Today we ventured outside of London to King Henry VIII’s former home. (You may recognize it from the popular TV series Bridgerton!) To get there we took the London Underground from Gloucester Rd. to Wimbledon and then transferred to a South West Railway train that took us the rest of the way. For most journeys you use your Oyster card for the London Underground and than buy a train ticket for the railway. This is what we did, but we found out that your Oyster card can take you all the way out here even on the railway.
We arrived to Hampton Court Palace promptly at opening and purchased our tickets on-site. My parents had been here before, but didn’t get a lot of time exploring the historic inside of the palace. We started our tour walking through the many rooms of this massive palace while listening to the included audio guide. We were allowed to bring the stroller throughout the house, but there were several instances where I had to carry it up and down the stairs. It was interesting to walk through the corridors. My son mostly played his Nintendo Switch while I pushed him along. It was cold so his favorite part of the tour was the area next to the giant fire!
My son was hungry so we stopped for a snack at the cafe. He wanted some sort of onion puff that resembled a bear. I opted for a hot chocolate and we all split a millionaire shortbread. The drinks and food were much better than you’d expect from a tourist destination.
Today is one of the few days of our trip that there isn’t rain in the forecast and we took advantage of that by exploring the gardens. We started with the garden at the back of the palace that led to a fountain and then to a larger lake. The area reminds me a lot of Versailles in France, but on a smaller scale. Next, we moved to the Magical Gardens which is the garden for children. We spent the next couple of hours here as my son made friends with English children. There are tall slides, bridges, and places to climb. The area that my son loved was the water and sand area. It was at best in the 50’s today and not ideal water play weather. That didn’t stop my son! He wore his winter coat and played and played. His pants, underwear, and socks were soaked. His jacket was also wet, but luckily not too bad. I had a dry pair of pants and underwear for him, but not the socks. The poor child had to deal with cold feet the rest of the day.
We then moved to the hedge maze. I thought it was going to be similar to a corn maze, but it was much more narrow and no room for cheating! The maze is fenced with iron and the hedge blocks most views. It was a tricky labyrinth, but we made it out! My dad said that in the summer there are attendants from above that guide you if you get stuck. It’s the off-season now so we were on our own.
We continued to the Royal Tennis Hall where we saw Real Tennis. This type of tennis pre-dates our version of tennis and is sort of a cross between squash and tennis. The court is inside and there are parts of the game where you must hit the wall. The tennis court here at Hampton is one of less than 50 courts that exist worldwide.
We finished our day walking around the little town outside of the palace and then began our journey back “home” to Gloucester Rd. We ordered take-out from Baba Ghanouj across the street which was very delicious!
Comentarios