Day 4 Hampton Court

Hampton Court is a little farther away from our place, so we took the bus, which our pass covered, the R68. It was about a 30 minute bus ride there, but totally worth it. The tour of Hampton Court will take a full day. Since it's Henry 8th's 500th anniversary of succession to the thrown, another display was being held here. Actually, it was a reenactment. They reenacted his 6th and final marriage to Catherine Parr. It lasted from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. with different segments in thirty minute increments. It starts with Catherine getting ready for the wedding and she goes through the traditional dress and explains the head dress that each of his six queens wore. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard's being the most risque by showing a little bit of their hair. Her dress was very elequent and had many parts to it. Basically each part could be taken off (like the sleeves, the apron, the top) and switched out with a different fabric, so if you had various parts to a dress it could look like you had a huge wardrobe just by changing out the sleeves, etc. They had an excellent actor playing the King and we were in his ale room while he played cards and got drunk right before his wedding. Then you go to the banquet hall and they reenact the wedding and afterwards. You can see Henry's apartments, and they had a display of his younger years with tons of information about his involvement with Cardinal Wolsey and his first marriage to his brother's wife, Catherine of Aragon. The gardens here are beautiful and very impressive. This palace was huge, I couldn't get over it. Of course, there are gift shops here like all the other attractions. The backyard was the most impressive. There is a walkway that leads to a pond with swans and then to a bigger pond just beyond it. The world's longest grape vine is here with a Guiness Book of World Records plaque. However, as much as I enjoyed this palace and looked forward to it because it was Henry's favorite palace, you can only see a few rooms. Cardinal Wolsey built this for himself and was bullied into giving it to King Henry. His daughter, Queen Mary, was going to knock it down and rebuild it when she asended to the throne, but a wall fell on her during the beginning of it, so I guess it was a sign that she shouldn't touch it. There is a little cafe here and you can also bring food in and eat near the gardens.