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.
   

Canterbury and Dover England

                                           

I've been wanting to go to the southern part of England and see Canterbury and Dover for awhile now. In all the trips I've made to England, I've never quite been able to make it to this part of the country. This time I was determined to make it happen. We also happened to be in this part of the world over Easter weekend, so timing of things was a bit tricky.

 

 Fortunately I had found a nice looking B&B in Canterbury, lost in the English countryside. After getting stuck in horrendous English traffic, finding this hidden place in the dark was a bit tricky, and somewhat frustrating. But we found it, and our host was kind, accommodating, and wonderful. We were the only guests the two nights we were there, so that also made things nice. Breakfast was a beautiful array of fruit, yogurt, and a full English breakfast. I even had some wonderful English tea as well.

I also didn't quite realize how many lovely walks there would be in this part of the countryside as well. Next time I will definitely plan some time for hiking. It was so beautiful, and a bit muddy.

But our first stop was the famous Canterbury Cathedral. We wanted to try to get there early so we could beat the crowd and get in a lot of sightseeing that day. Because this was Easter weekend, much of the main portion was closed for the Easter program practice.

I was disappointed we couldn't see the main area, but then I didn't even think of Easter when I was planning my trip.


I'll pay better attention to that next time. However, the parts of the cathedral we did get to see were still lovely and beautiful. It's amazing how many beautiful buildings can last for so long in the history of the world. 
 After stopping at the cathedral, we then took a drive down to Dover Castle. It was a beautiful drive, and we lucked out with not too many tourists. However, it was incredibly windy. Makes sense since it's on a cliff overlooking the English channel. It was a clear enough day that we could even see France. Amazing. I didn't realize that Dover castle is spread throughout the cliff, with many buildings to see on different levels.







We first went to see the tunnels used during the war. Of course they don't allow pictures in this part of the castle, but it was fascinating to see and hear the stories of how they were used, and what happened during WWII. From there we wandered up the steep cliff face to see the other parts of the castle, complete with an ancient Roman lighthouse. It was definitely worth seeing, and we spent most of the day there exploring. So easy to do. And the views were pretty amazing too.










 After seeing the castle, I had to make one last stop to see the famous Cliffs of Dover.
The walk along the cliffs is long, and steep in some areas.
 My dad doesn't like heights, so we didn't walk too far before deciding to turn back. Plus the wind had picked up even more, and the rain was starting to come down hard. Cold, wind and rain on a cliff didn't seem like the best of combinations, so we didn't stay long. We ended our day in a cozy, warm pub before heading back to our B&B for the night. Definitely a fun day, with surprising sunny clear weather. We timed our visit well.