Being a history buff, Hampton court was my British highlight besides the tower of London. It was very accessible from the city, just a short train ride of about 30
minutes. On the way, we passed by Wimbledon. The stadium was right by the station. We were able to get to glimpse of it. As we disembarked the train, we saw the palace right away. Its famous red brick facades. It was great day to visit the place, the best weather in the UK was that day. We collected our audio guide headphones and started the tours. The audio guides offered many historic antedotes and backgrounds that made history more interesting. The girls definitely like it. I was really more interested in the Tudor section of the palace. We were in the great kitchen where they can cooked for up to 600 people at a time. It was staffed with customed historians who were demonstrating with real produce and meat as in tudor time. They were very informative and entertaining. Laurie was at this table for about 20 minutes. This guy was a baker, trying to make layered cake. And he was dishing out all the history about Henry VIII and his wives,. The whole operation was very efficient, from receiving end to presenting the finished meals upstaires for the courtiers. It really make the history in the real world. How people used to live.
We took the great stairs and headed up to the Great Hall, where Henry VIII would have been to meet dignitaries. The walls were covered by 6 huge tapestries that had cost him enormous amount of money. Henry wanted to play the political game with the big boys on the continents. So he had to presented himself in grandest style. These tapestries were indeed grand. They are a bit faded, now, but their gold and silver treads are still visible. The stained glasses on the upper third of the great hall all had emblems, names, coats of arms of his wives. Must have been added by later generations. We existed this room to the famed Haunted Gallery where a female ghost of Catherine Howard, Henry's 5th wife had been seen screaming across the hallway. It was broad day light, so no ghost sighting for me.
The tudor part of the palace was all dark and a bit damp with small windows and heavy brick walls. Our next tours took us to the apartments of king Williams and queen Mary and their successors. This was the 17th century, and renovation of the palace was under way to make it more livable. rooms were made bigger, window wider. Brick walls were converted and covered up the white washed stones and Greek columns. The lay out of the different apartments for these king and queens were similar to Versailles, but smaller and more intimate.
We then spent sometime in the private garden. It's got a nice pond with fountain, and well planned geometric designs. We then came upon the royal tennis court. Tennis was said to be invented in England. Henry VIII was a avid player and built this tennis court for himself. It was very narrow and short. There was a game in progress when we entered. The players were using small wooden, I supposed, historically correct rackets with modern yellow tennis balls. The viewers can watch the game in the tight narrow hall way, separated by wires and wooden wall on one side of the court.
We caught the 5pm train back to London. After living the the last few hours deep in history, I was really very content. We all left with very tired legs. Fortunately we got tickets to Wicked tonight, so we can rest. This show was virtually sold out every day. Basically the story line is the parallel universe for the wizard of oz. How and why the bad witch of the east becomes the way she is. Its music was all right. It was the story that keep this musical interesting. The set and special were fantastic. I am glad we got to see it.
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