There really is no South Circle Road in London. There is simply a patching together of a number of different streets into a vaguely circular pattern. We drove through miles of London streets until we finally reached the A3 highway. Although Hampton Court is not very far out of London, it took us from 9:30 to 11 a.m. to get there. We were pleased to find that there is a large grass area used for a free parking lot close to the Palace so we parked and walked to the Palace grounds.
Hampton Court is a Tudor Palace that was used by the monarchy for many years after. It has over 1000 rooms – not all of which are on display. It had belonged to Cardinal Wolsey and there is a small suite of rooms in the palace which were his. Then Henry VIII decided it should belong to the crown, and he brought his new Queen, Anne Boleyn, to live there.
We toured the Tudor kitchens, which were extensive since they fed 200-300 people twice a day. Then we just wandered around, looking lost. A group of VIP’s being given a tour passed us. One of the gentlemen connected to the museum stopped, and asked us if we were having a problem. We talked for a few minutes, and he directed us the King Henry’s State Apartments as a starting place, saying that we should ask his "guys" questions about anything that puzzled us.
The first things we were curious about were the beautiful tapestries hung in Henry VIII’s enormous state room. So we asked the young man on duty in that room about them. He knew all about them, and he was delighted to explain them at some length. This knowledge about the palace and eagerness to explain it was a pattern that we found all through the Palace. Later we saw a painting of a woman that Ron thought must be Queen Elizabeth I. When we asked, we got a lot of information from the young man on duty. No one really does know about the exact nature of the painting, but it is of a pregnant lady (as is indicated by her dress), standing next to a stag, and holding a string of pearls. While it cannot be a portrait of the Virgin Queen, the face certainly looks like hers. Ron’s theory is that it was a political statement. The artist was hoping she’d marry and produce an heir!
We toured the Christopher Wren additions to the palace, as well as other rooms used by later royals. Wren’s rooms were similar to Versailles, but they were considerably less ornate. We stopped at the Privy Kitchen, which had been set up to make the food for Queen Elizabeth I and her immediate entourage, who didn’t eat with the great majority of the court. There is a coffee shop there now. Ron had coffee, but Adelle insisted on tea and a scone with clotted cream and jam. It seemed only right.
We looked at the formal gardens from the Palace, but didn’t really walk all around. The idea of 60 acres of gardens was just a bit daunting. We were tired and still needed to drive to Winchester.
