Another palace down!

And I honestly don't believe we could ever see them all before we leave London.  We would probably have to spend the rest of our weekends here touring palaces, lol!  I don't think that's necessarily exactly how we want to spend the rest of our free time.  Hampton Court Palace is included in the annual pass that we purchased for the Tower of London, so it was a no brainer to go see it for free.  So, we did Chris's favorite thing on Father's Day, we toured a palace.  I kid, I kid.  If we had been doing his favorite thing, we would have been at a golf course.  We should certainly try to get to one soon!

Hampton Court Palace is one of the many palaces in the UK but it has not be inhabited by the royal family since the 18th century.  King Henry VIIII lived in the palace, but we heard on the tour that the King and his court used up so much of the local resources that they could not stay at this particular location for very long.  I have to say that I am not surprised, haha!  This palace really is a lovely one to visit in London.  It sits on the River Thames and is surrounded by beautiful gardens.  

Hampton Court Palace!  If you were feeling sorry for Chris, it really wasn't a good day to play golf.  It either looked like rain or rained on us pretty much all day.

Henry VIII certainly winning an arm wrestling match.

A pantry of sorts.  This narrow hall with rooms off of it were designed so that sunlight could not get in and it would always stay cool.

Once the palace fell into Henry VIII hands, his first project was to build a kitchen large enough to provide food for his 1,000 member court.

I mean, seriously, shouldn't her parents tell her that that's not a good idea?!?!  Haha!

The Great Hall

Original Tudor staircase, very cool!

If you look closely at the center panel, the emblem on the right is an H entwined with an A for Henry and Anne.  After Henry had Anne Boleyn beheaded all of these were removed from the palace except for this one.

King Henry VIII's apartments.

Fountain Court designed by Sir Christopher Wren.  Great job on the picture taking Chris!

Very cool trees outside of the palace.

The Gardens.

Another exterior shot of the palace and probably the prettiest.

Another garden.

We even completed our first maze.

Dead end, my bad!

Yay, we made it to the center!