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Thanks to the kind generosity of Jules' parents, who gave us their membership pass, today we made the 2hr trip via bus and overground train to Hampton Court to see the Tudor House of King Henry VIII and his 6 wives...
Having read The Other Boleyn Girl (which of course is an exhaustive account of what happened back then!) and having watched Eric Bana in the movie (purely out of patriotic duty!) I was really excited to see the actual place where all of the royal drama of the 1500s took place.
Have to admit, when we arrived it looked like just another massive English heritage building, but after we wandered around for a few hours we quickly came to appreciate the grandeur of the place. It was absolutely incredible. What you see from the front just doesn't do it any justice.
The gardens around the palace were immaculate. Our favourite was the Rose Garden, the smell was just divine, but we also went through its world famous maze, where Mitch did a great job of leading us through without hitting one dead-end! Inside the palace they had re-created some of the rooms so you could get a real feel for what it would have been like to live at Court.
Apparently there were 600 people there when the King was in and it took 200 staff just to look after them all (particularly to feed them). The Royal Chapel was magnificent, especially its ceiling, and so too was the King's Armoury (Chris and I took it in turns to go upstairs, too hard with Mitch, but he says there were muskets, swords and old-school pistols all over the walls ). They even had actors wandering through the palace in costume, conversing as though they really were discussing matters of the day (probably very corny if you worked there ... or if you're actually English).
At the end of the day, whilst its fun to imagine what it would have been like to live back then, it also makes you appreciate how much has changed in 500 years (and how glad we are for it)...
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