Driving in London is not for the faint of heart- not even on a Sunday. We picked up the car from St. Pancras Station and make our way out of town. Mike does a great job of remembering to stay to the left but has a tendency to hug the left shoulder due to the narrow lanes which makes me very nervous to say the least, so we spend a number of tense minutes navigating out of the city to Hampton Court Palace.
We both give a huge sigh of relief once we've parked the car and are ready to do a little walking instead. Hampton Court Palace was one of Henry VIII's palaces and is set in a huge park, originally over 700 acres. Inside the palace there are royal apartments and kitchens to see, the Chapel Royal and the gardens. We view the Henry VIII apartments and kitchens, the kitchens were pretty cool and huge with massive fireplaces and spits for roasting the meat. The Chapel Royal was closed due to a service that was in progress, so we went out into the gardens. According to the visitor guide, there had originally been many fountains in the gardens but in later times Queen Anne had most of the fountains removed. Shame on her! I love fountains in a garden. The gardens were nice but not super extensive, there was a lot of lawn area. I always compare palace gardens to the ones at Schonnbrunn in Vienna, which I love.
With a little trepidation, we head back to the car to continue on our way to Portsmouth. Our main objective there is the Historic Dockyards. Once out of the Hampton Court area, we have nice easy freeway all the way to Portsmouth. Woo-hoo!
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