Day 2 Hampton Court

Day 2 Sunday April 21st 

Today we are going to Hampton Court. The place where Henry VIII and many of his wives lived. We took the self-guided audio tour. The tour took us through the great kitchens, dining halls, wine cellar and more. There was a separate entrance that the horses would come in to drop off the food. The number of fireplaces was astounding. You could walk into them. There were separate rooms to store meat, bread, vegetables and fish. The servants had to climb a set of stairs holding huge trays of food to bring up to the king. The original worn stairs are still there. Grace got separated from us, but we found her again later as we were going through the castle. 

King Henrys wine cellar.

Since it was spring, there was a presentation on the history of tulips in the area. Queen Mary II loved her gardens and was instrumental in introducing tulips to the area in 1636. This was the “Tulip Mania” period, when tulips were more expensive than diamonds. Many people made and lost fortunes as the tulip mania only lasted a year. Then prices went back to normal.

Tulips in one of the side gardens.

This castle today is featured in many shows and movies such as Bridgerton, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tudors. You can take a separate audio tour movie locations if you want.

                                               Hampton Court Hedge Maze

We found the center of the maze!

After the audio- tour we went to the famous Hampton Court Maze. This is UK’s oldest surviving maze. It is also the first puzzle maze with twists turns and dead ends. Prior to the creation of the Hampton Court Maze, unicursal or single path mazes were the most popular  form of maze in the UK. In like a puzzle maze, the single path maze had one path winding to the center point.