London Day 12

The plan for today was to explore Hampton Court Palace. Hampton Court was the royal home of King Henry the VIII (mid-sixteenth century) and served as a royal residence until the time of King George II (early to mid-seventeenth century). The palace is located about a half-hour southwest of London by train. It is quite a picturesque setting as it is situated right along the Thames. We saw the Henry VIII apartments, the William III apartments, the Georgian apartments, the kitchens, the gardens, and lots and lots of art. I learned quite a bit about the monarchs who lived there. I had no idea that George I hated his son (the future George II) and George II hated his son, Frederick of Hanover (I think Frederick liked his son. His son went on to become George III, the monarch who lost the American colonies). During our tour of the palace, twenty minutes was spent looking for Ellie who wandered off and failed to mention where she was going. We weren't worried about her, we were just hungry and needed her with us so we could eat lunch. As we were walking through the garden, an older women noticed Luke's Chelsea FC sweatshirt and started talking with him about the team. The end result is that we have new Facebook friend. Hampton Court has the oldest maze in all of England (which I felt was a metaphor for living with a teenage daughter, ie. her wandering away in the palace). We also saw the oldest (and probably largest) grapevine in the world. Until 1920, the grapes from the vine were only served to royalty. We stayed at the palace for about six hours and then headed back to London and ate dinner in the flat. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Tower of London.