Hampton Court Palace

We took the bus to Kingston and then a boat up the River Thames

with my Dad and step-mom Margaret

and nephew (who is highly entertaining)

 

I could live here

to Hampton Court Palace. This was our first view of Palace from the Thames.

It was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey around 1514 but when Wolsey fell from favour,  King Henry VIII took it over and added to it considerably.

We were fortunate to have stumbled into a reenactment of a disagreement and subsequent reconciliation between Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII. It took us through various rooms of the palace and ended in the Base Court. They split the men and women up as well, which was funny because Kyle and his cousins went off to see King Henry for part of it while my step-sister and I (with the rest of the women and some confused Japanese male tourists) stayed with Anne Boleyn. We wondered how we were going to find the boys (Hampton Court covers over 60 acres) but it worked out fine in the end.

The Hampton Court grounds were used for the Road Cycling Time Trials for the Olympics and the boys were able to sit in the thrones the athletes sat in.