Last Thursday, we took a delectable day trip to Hampton Court Palace. The train ride was quite a bit shorter than the one that we took to Bath, which had its positive in that we got to spend more time being active, but the downside is that there are very few things as pleasurable as staring out the window while riding on a train. After arriving at a very small and heavily under construction station, we took the shot walk to the palace. The walk-up was beautiful and had a much different view and architectural style than I expected. The photos I am familiar with are of the opposite side of the house with the gardens, what I came to learn was the Baroque part of the castle. The side we entered was Henry VIII’s side, which was in a Tudor style and just under a hundred years older than the additions by William the 1st. Even though there is less than a hundred years between them, the styles are quite distinct.
Walking into William I’s side was one of the moments on this trip that truly took my breath away. There is a door that says it is closed to keep the integrity of the room intact, and when we pushed open the door, I don’t think there was a single person who didn’t gasp. It was a massive room, with a ceiling at least 30 feet high, that had beautiful paintings covering every inch. The room held a massive staircase that wrapped around it and led us to the main part of the apartment. It was here where we saw a room that had hundreds, if not thousands, of guns and knives, formed in patterns, almost like wallpaper, above the 10-foot-high chair railing. William has two bedrooms, one that was fittingly grand, and one that felt actually quite small for a bedroom. Apparently, his servants had a door that they could enter which blended in with the wall so that they wouldn’t bother him by using the main door. I can’t imagine being so riched that you are announced enough by servants to build them a separate entrance. Crazy.
After leaving the apartment, we walked out into the gardens. It had been raining on and off all morning, so the ground was soaking and we all needed umbrellas, but it was so much fun. The rain wasn’t depressing, but instead oddly comforting. There weren’t a ton of people walking around outside, so it felt like we had most of the space to ourselves. I could very clearly imagine the ladies promenading around the gardens and chatting about whatever was on their minds when this was a place for only the elites in fancy clothes and hats. Most important, we got to see the ducks in the pond. We spent way too much time taking to the ducks and cheating them on while we were there. They were the cutest ducks ever. It was two parents and three babies, and at one point one of the babies and one of the parents got into a screaming match and the parents bit the baby and the baby tried to bite them back. It seemed to be more annoyed than violent, but they were clearly going through something serious and we definitely eavesdropped. I won’t tell you what it’s about though, the duck’s private life is theirs only.
After our time in the palace, we had a wonderful lunch at Pizza Express where we all indulged in the wonder of a dough ball (shoutout to the vegan dough balls that were everything and more.) and then went back to the station to meet up with the rest of the crew before our few days off. What a wonderful last day before our long weekend!
Theatre in London U of A 