February 6, 2008

• Too Many Pictures of Hampton Court
  
  Our Tuesday Field Trip this week was to Hampton Court Palace. (Of course, I keep singing Southampton Dock, but that’s another matter.)  HCP is the home of Henry VIII and also of William III. Those two kings are a study in contrasts, for sure. There was the larger-than-life, handsome Henry with his six wives and boisterous zest for adventure. William III was sickly, short, anti-social, rumored to be gay, and not much loved by his subjects.
  
  I think I’ll tell the story of the day in pictures with some comments.  First off, if you want to read a great book about Henry VIII, read Alan McDonald’s Henry VIII and His Chopping Block. It’s from the Dead Famous series, aimed for kids, but well worth reading by adults too. (And, the books in the series are amazingly funny.) 
  
  First things first–we had to get there. We hopped a bus in Cambridge, transferred to another bus, and made it to the train station by about 10:00. An hour on the train, and we were at King’s Cross Station. We had to check in at Platform 9 3/4, of course. (And all you Harry Potter fans say, “Coo!”)
  
  

  

  After a hop on the subway from King’s Cross to Vauxhall, we got on another train.  This last half hour trip gave us time to eat our sandwiches, crisps, and soda.  (Hooray for picnic lunches!)

  We finally got to HCP by noon.  A quick walk over the Thames River, and we were there. I had hoped to be there sooner as I suspected we’d run out of time.  
  

  The first bit to catch my attention were the mistletoe balls. Now that I know what they are, I’m so intrigued. I’m living where mistletoe grows in trees, just like in Druid times!
  

  TGD making good use of that mistletoe.
  

  The outside gates and fence of the palace had lots of these metal fellows on them. Some were dogs and dragons, and there were some unicorns.
  

  They were doing some refurbishing of the palace, including the giant clock in the courtyard.  They had a picture of it on the tarp covering the construction. Not so impressive as the original, I’m sure. But, one tarp decoration that did impress was this picture of Henry himself. I’m not sure how large this was, but you can get some idea of scale from the archway underneath which was about nine or ten feet high.

  
  

  If you put your back to Henry, this is what you’d see.
  

  We took a tour with a guide and were the only ones on the tour. It was an unusual experience. The costumed guide treated us as if we were part of the court and would have known details of life and who was who and when things were. About halfway through the tour, another costumed lady came in, and she and our guide got into a verbal insult fit. It really gave one a good feel for court life and the gossip and intrigues, but as TGD said, “I felt sort of uncomfortable.”  What does one do when two women are spatting over court issues and you really just want to know who is in the painting over the fireplace?

  After this tour, it was time to have a snack of Kit Kat bars and to go to the maze. The HCP maze is one of the most famous in England and is mentioned in many books, including Paddington Bear.  We spent some good time in it.

  Which way should we go? I don’t know!
  

  

  One interesting newer bit to the maze is the addition of sound effects. Chimes, a barking dog, and other noises go off when you walk by the sensors. I don’t know if these were to help you orient yourself (oh, I already went by the barking dog) or to provide atmosphere.

  In the center of the maze, there was a lighted map-like thing and a silver spinning thing. (Thing, thing, thing.)
  

  Wit and Gockle inspected it, but we just couldn’t figure out what it was or what it did.

  After that, we strapped our audio guides back around our necks and headed to the Tudor kitchens. They had a wonderful recreation and explanation of what it was like to feed 600 people or more a day. My chilly body loved the fact that they had a roaring fire in the fireplace.  I also learned that one either boiled, roasted, baked, or made into a pie.  The pie was to have the top cracked open, the contents eaten, and the crust thrown out. They made pies because they didn’t have baking pans to cook things in, so they made their own. But, the crusts weren’t tasty, so they just pitched them. (I wonder if the poor tossed their pie crusts out, too?)

  
  

  
  

  
  

             

  I know we learned lots of other cool things and saw amazing sights. I’d show you pictures of the gorgeous gold-covered ceilings painted with blue, the room filled with huge animal antlers, the ornate rooms, and the Abraham tapestries which are the second-most pricey thing in the English monarchy treasury, only second to the crown jewels. Except, we were only allowed to take pictures outside. It seems since the queen owns this stuff, she has the copyright on all photos. (So said the guide)

  Funny story about the Abraham tapestries.  Some of them were in a room where a second (ordinary) tour guide was talking to us.  There was a set of maroon, velvet ropes keeping the back hoary hoards from the faded bits fo glory, although we could have easily reached out and touched them. There was a metal heater between the ropes and the tapestry, one of those ones which look like a two-inch wide metal plate, about three feet high. I just imagined one of my kids accidentally knocking over the heater, its metal edge catching on the tapestry,  ripping it.  “Oops. Hope you guys have insurance on this priceless object.” Thankfully, it didn’t happen.

  
  

  It was a chilly, drizzly day, and we ran out of time (and the kids with interest), so we didn’t get to see the gardens, which are accounted to be gorgeous.  On the way to the toilets, we did see flowers. Woo!  But, we only saw a hint of the formal gardens out of the windows of the palace.

  
  Loo-vely flowers

  

  It would be worth a second trip to see all of it, but we have so many places to go and to see that we will have to content ourselves with one visit to Hampton Court Palace.

  Hope you enjoyed the entry, Pat!

  • 3:25 pm
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