Hampton Court

One of my favorite things that my aunts and I did together was go to Hampton Court. As I think I have blogged about in the past, I am a huge sucker for old houses, palaces, and castles and I would say that if you are as well, Hampton Court should be a must see when in London. Much better than Kensington Palace. The only downfall is it is a bit of a hike to get there. You have to go to Waterloo and take a 45 minute train ride there, but it is a stone's throw from the Hampton Court Train Station so at least you do not have to rent a car.

Once we got of the train, we just had to walk over a lovey bridge to get to the palace. 

The palace began as a large barn in the 1200's and then was renovated to become a lavish castle in the 1500's by King Henry VIII. I read that he spent the equivalent of 18 million pounds to fancy it up to his likings! 



Inner Courtyard





Wall of weapons

The kitchens were massive and the size of a few Texas sized houses put together. We learned that their diet was 75% meat. King Henry VIII often served meat to show how rich he was. It was noted that he also had scurvy!  

 

King William III and  Mary II updated the palace in the 18th century. When looking at the palace, you see red bricks (from when King Henry) and then white stone (from William and Mary).

The gardens were, of course, stunning, as I am finding English gardens tend to be. Must have something to do with the amount of rain England receives. Anyways, William III was from the Netherlands and imported citrus fruits from there. They had several lemon trees. The built a huge, long, window-filled hallway to house the lemon trees in the winter.

 

We could have stayed all day at Hampton Court. We were there for probably 4 hours and maybe got to see 1/3 of it. There were also mazes, chapels, and more rooms that we never got to explore. They also gave us headsets for an audio tour at no extra cost, which taught us all about the interesting information I am sharing with y'all today.

 

 Another interesting tidbit: Although William and Mary had a very loving relationship, historians believe that he might have been gay. They never had any children, and William had an intimate relationship with his male confidant for most of his life, until the friend got jealous of another close male friend of Williams and the relationship became estranged. However, they made up on...either William's deathbed or the friend's (we were there 2 weeks ago so I have forgotten!)