London [Day 2]

Once we were up and dressed this morning Thomas took a short walk to a dry cleaners to have our laundry done. When he got back to the hotel we went down for some breakfast. While eating we finalized our plans for the day. After we finished eating we went back up to the room and got our things for the day. Before leaving the hotel I got online and booked us tickets for tomorrow for the London Eye. Today our plan was to visit Hampton Court Palace. Over the summer we watched The Tudors and a documentary on Henry VIII and a documentary on Hampton Court Palace. This peaked our interest and before we even left Santa Fe we knew we needed to visit this palace. So this morning we walked to Waterloo Station and took a train out to Hampton Court Palace. It was about a 30 minute ride to the station just over the river from the palace. Then we walked the short distance to the palace. We checked in at the ticket counter with our London Pass and got our tickets and then walked to the entrance of the palace. Before we entered the palace I got a mangled penny (this is what the British call the elongated pennies you get from machines) and then we started our tour. We picked up free audio guides and continued on our self guided tour. The palace is huge and there is lots to see so we just started with the beginning of the audio tour. The tour started with the kitchens of Henry VIII. There are multiple rooms with some of the being very large with fireplaces that you could actually live in. I guess you need these if you are cooking for thousands of people at a time. When the tour of the kitchens was done we continued on to the apartments of Henry VIII. This area was incredible. The workmanship of the woodwork and the art and tapestries were beautiful. Also the history of the rooms was fascinating. One of the things I enjoyed was the characters that walked the grounds and building. It was like you stepped back in time where these people were interacting with each other with issues of the day. They would even discuss what was happening with visitors. You could follow them from room to room and continue with the discussion. It was amazing how they stayed in character even when walking from room to room without any visitors around them. When we completed the apartment tour we went to a scheduled tour that you had to sign up for when you first arrived. It was a guided tour called Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber. Usually this area of the palace isn't open to the public. After our guided tour we continued on the self guided tour of William & Mary's part of the palace. The palace was originally built in a medieval/tudor style and that is how it was when Henry was in residence. When William & Mary came to power and moved in they began changing the palace to a more baroque style. They were able to tear down and rebuild only half of the building before they ran out of money so the palace has two distinct architectures. I much rather the medieval/tudor design. Then we decided to see the gardens. We took a short ride in a horse drawn cart and got a little history of the gardens. Then we walked around the gardens and visited the maze. After walking through the maze we looked for a letterbox but we were unsuccessful. Most of the day was gone by now so we decided to head back to the train station.

We had to wait about a half hour for the train back to Waterloo so we got a snack and some water and relaxed on a bench. The ride back was another half hour and once we exited Waterloo Station we walked to the dry cleaners to pick up our laundry. We brought this back to the hotel then freshened up before heading out for more sightseeing. We went back to Waterloo Station and took the tube to Leicester Square and then walked to Covent Garden. Here we did window shopping and watched street performers and just wandered. Eventually we found a restaurant and stopped for dinner. We ate at Joe's Southern Kitchen. It was delicious and we liked the atmosphere but we were confused about what the thought was southern. They had a slideshow of images from Baltimore, New Orleans, Route 66 and California - so we weren't sure if these were just random pictures of the USA or if this is what they thought of as southern. Anyway, the food was good and we had a nice time there.

Then we decided to end our day with an evening walk. So we headed over to Trafalgar Square. The area was busy. There were people everywhere and it was filled with energy. We walked around, took pictures and enjoyed the people mulling around. After about an hour and a half we took the tube from Charing Cross back to Waterloo and then walked the short distance to our hotel. We had a great day and I really enjoyed the visit to Hampton Court Palace. Tomorrow is our last day in England and there is still so much we want to do. Time to get some rest for our busy day tomorrow.