A day out at Hampton Court Palace

I spent the afternoon at Hampton Court Palace, which is about 30 minutes outside of London. It was basically a summer palace first for Henry VIII and his wives (!) and then later for William and Mary and King George. I was thinking it was a bit expensive to get in at £14, but in the end, I think it was worth it. It was a wonderful day out and I really wish I'd had more time! And I was there 4 hours! Highly, highly recommend to anyone visiting the area!

Ticket :)

Coming up the main entry. It was pretty empty which was a really good thing.

Front gate

Astronomical clock in the aptly named Clock Court

Beautiful chandelier in the Georgian Apartments

Guilded ceiling detail. Notice the entwined red and white roses signifying
the end of the War of the Roses.

Fountain Court (creative name, eh?)

Queen Parr's bedroom

Henry, me and his main advisor (whose name I forget). Henry told me to
put my hand on top of his like that!

Bride-to-be and future Queen, Kateryn Parr (ok, so it's just
an actress really!) in her wedding dress

The happy couple after the wedding. Henry is making a speech
about how happy she's made him!

Detail of her dress

Detail of his outfit. Notice the codpiece, uh, sticking out!

Window inside the Henry VIII apartments. Much of the original
Henry VIII part of the palace was destroyed when Christopher Wren
came in and redesigned portions of the palace.

They had educational table cloths on the banquet hall tables with all
sorts of facts about eating in the palace.

The Thames River outside the palace. There were tons of runners
and bikers on the path there. I would have liked to join them! Stuart
informed me there's a 16 or 8.2 mile "breakfast race" here twice a year.

View of the bridge and river. There are tons of boats on the other
side that you can just see in the background.