Hampton Court Palace - Tudor to Baroque

Where to even begin. This place is huge. We started out by walking through Bushey Park to get to the palace and gardens. It's quite a walk, about 2.2 miles total from the front door of our flat. Bushey Park is expansive, lots of bikers, runners, dogs, a large fountain in the middle of a round-about:

These guys were hanging out by the fountain and kept following me. I kept telling them I had no food but they wouldn't believe me.

It was a looong walk through Bushey Park. Here I am, just inside the gates, relaxing on a bench and looking at the beautiful flowers.

 The grounds surrounding Hampton Court are open to the public. Here is a statue, in the rose garden, of a mother trying to get her child to breast-feed.

 He's not giving up without a fight.

Only ticket holders past that arch.

 Guarding the entrance.

 Beautiful stained glass in The Great Hall with Henry the VIII in the middle.

 Beautiful, over 500 years old, and expensive to maintain tapestries in the banquet hall. King Henry the VIII's Great Hall.

 A lot of the ceilings had just crazy painting on them, so pretty, so much work.

 Love the bed warming pan.

 Man with large club.

 Man with large spear.

 The closest we could get to this tranquil and immaculate garden.

 The greenhouse that holds The Great Vine. Planted in 1768 by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, it is the oldest known vine in the world and still produces 500-700 lbs of grapes each year. They are not wine grapes, instead they are sold for consumption in the Hampton Court store each August.

 Wow, this staircase. It is the entrance to King William the III's apartments.

 The King's staircase was painted by Antonio Verrio who died at Hampton Court in 1707.

 The King's Guard Chamber with a display of more than 3,000 arms, mostly muskets, pistols, bayonets and swords.

 One of many painted ceilings, this one is in the King's small bed chamber.

King William the III's stool.

Some of "the beauties of Hampton Court".

 That staircase again but this time with bride and groom. Who would you have to know, or how much would you have to spend, to be able to get married at Hampton Court?

 Hampton Court is celebrating "500 Years in a Day" and there were little timeplays all over the place. Here we see dancing in the Clock Tower Courtyard. Don and I were lucky enough to catch a 15 minute timeplay csalled "Honeymoon Troubles - Catherine of Braganza and Barbara Villiers are locked in a battle of wills." in the Queen's presense chamber.

And now the Tudor Kitchens.

 Stove.

Actual produce from the gardens.

 Real fire in massive fireplace with multiple iron prongs for holding skewers (spits?) of meat. Fake, plastic meat on skewers.

 Young boy trying to wake up wooden man (drunk?) next to a wooden woman asking for alms. His mother thought it was cute and so did we.

How tired I felt after many hours and staircases at Hampton Court. In fact, we were so tired that I had Don look up public transport on his phone and we took a bus back to Teddington rather than walk the 2 miles back through Bushey Park.

London! Trains, planes and automobiles. Actually a train and the tube.

We easily managed the drive to the flat in Teddington using our host's wonderful directions and the TomTom. We've learned to ignore the darned thing when it wants us to deviate from the written directions and it soon corrects itself. I'm much more confident in my driving and where I am in my lane in this humongous car also.

We also easily found our way into Northern London to catch some jazz at a club called Pizza Express. I have to say that the internet and smartphones make finding your way around so much easier now.  Take the train to London/Waterloo station (the last stop) and then follow the signs for our tube, the Northern Line. We even knew which way to turn once we left the tube station, modern technology is wonderful. I still remember when I went to Ireland in 2000 with my friend, Mary, and how hard it was to try to read the local bus maps in Dublin. We finally just bought a 2-day "hop on/hop off" tour bus pass and used that as our public transportation.

The Pizza Express was a pleasant surprise. Good food and great sight-lines in the basement club (a bigger restaurant is upstairs). With a name like Pizza Express we expected something a little more informal. We heard a English quartet with an American singer, Selena Jones, who now lives in London. 

 Back in Teddington after a late night.

I'm tired but luckily it's a short walk back to the flat.

In Search of Tyntesfield - England

We woke up today to rain. The alpacas seem to like it, they're out in the back again and they've been absent for 2 days. We decided that it would be a good day to do the laundry and to visit Tyntesfield, a well preserved 19th century estate. I love looking at huge, old, mansions and estates, one of the best tours I ever took was at Glensheen in Duluth, MN.

We entered the postal code into the GPS and took off around 2 p.m., a little late as the estate closes at 5, but we only wanted to tour the mansion itself and not the whole grounds because of the rain.

The drive was okay, mostly on a main road with wide lanes, There was some construction at a round-about which was a little harrowing. The trouble started after we got on Barrow road. We're driving along, sometimes on narrow roads, and then the GPS wants us to turn right, with almost no warning. Overshooting the turn we then had to drive about 2 miles before being able to turn around. Coming back we make the turn only to be stopped by a gate and a sign saying private property and warnings about trespassers being shot. The GPS had steered us wrong! Since we couldn't turn around in the drive and there were stone walls to either side of it, I had to have Don get out of the car and look for oncoming traffic so I could back out into my lane.

Since it was now getting a little late to visit Tyntesfield we decided to just drive back, it was still raining and there wasn't anywhere we could think of to go.

We're back in Badgworth, in this very beautiful and relaxing home, finishing up the laundry and having drinks. I'm having the anniversary champers left for us by Jacqui and Ian. I'm going to knit and pick out a movie from their extensive library and enjoy a quiet evening here.

No pictures today.

Hiking and driving in Somerset, England

We woke up to a glorious morning, warm and not a cloud in the sky. We decided that today needed to be spent outdoors. The Wavering Down & Crook Peak hike looked like a good one, close to get to by car, 6 miles round trip, and a difficulty rating of 2 (1 being easiest and 3 being more strenuous).

Nice day!

The walking path is not so easy to find. We easily found our road and where to park but could not find the path. After asking we were pointed in the right direction and headed out (the path is between two houses). Let me tell you, this is nothing like hiking in Minnesota where the trails are clearly marked and it is almost always exclusively on state or national park land. Here, you walk across farmer's fields and past their homes and past their cows, looking out for cowpats all the while. You climb over stiles, you walk past barbed wire fences, you climb over more stiles.

You pass this topiary on the way to the path.

Just walking across some farmer's field.

Crossing a stile.

We ended up taking a slight detour because a woman had warned us about the cows up ahead, that they might be "frisky" and could be dangerous, especially when their young were around. I think she was having us on, all because we looked nervously at her very large growling dogs when they ran up to us! However that may be, when we came to the cows they were rather menacing, if you can believe it. The closer we got to them, the more of them stood up and stared at us. Not wanting to try and get around the cows we turned around and headed back and took a different path. They were very large cows.

Belligerent cows or just curious?

We never made it up to Crook Peak but we did go to Compton Bishop village and found a nice, and very old, church, and met a couple from Kent who had the same hiking book we did and who had come from the opposite direction. We agreed to meet up at the White Hart Inn and have a pint together. Unfortunately, the inn isn't open until 4pm so we went our separate ways.

St. Andrews in Compton Bishop. Another very old building, dedicated in 1306.

After going back home for a quick lunch and a change of clothing we set out for the town of Cheddar and Cheddar Gorge. Our hosts had warned us that it is very touristy there and they were right! It's very pretty and it would be even prettier if not for the shops and chain cafes everywhere. It's also 5 pounds to park anywhere. After asking a very helpful ticket clerk at a bus tour counter we learned that we could just drive through Cheddar Gorge ourselves, stopping briefly to take pictures at paid parking spots without having to pay (briefly being the operative word) and that the road was quite good with only one narrow spot. He also said that we could either find a place to turn around at the top and come back the way we came or just keep on towards Wells.

It's a short but breathtaking drive through the gorge. There is the one narrow spot for about 10 yards and I had to come to a quick stop so as not to run into a bus, but you just take turns driving through (like many narrow spots in the roads here).

Not readily finding a spot to turn around we decided to continue on to Wells, so we had a bit of a drive through the country. The scenery was nice, especially the part with the trees shading the road, like driving through a tunnel of trees. Unfortunately, you can't get a picture, there are cars ahead and behind and no place to stop. I think they must close the road to get all those great pictures you see in travel magazines of just such a stretch of tree-lined bucolic beauty.

We stopped in Axbridge on the way back to look at the medieval buildings and to walk around Cheddar reservoir. It's an easy, 2 1/2 mile walk on a mostly gravel path with some pavement. It's the first reservoir to permit sailing and it has been designated an area of Specific Scientific Interest as a great many different waterfowl come there, even many of the rarer birds. We saw a swan and many different types of ducks (I'm not a birder but since we travel so much maybe I should take up the hobby). We also saw lots of sheep. They are allowed to graze on the sides of the reservoir and you really have to watch your step as there is sheep dung all over the path. We even saw them drinking from the reservoir and walking along the short wall.

 You can see the cleft of Cheddar Gorge in this picture.

Axbridge has a lovely little square and there is a nice tea house there and I would have liked to have tea and scones with clotted cream but I wasn't hungry then and I just couldn't justify all the calories. However, I will have to remember that I want to have tea and scones before we leave England.

 John the Baptist church in Axbridge.

 Notice how the upper stories are actually larger than the ground floor ones.

I had Don take this picture because it's "The Lamb". Knitters will understand.

Cathedral in Wells - England

It was raining when we got up this morning, and then cloudy and cool, so we decided to do indoor things. The Wells (St. Andrews) Cathedral is close and sounded very interesting so we programmed the GPS with an intersection in town for a car park and set off.

It isn't that hard to find the cathedral and the Bishop's Palace, Wells isn't that large of a town. Actually, Wells can be called a city because it has the cathedral and it is England's smallest cathedral city with a population of around 9,400. Here is a picture of the square in front of both the cathedral and the Bishop's Palace.

Fun fact - the movie "Hot Fuzz" was filmed in Wells and we watched it when we got back to our home away from home here in Badgworth. We had fun identifying all the landmarks we had seen that day, including the square pictured above.

The cathedral and surrounding buildings are amazing and OLD (especially by American standards), it dates from about 1200. It is the first instance of gothic architecture in England.

One of the most amazing things inside is the double arch ("scissors" or hourglass arch) that transfers the weight from the south, where the foundations were sinking under the tower's weight, to the east where they are firm. Added in 1338 they are still doing a marvelous job. The design is quite striking.

Look how beautiful! One of the most magnificent cathedrals I've seen.

Here is a close up view of that double arch, what amazing construction.

There is a lot to see in the cathedral, take a free tour, but you should also have a guide book that tells you about a lot of interesting things that the tour doesn't cover. There is the "cope chest" which is still used to store the clergy's garments. It is so large it can't be moved out through any of the cathedral doors. Historians believe it is older than the existing building and was originally installed around A.D. 800 in the Saxon church that predated the cathedral.

The fan vaulted ceiling in the Chapter House.

I could go on and on about the cathedral but it takes a lot of time to load these pictures. Here is one of the Vicars Close (all part of the cathedral buildings), these are 14th century houses, and is the oldest continuously occupied complete street in Europe (since 1348).  We could hear lots of music practice going on behind those doors and windows, a flute duo sounded really nice.

On to the Bishop's Palace and moat which is just next door. Built in the 13th century it is still in use today as the residence of the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

We first went for a stroll around the outside of moat and rampart walls.

There are swans in the moat. 

I wish we had known to bring some food for them, the swans swam right up to us, it is obvious that they are used to being fed by the tourists. 

The grounds inside the Bishop's Palace are really lovely, there is a lot of sculpture, flowering trees and plants, the wells themselves that give the name to the city, a reflecting pool, etc. 

According to our guide book the interior of the palace itself is dull but the grounds are the most tranquil and scenic spot in Wells. We will have to take that on faith, we didn't have time to see the inside of the palace, just the beautiful grounds. I thought we would have enough time to see the everything in 6 hours (that's how much parking time we paid for) plus eat lunch at the Fountain Inn , however, the next time we have to pay for parking when we're sightseeing we'll just pay the extra pound and park for all day (which was Don's suggestion and I vetoed him).

England!

We're heeere! It was a little nerve wracking flying standby from Minneapolis to London this time, the flight was nearly full. There were 6 of us wait-listed when we got to the gate and 5 seats. We were numbers 2 and 3 so it was almost definite that we would get on the plane. We did and, ta-da! We got Business Class too. Whew! I thought it would be really ironic if we weren't able to get on a plane to London flying standby when we've ended up going there twice before when we were trying to get somewhere else (Brussels the first time and South Africa last year).

Things went very smoothly for the rest of the day. We found the car that Jacqui and Ian had left for us with no problem and were able to navigate to their beautiful home in Badgworth, Somerset, using only their written directions instead of digging out the TomTom GPS. We did have a little problem getting the front door open, it took about 5 minutes of fiddling with the key and door handle (and I had an urgent need to use the bathroom so I was getting quite cranky) but now here we are and we've had a light meal, unpacked, and explored this beautiful home and garden, We went for a short walk around the village and that was it for our first day.

There are alpacas in the yard behind us! Alpacas!

Yet more odds and ends - Cape Town, South Africa

Stinkwood trees - we first heard of these when we were in Kaui, Hawaii. We thought we were smelling skunks everywhere until someone told us about the trees. They have them here too.

Light switches - a lot of the light switches for smaller rooms are not in the room, especially bathroom light switches, they are on the wall just outside the door. I wonder if children turn off the light to the bathroom when a sibling or a parent is in there and thinks it's funny?

Apartments are not for rent, they are "to let".

Dessert pudding is not the thick creamy stuff that we have at home, it's more like a cake and is super good and usually comes with cream or ice cream.

Dining out - The server won't take your food order until they see you put down your menu, unless it looks like you need help with it. They will wait until you are done with your salad, soup, etc., before bringing out your entree, unlike many restaurants in the U.S. where they slap down your hot entree only 10 minutes after delivering your salad or appetizer and you have a choice of watching your entree grow cold or not finishing your starter. They won't bring your bill until you ask for it. They never ask if you want change back when you pay in cash, they just assume that you do.

Menus - rarely list the sides that come with a meal, you could end up with two salads that way.

Your food is not "to go" it's "take away".

Real estate here seems to be super cheap and a lot of homes come with a scullery behind the kitchen. This home has one and I wish I had one, all the baking implements are in there plus an extra sink. In Plettenberg Bay we saw a real estate listing for a beautiful home with an ocean view and balconies, that had 4 bedrooms, two of them with private bathrooms, 2 other bathrooms, a scullery, a pool, and a separate "self-catering" (comes with a kitchen) one bedroom apartment that you could rent out, all of this for about $350,000!