sam and the city

Hampton Court Palace

Good day faithful readers, and welcome to the first day of Autumn (or Spring if you're in Australia) according to my calendar. Since the first day of Autumn brought with it an absolutely beautiful day in London, I thought that I would take the opportunity to wander out to Hampton Court Palace and see what there was to see.

Hampton Court Palace is located in a picture postcard area, just across the river from Kingston-on-Thames. Getting off the bus in Kingston, given that it was such a nice day I thought that I would walk to the Palace along "The Long Water", Hampton Court Palace's version of the Grand Canal at the Chateau de Versailles. Long Water is about right! It took me 3/4 of an hour to get there!

The exterior of Hampton Court Palace actually reminded me a lot of various chateaux in France. As I said, the front of the Palace, particularly with the Long Water is very much like the Chateau de Versailles. If you go around to the side and see the smaller manicured gardens, they're a lot like those at Chenonceau. Then if you go around to the back, to the older part of the Palace, built when Henry VIII was about, it sort of reminds you of Chambord.

Having now visited somewhere like Hampton Court Palace, it makes me wonder why the Queen chooses to reside in Buckingham Palace. I mean it's a great location if you have to catch the Tube into work each morning. Five minutes and you'd be there. I don't really think that Queen has that problem though. From what I can tell, everything a monarch does could be done from pretty much anywhere they chose, so why not choose somewhere a lot prettier than Buckingham Palace, which personally I think ain't all that special. I'd take it over my place, sure, but if I had to choose between Hampton Court Palace (assuming I could kick all the tourists out) and Buckingham Palace I'd take the former every time.

It has it's own maze, which I managed to find my way to the centre of and back out again in 10mins btw, a 'real' tennis court, much nicer gardens. As a royal, what more do you want?

I pondered all this while sitting under a tree, looking out of the gardens, drinking tea and eating scones with jam and cream. Actually, I'm glad the Queen has taken bad option. Now I can enjoy her gardens.

posted by sam @ 8:49 pm