Our first full day in London and a chance to strike off a real highlight in the trip for me – Hampton Court Palace. The weather was great once again and after a very large breakfast we made for the Underground.
Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road, thence to Waterloo and finally on to Hampton Court made it probably the most lengthy rail trip we'll do in London. Apart from some minor navigational issues due to major rebuilding work in Tottenham Court the trip was pretty uneventful. For some reason the Oyster cards declined to work at the first attempt but were fine after that, although I will say getting Anna through the gate at the same time as me often resulted in the gate trying to cut me in half.
We'd already bought tickets so we were straight into the rose garden without needing to wait about. The garden didn't have much in flower but is walled by 10 foot brick with some amazing espaliayed fruit trees lining the walls. From there we ducked across to the maze and the boys took on the girls to see who could get to the middle first. Unfortunately our scientific method was beaten by complete arse and trying whatever turn "felt right". If that maze was 100km across the boys would have won for sure.
From there we headed into the palace for the first time as we wanted to catch a reenactment of Kateryn Parr, Lady Latimer, choosing her wedding ensemble for her marriage ceremony to Henry VIII. Ably assisted by her aunt (also in full period costume), Kateryn walked through a selection of clothing items, all backed up by great banter with her aunt. Some of the kids were roped in to help select specific items and suggestions from the audience sought, more often disregarded with a throw-away comment and a suitably royal haughtiness. The whole experience was absolutely brilliant and something we will remember for a long time.
At that point it was lunchtime so we ducked over to the cafe for a meal on the terrace. Jenni tried to kill me with a fork and then Anna tried to drown me in homemade lemonade. I simply tried to stay alive and eat my sandwich. James was no help at all, not even offering to take a turn on the receiving end. You bring them up and what do you get? Gratitude? Hah!
After lunch we went back inside and started working our way through the various sections of the house including the kitchens and the various apartments. I got to see some a couple of pretty decent Caravaggios but missed out on the Montagne. We took a shed load of photos of just about everything in sight, right down to the smallest item or detail. I think the total for the day was 181.
We finished off with another of my favourites, the Privy Garden and the Pond Garden. The Privy Garden is proper crazy urban landscaping from the period. If you can mow it creatively, torture it decoratively or plant it in a regimented fashion they have. Even the *holly* has been "topiaried" into a decorative shape. It's hard to estimate the size of the garden other than to say it's massive. It would easily be 50m across and twice that in length.
The Pond Garden is equally impressive but for different reasons. Everything is *crammed* in as close as possible but also in great numbers. Each section surrounds a pond of some sort and there is also an garden of "exotics" which for the most part means citruses and the like. At the end is the largest grape vine I've even seen, the roots of whic are outside and the vine itself inside a huge glasshouse.
By that point we were all wearing out so we headed back to the hotel. We made a quick stop in town to pick up some books in Foyles (OS maps for me) and some lighter stuff for the kids. Finally we had dinner in a pub which turned out to be the last home of the Marquee Club, famous for live music from the 60s to the 80s including The Yardbirds, The Clash, Rolling Stones and dozens more.
On our way into the Underground we came upon one of the best buskers I've seen for quite a while – a middle aged guy playing a 5 foot harp of all things, jammed into the corner of a tunnel between platforms. I was happy. Now I had the last bit I needed for my blog title.
Not sure what we're doing tomorrow. You'll have to wait to see...
Cheers,
Millsy
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