Sorry this is a day late. Just a heads up, I shall write as if it were yesterday to help me keep my thoughts straight.
I kept it simple and just went to two sights today. Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens. SO MUCH TO TAKE IN. There was just so much to do at both!
When I got to Hampton Court, I got there ten minutes after they opened so there wasn't a huge crowd of people there which was nice. I first went used my little audio tour to go through the Kitchens. My goodness, they ate A LOT of food! Especially meat. My kind of meal. The little room where they baked pies was as big as my room back at Wyview! And that's not even a fourth of the Kitchens! Even though all the food was plastic, it still looked yummy. I'm serious. It really did look mouth-watering.
After that tour, I went to Base Court to see a little show some actors were putting on to show what it might have been like when Henry VIII was around. The lady playing a Duchess was hilarious. She did a fantastic job involving the audience, very comical, very witty, just loved her. Then King Henry and George Boelyn came in and asked if any of us have seen Anne Boelyn. We all said we haven't seen her and they moved on. Shortly after Anne was talking to us from a window. She and the Dutchess (who was her aunt) started arguing while the Dutchess complained to us about how she doesn't care for Anne's head-strong, non-ladylike self. Then she led us up to Henry's Apartments to find the king. Instead we found George who kind of gave us some information about the Watching Room and Great Hall. Soon Henry and Anne came while yelling at each other then quickly leaving. The Dutchess returned and asked what just happened then panicked about her niece yelling in public and left in a hurry leaving us to our business.
Then I walked through the Georgian Apartments and continued to wander through the palace while listening to the audio tour. As I was walking towards the gardens, I accidentally bumped into King Henry. My bad. He looked a bit surprised and then I quickly apologized while curtsying (yes, I actually did curtsy. The actor playing George giggled at that). The King accepted my apologizes and said something equivalent to "no harm done" and moved on. That was a fun encounter :P
I moved on to the gardens and ate my packed lunch on a bench under a lovely tree. My lunch looked a bit lame compared to the King's meals in the Kitchens, but I was just happy to have some food in my stomach. Then I proceeded to the maze. I entered feeling pretty good about it. Took me ten minutes to find the center of the maze. Took me another ten minutes to find the exit. Looks like the corn mazes from Halloweens past have helped me some.
After touring around for another 2 hours, I decided to move onto Kew Gardens. I took the bus back to Richmond Underground station. It was one long bus ride. I kept dosing off and every time I woke up, I'd panic thinking I might've missed my stop. Luckily I didn't. When I was heading to the station, I passed by a dance/kickboxing studio where a guy was trying to find people to try a free class. When I came by, he asked if I was interested and I said thanks for the offer but no. He then asked if I have ever tried dance classes or kickboxing and we started chatting a bit about tap/jazz dancing and just dance. Then I said I had to run and said nice chatting with you.
When I got in the station, two trains were being cleaned up to get ready to go in the other direction. I asked a worker which one was going to be ready first and he replied with, "The one behind you that's closing it's doors now." I turned around, ran, and jumped through the half-way closed doors. I even scared a guy with my entrance. He asked if I was alright in his awesome British accent and I replied I'm just fine. Got the blood going, but I'm fine. He teased me by asking if I was filming for the next James Bond movie and I said I wish, but no.
So other then that close call, I made it to Kew Gardens safely. It's a B-E-A-UTIFUL place! Got really distracted with the balcony viewing in one of the greenhouses and this tree-walking thing (a super tall structure where your at the level of the trees). Both were awesome! I got to see a peacock that started chasing me when I wasn't paying much attention to it. After he spread out his feathers, I started taking pictures of him and he seemed a lot happier. I played with some ducks at a pond by "talking" with them. Then it was already closing time.
Time flew by quickly today. It's probably going to be like that for the rest of my touring days this week.
Till next time!
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