We took the train from Waterloo out to Hampton Court, and unlike our trip in 2004, we paid the prices of admission and walked around inside. They are celebrating 500 years since Henry VIII stole the place back from Cardinal Wolsey; we actually ran into the King himself in the halls.
No English royals have lived there since the late 1800s; Queen Victoria made it a tourist attraction early in her reign.
I took pictures until my hands got too cold. I didn’t really realize that it was just kind of a fluke that Christopher Wren didn’t get to pull down all the Tudor stuff when he remodeled for William II.
The Tudor kitchen wasn’t in full operation – that’s only on weekends – so we had to be content with looking at fake food: huge lumps of meat and pies and a cauldron of soup, made from something rubbery. There were real cabbages & onions & leeks in baskets.
We came back and searched for a sports bar to watch the Arsenal game, but they were all overflowing, no tables, and Ethan, being under 18, couldn’t stand at the bar. So we got Indian take-away, and watched it on the TV in our apartment. The food was pretty good, especially the tandoori chicken, garlic naan, and raita – the prawn Biryani was quite bland and the so-called prawns were more like popcorn shrimp.
Probably the biggest surprise at Hampton Palace – that shouldn’t have been a surprise – is that in addition to two Caravaggios, there was Artemisia Gentileshi’s self-portrait, all collected by Charles II, I think. Took bad the place was way too dark to really see them – but keeping them in the dark has probably helped the pictures last 400 years.
Self-portrait (1630s, Royal Collection, London)
