Hampton Court Palace

The weekend weather co-operated so we headed out to Hampton Court Palace. Hampton Court was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey - but he gifted the palace to Henry VIII. It then served as the Summer Palace for the Royal Family until around the mid 1700s. Now the palace is a tourist attraction open to the public.

We arrived as it opened. We checked out the front of the palace with the various statues. We then walked into the kitchen. That is one big fireplace. This was on of King Henry VIII first addition as he had to feed his court of over 1000 people.





Next we went by the Fountain Court which was designed by Christopher Wren.




After looking at the fountain for a bit, the tribe headed out to the gardens in the back of the palace.





The highlight of the day (other than Owen in the Jester hat) was the joust. King Henry VIII was challenged to a joust by the Black Knight. Now, the British version of jousting was not vicious or to the death. It was a civilized sport that was more skill than savagery. Well - that is what the dude on the horse said anyway.







The Black Knight ended up beating the King in the Joust but all was well as it turned out that the Black Knight was really Queen Anne's brother. So all was fine. The kids had a good day seeing the "King" and "Queen" and wandering through the hedge maze. Colleen and I had a ball walking around where King Henry VIII and Queen Anne lived as we are big fans of the TV show The Tudors. There is a lot more to tell regarding the actual Palace - but most of that can already be found on the official palace website or wikipedia.

All in all - a great outing to the palace.

John