of his people moved in. There were 2,000-3,000 people living there so the already huge house was enlarged to a full fledged royal palace. As you can see from this picture there are two different styles, the Tudor style and the Stewart style. I'm pretty sure that the lighter brick sections are the later Tudor editions. King Henry spent a significant amount of time here, but after the whole Anne Boleyn episode he ditched it and never went back.
Henry VIII was actually pretty educated and he liked to have the latest technology. Probably half to show off and half because he really thought it was cool. This is one of the first astronomical clocks!
The walls inside were covered with these enormous, beautiful silk tapestries. I was eavesdropping on one of the guided tours and I learned that when a tapestry like this was all fresh and new it was strong enough to hold up two double decker buses! But now it's so old and brittle that if you even touch it it will disintegrate. I think maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration to scare the school children, but you get the idea.
Speaking of children...they were everywhere. There were at least 200 kids running around this place on school tours. British children are adorable in small numbers, but the accent gets less cute when it is echoing through the halls and running around your legs and almost tripping you multiple times. Elliot and I figured out that as long as we stayed a couple of rooms ahead of the kids we were fine, but those guys moved really quickly! They kept us on our toes, that's for sure.
This is a picture of the wine cellar...and me pretending to be drunk. Mormon much? By the way those are my audio guide headphones around my neck, not a bow tie.
We had lunch in a little cafe that was located in the "Privy Kitchen." Here's Elliot looking all suave and sophisticated with her medieval soup...
and I'm just chillin' with my kids meal, which was better because I got a cookie, a juice drink, and an eraser.
We discovered some Christmas cheer in the wine cellar gift shop and just couldn't pass it up! It tasted very festive.
Inside the King's apartments there were so many beautiful little things I just couldn't take pictures of everything. So I just caught a couple of my favorites.
A lot of the pictures had these amazingly intricate wood carvings around them. I wish that you all could have been there to have seen this. All of the little flowers and leaves were so intricate and delicate looking...I can't imagine how anyone could do this.
There were a two sections inside the residential section of the house: the King's apartments and the Queen's apartments. Each section had three different throne rooms and the first two looked exactly the same. I had a little audio tour that gave me all the information and when I walked into this room I just had to laugh a little bit. According to the guide, this is the chair that means business. Can't you just tell? I mean those tassels...and three footstools instead of just one, this chair just screams business.
The red velvet toilet seat, so classic! Emily introduced me to this little YouTube gem that you might enjoy while we're on the subject of "potty humor"
This hallway is called "the Orangery" because it is where King Henry would keep his citrus fruit trees during the winter! It was fun to imagine this place all full of the trees, I just had to skip a little bit :)
After Hampton Court Elliot and I went down to Regent Street to buy tickets for Phantom of the Opera! It was so fun to walk down the street and see the Christmas lights and feel a little bit of Christmas cheer (even though it's mid November) and we came across this cute little band playing Christmas carols!
We ate dinner at Pizza Hut, which is a legit restaurant here not just a fast food place. After dinner we met up with a few more girls and went to our show! It was SO GOOD. The cast was phenomenal and anyone who has seen that show knows how cool the special effects are. We're talking fire shooting out of the stage, the giant chandelier swinging around, guns that shoot out fireballs, thick fog and mist in all the dungeon scenes...it was perfect. I will post a picture as soon as I can!
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