April 2011
Thinking about what we should do on a weekend we came across Hampton Court Palace. It’s in zone 6 of London and we could get there by oyster card. Why not take the day
out to have a look at the home of a very famous king of England. We took an overland train from Waterloo to Hampton Court it was then just a short walk to the Palace. There is a 2-4-1 offer to enter the palace if you buy rail tickets. We worked it out to be cheaper using our oyster cards and paying a discount price online.
Once we were inside we headed for the audio guides. Usually the headsets are an extra cost, they were included here. We read what was on that day and found they were doing a talk on “wetting the head”. I immediately thought wow maybe they give us beer or mead to experience the times. Nope it was actors talking about the women given birth and what they must do in the chambers. It was really interesting and the man who played King Henry really did look the part. They made us get on our knees when the king entered.
Listening to this talk was very interesting with facts and humour. We found out that we could have followed these people around all day as they go to different rooms in the palace and talk to each other about what happened in there. It is done in the time of King Henry and the birth of his child.
After our infotainment session we headed out to the palace gardens for lunch. The gardens were amazing and you could actually smell them. We had a lovely walk around the garden and could almost understand why old people love them. There were lots of old people checking these out.
With lunch finished we headed into the palace and spent the next 2 hrs going through the rooms. The best part was right at the beginning when we went into the cooks area. They had a demonstration of how to cook a meal in king Henry’s time which was
fascinating. This included a man roast chicken and beef in a giant fireplace. We ended our walk around the rooms exhausted and full of knowledge about king hennery VIII and his wives and the whole Tudor period for that matter.
After leaving the rooms we headed straight for the maze. The last maze we went to was at Blenheim palace. there must be a thing about palaces and mazes. I wonder if Buckingham palace has a maze. we made it to the centre of the maze with only 1 wrong way. We think we did very well and i didn’t have to cheat by peering over the hedges this time either.
To top of the days outing as we were heading out we saw they were serving up something from the fountain in the main court. We had
heard in the audio guide that this fountain once ran with wine on special occasions. Upon closer inspection there were people giving out wine which was indeed coming from the fountain. We had to get us some of that, problem being we had to get past the coin man. In order to get our drink we had to tell a joke. Passing the test and telling a very humorous Australian joke I got my wine. I found it pretty delicious wine…I didn’t feel like ask ing them what it was, I am sure the answer would have been “fountain wine, silly”.
Leaving via the gift shop I bought myself a beer mug made out of leather and have been told you can drink out of it. I am still yet to test this theory but have faith in it and I shall have a drink soon.
Thanks for the nice time looking around your house Henry.
Thinking about what we should do on a weekend we came across Hampton Court Palace. It’s in zone 6 of London and we could get there by oyster card. Why not take the day
out to have a look at the home of a very famous king of England. We took an overland train from Waterloo to Hampton Court it was then just a short walk to the Palace. There is a 2-4-1 offer to enter the palace if you buy rail tickets. We worked it out to be cheaper using our oyster cards and paying a discount price online. 
Once we were inside we headed for the audio guides. Usually the headsets are an extra cost, they were included here. We read what was on that day and found they were doing a talk on “wetting the head”. I immediately thought wow maybe they give us beer or mead to experience the times. Nope it was actors talking about the women given birth and what they must do in the chambers. It was really interesting and the man who played King Henry really did look the part. They made us get on our knees when the king entered. Listening to this talk was very interesting with facts and humour. We found out that we could have followed these people around all day as they go to different rooms in the palace and talk to each other about what happened in there. It is done in the time of King Henry and the birth of his child.
After our infotainment session we headed out to the palace gardens for lunch. The gardens were amazing and you could actually smell them. We had a lovely walk around the garden and could almost understand why old people love them. There were lots of old people checking these out.
With lunch finished we headed into the palace and spent the next 2 hrs going through the rooms. The best part was right at the beginning when we went into the cooks area. They had a demonstration of how to cook a meal in king Henry’s time which was
fascinating. This included a man roast chicken and beef in a giant fireplace. We ended our walk around the rooms exhausted and full of knowledge about king hennery VIII and his wives and the whole Tudor period for that matter. After leaving the rooms we headed straight for the maze. The last maze we went to was at Blenheim palace. there must be a thing about palaces and mazes. I wonder if Buckingham palace has a maze. we made it to the centre of the maze with only 1 wrong way. We think we did very well and i didn’t have to cheat by peering over the hedges this time either.
To top of the days outing as we were heading out we saw they were serving up something from the fountain in the main court. We had
heard in the audio guide that this fountain once ran with wine on special occasions. Upon closer inspection there were people giving out wine which was indeed coming from the fountain. We had to get us some of that, problem being we had to get past the coin man. In order to get our drink we had to tell a joke. Passing the test and telling a very humorous Australian joke I got my wine. I found it pretty delicious wine…I didn’t feel like ask ing them what it was, I am sure the answer would have been “fountain wine, silly”.Leaving via the gift shop I bought myself a beer mug made out of leather and have been told you can drink out of it. I am still yet to test this theory but have faith in it and I shall have a drink soon.
Thanks for the nice time looking around your house Henry.
1 comment:
Fountain wine! And I thought goon was bad.
Post a Comment