An amazing time at Hampton Court

Aside from a trip to Hampton Court Palace, we were challenged today to tell a story in five pictures (sans the captions I do love to add). Below is my five-picture story, titled "Reunion" ( and you can read more about my fun times at Hampton Court behind the cut). :)

Reunion

Trains and palaces! We took a train from Waterloo Station this morning to get to Hampton Court Palace, which was once home to Tudor king Henry VIII and later, King William III and Mary II. Having heard about Hampton Court from various English courses and reading several of David Starkey's books about Henry VIII and his wives, I was excited to see it. The grounds are huge, though, and it is very possible to get turned around, even with a somewhat guided audio tour...

The guided audio tour was excellent and, pending which section of the palaces you were in, provided extensive coverage of the history. There were strolling reenactments of King Henry VIII's marriage to Kateryn Parr (the last of the six wives), and we even had the opportunity to bow/curtsy before him during several photo ops. My touring went awry after viewing the chambers of Henry VIII and previewing a very interesting (though not commentated) exhibit in the palace dubbed "Henry's Women," complete with portraits and info about each of the six wives and some personal artifacts associated with them. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed in that room or I would've had a ton of pictures to post. After that tour, though, the self-selecting audio guide didn't exactly prompt which direction I should head, and so I found myself wandering down hallways lined with pictures, eventually moving towards an exit. The exit didn't have any special signage to indicate how I might find the next audio point of interest, and the audio recording relies on the user to tell it what section you want it to discuss; the directions is provides are somewhat in order if you started in the palace kitchens, but since I did not, I got to stroll in the light drizzle and try to figure out where I was.

After unintentionally finding the kitchens, I caught up with that audio tour in time to get mowed down by a group of tourists sans audio guides that were rather impatient to get to the next area of the palace. The kitchens tour itself is extensive, judging by the audio guide, and so I wandered in and around the various kitchen stops, ovens, etc. listening to the food historians' perspectives (I never before knew that was a specialty) until I found myself in the colonnade once again, which was familiar territory. I wanted to see the William III/Mary II tour, which was quite different from Henry's court, but the audio tour started to become very detailed and I felt like I was blocking the path since the audio for each room was at least three minutes bordering on five. All of the information was interesting, particularly in explaining the progression of public and private rooms (and all the weaponry in the guard room!), but by the time that tour was finished, it was raining again and lunchtime.

Lunch was a quiet affair (an indoors picnic since it was still raining), and I managed to stay with others and/or on marked paths so I didn't again get lost accidentally in the afternoon. I did get to walk the maze on the grounds, which was more fun that I thought it might be. When first entering the maze, it appears to be unicursal, which isn't so much a maze to me as a garden path. We did come across a fork in the road, so to speak, rather quickly, though, and wove around without knowing how large the maze really was. I thought the goal was to get to the end, but apparently, you are supposed to go to the middle and then find your way back out. We got to the middle without any real problems, but then got a little turned around trying to find the exit because we didn't know the entrance served double duty as the exit as well. On the plus side, though, we made only two wrong turns (as in choosing dead-end paths), and got out of the maze literally right before it started to pour rain again, so it was fun.