Hampstead Court Palace

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The next stop on the adventure was Hampstead Court, most notably known as one of Henry VIII palaces. There's also currently a really interesting documentary of this palace on Netflix. I recommend watching it. This was also our last site to see before we left England.

It's always a sad day when you have to leave England.
This day was slightly dampened by the weather. Ha, yes, that pun was completely intended. It was freezing rain, wind, and bitter cold. This time the clouds didn't part and sun shine through when we stepped out of the car. So it remained cold and miserable the whole time. Guess my strategic timing was off this day.

Anyway, the palace is quite spectacular. When telling my dad I wanted to make a stop here, he didn't seem too excited about it. Just one more palace, and considering we drove by it twice without realizing it, he was quite underwhelmed at braving the rain for this.

But once we made it through the gates to the opening view, his lack of excitement quickly changed. He was quite impressed and excited to see what this place was like.

And it is very grand and opulent. Unfortunately it was also Easter weekend, so it was really packed with tourists and tons of kids doing some kind of Easter egg hunt. Up until this point we had not run into any tourist crowds. The huge plus of traveling during the off season. I guess it was only fair that we hit a crowd and some point.





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But I digress.

They had actors dressed in the time period, as well as acting out the part of a maid, or the queen, or even King Henry the VIII himself. You could ask them questions about the time period, their life, anything and they would tell you what you wanted to know. Some of it was really interesting.

This particular table display is all made from folded napkins. Apparently folded napkin displays were a big deal back then. And some of these creatures are fairly amazing.

Who knew napkin folding could be such an art form?

After wandering the palace for a few hours, I wanted to go out onto the grounds for a few minutes. Sadly we really couldn't explore. It was all a giant muddy mess. Neither of us wanted to wade through all that, plus the freezing rain was coming down even harder. Quite disappointing because the grounds are spectacular and go on for ever. There's even a giant maze garden.



I love a maze garden. But I didn't get to see this one. It's been a long time since I've been that cold and miserable. I couldn't feel my toes. Living in Texas has really made my a wimp to cold.

So instead I just took a few pictures of these amazing trees, and we went on our way back to London. I'll have to stop back here again someday just so I can get a chance to explore the amazing grounds.