Hampton Court Gardens

Day 12
May 22, 2010

This morning Nicole and I drug ourselves out of bed around 9 to get ready to go to Hampton Court Palace. I woke up first and quickly though, a nice start to the day. Because Erin remembered several tube stations were down, we took a bus to Waterloo Station (apparently where something in the Bourne movies was filmed). We bought our tickets at the kiosk and hopped on the train just in time. We sat backwards at first but then moved to seats facing themselves. :)

When we got there, we just followed the big group of people across the bridge and through the gates. Got our tickets, took a few pictures and made our way inside. In "Base Court" as they called it, we wanted to take a picture with one of the characters dressed up there. Really he was a tour guide but don't mention that to him. He was dead set on being Sir Seymour (Jane Seymour's brother and Katherine Parr's real lover). Nicole asked him about his "costume" and he got defensive and insinuated that she was naked in the clothes she was wearing when she asked if he was hot. It was interesting, though, to see the slashings and puffings in his sleeves that I learned about in drama class. After that we got headsets for the free audio tour. It was really boring so we turned them in after we did the kitchens. Then we saw the story exhibit for young Henry VIII about Cardinal Wosley and such. We then went into the apartments and out into the garden.

The gardens there are where it's at. The trees were beautifully manicured into triangular shapes in the main garden. We went to have lunch in the Tiftyard cafe then walked around the flower gardens. We went through the maze there. It was a hedge maze (like the one in HP but smaller) and apparently the first of its kind. We "frolicked" through there section called "The Wilderness" and went off the path with no shoes.
We spied on the military and Indian wedding. Their accent color was red.. because she was Indian.. and her white gown had a red inlay in the back and trim. Nicole told her she was pretty when we stumbled upon them taking pictures. We also found a snail in the gardens near the cafe. Of course, we took pictures. We lay about in the gardens for a while, then went back to the main garden where we took pictures of humongous cod fish and a heron. I think the fish were bigger than the bird. Then we lay on the grass some more, took a nap. We hit the Privy garden last. It was so intricately landscaped. Amazing.

After that we left the palace, got an ice cream from a truck, walked around and looked in some antique shops, then headed back where we waited at the train station. Noticed that Erin was sunburnt. Took the train back and we all mostly dozed. Once back at the apartment, Nicole and I surfed the net for a while. I heated up my leftover chinese food while she made spaghetti. Then she took a nap which made me sleepy all of a sudden. I ended up sleeping longer than she did and got ready to go out quickly when she came back in the room telling me where the pregame was and when we were leaving.

I got dressed, drank my remaining can of cider, and left with the group. I got a double jack and coke... trying to stay on budget you know. It wasn't really worth it. The proportion to skeezy guys to fun was undesirable. However, I did have a nice time dancing. Near the end of the night, I called Adam as I was standing outside the club. Since it was already 1:30, I decided to stay there instead of walk back by myself. I talked to him for about 20 minutes.. which I didn't realize and felt bad for afterward since he was at a family gathering. But as usual he didn't seem bothered. We came back, and Nicole made me a little turkey and cheese sandwich while we talked. Went to bed around 3 I think.