Tuesday, March 25th

So sorry, I didn't get to blogging yesterday. But really, if you know me at all, then you know that I am not likely to achieve much on a Friday evening, much less on a Friday evening when I am still feeling jetlagged. I did manage to run a few errands after supper which I thought was quite an accomplishment, but I suppose we should get back to pretending that it is really last Tuesday.

We all decided to go to Hampton Court Tuesday morning (actually, 3 out of 4 of us decided and the 4th went along with it). First, we had to go to Waterloo Station as they offered a 4 go for the price of 2 deal on train tickets to Hampton Court. We dealt with a delightful ticket agent (I'm not even being facetious here, he made us chuckle for awhile), got a booklet full of 2 for 1s for other attractions which came in very handy, and had just enough time for Becky to buy pastries for our train journey southwest of The City (central London). It was about a 30 minute train trip and then a less than 5 minute walk to the former palace of Henry VIII as well as other British monarchs.

You may notice that all these pictures at Hampton Court are taken outside. We did go into the castle (not that it was any warmer, in fact it may have been colder in than out, but I'll discuss that in a bit) but picture taking was not permitted. Interestingly enough, this had nothing to do with keeping artwork and tapestries preserved against flashes, etc, but everything to do with copyright. Every piece of art and furniture belongs to the royal family and apparently it becomes a copyright issue when just anyone is allowed to take a picture of it. I may have taken a picture or two inside before I honestly knew we weren't allowed, but I won't post any here lest the House of Windsor decides to come after me.

The gardens were beautiful, and quite expansive. Don't let these flowers fool you though, it may have looked like spring, but it sure didn't feel like it. There was a definite chill in the air, and it only got colder inside as the blinds were drawn against sunlight damage to the rooms and castles aren't exactly set up for central heating. At one point I actually asked one of the people working there if it was always this cold in the castle and, if so, how they could stand it. "We all wear thermals," she replied without any trace of humour. She was happy that she was at least inside, out of the wind which always came off the river, unlike the poor blokes in period costumes out front. The only time any of us was warm at Hampton court was in the Tudor kitchens where they had a big fire going in a fireplace and after we ran through the maze in the garden.
"The Great Vine" of Hampton Court has it's own room and outside there is a patch of earth which remains unplanted because the vines extend underneath it. They still get quite a load of grapes off this thing every year and it's in the Guinness Book of Records.
See- proof!
One of the inner courtyards of the palace. It's a mishmash of architectural styles as new parts were added on by one monarch after another and they all had different tastes.

The back side of the palace. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the front.
Self taken photo from the back of the catle in the gardens. Yes, we were travelling with other people who would have gladly taken our photo. No, I don't know why we still took our own.
Another courtyard. The sun is starting to peek out, but it won't last long.
Grant, Keith and Hercules. You figure out who's who.

Coming to the end of our time at Hampton court the boys start to get a little goofy. I'm not posting the next two poses they tried. Use your imagination. Or don't. :) The train ride back allowed us to thaw out a little and be entertained by Grant and Keith being silly. This is a rare moment when both their mouths were closed.

Arriving back at Waterloo Station, we stayed in the South Bank area to go to the Brahma Tea Museum. It was small and clearly a labour of love for Mr. Brahma, but the best part was that we could drink hot tea and eat warm scones and/or crumpets. Delicious. From there we walked towards the Thames and then along the bank to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
There were no performances happening at the Globe while we were in London (sigh), but we did at least get a chance to go in and look around a bit, and buy nerdy teacher-type things like pencils, posters and "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (Macbeth, Act 5, scene 2) erasers. We walked from there past the Tate Modern (which was about as close as any of us wanted to get to it), and then across the Millenium Bridge and up to St. Paul's to catch the tube.
Looking off the Millenium Bridge towards Tower Bridge (I think). There will be a picture of Millenium Bridge later that we took from the top of St. Paul's.

We still had a bit of energy left to go over to Harrod's (not pictured) before it closed to take a look around and then to Piccadilly Square (pictured above) to find a place that was still open to serve us supper (it was about 8:30pm and the pregnant ladies were getting close to violence). We found a tasty meal at an Italian restaurant and Keith had time to run back to a store he'd seen on our way to buy a couple warmer shirts as he was quite done with shivering. It was a full day, and I hope I've made up for not posting yesterday with all of these photos!