Another one of his palaces and ... the opulence with which he indulged himself (150Cong.Rec.H1051)

Okay, prepare for an onslaught of reports about all the typically touristy things I did in London that just didn't warrant their own individual posts. According to the crowds gathered each day outside of Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard is one of the hottest tickets in town. I don't like elbowing for spots, so to see the royal London residence, I landed tickets to tour the State Rooms. Sounds fancy, but you only get access to 19 of the 775 rooms in the palace, which has been in the monarchy's property portfolio since 1837, when Queen Victoria took over after King William IV. 

But still, I saw the Throne Room, where people are knighted, and the Dining Room, where royal receptions are held. (You'll just have to take my word for it as photography is prohibited inside the operational residence.) Many of the rooms overlook the gardens (top), and for an extra fee, you can tack on the Garden Highlights Tour (bottom left). Sadly, no sightings of the queen were on the agenda as this day the Union Jack flag was flying; the Royal Standard flag indicates that the royal family is in residence (bottom right).

 

Compared to the gates at Buckingham Palace, those at Hampton Court Palace look perfectly jumpable, although I wouldn't try (top left). The palace's architecture has an entirely different look than Buckingham because it was built by Cardinal Wolsey and renovated by Henry VIII 200 years earlier (top right). The palace was primarily the stomping grounds of Henry's House of Tudor, where he married his fifth and sixth wives and kept the fifth, Catherine Howard, under "house arrest" after her adultery. But the succeeding House of Stuart altered and added to the residence; for example, William III ordered the creation of the Privy Garden (bottom). 

 

I'm sure it's no surprise that signs of luxury are on display everywhere. Even the stairwells have massive painted masterpieces within them (top left). Henry VIII displayed his tapestry collection in the Great Hall (top right), where Shakespeare's theater company performed for James I. During my visit, our group unwittingly got swept up in a play as well, but we surreptitiously exited stage left so we could see the more "downstairs" parts of the palace, including the burly king's kitchen, which made enough food for 400 people twice a day (bottom left). Henry loved wine as much as food, so courtyard statues depict the morning after, with peasants still drinking or sleeping off their debauchery (bottom right).

I first passed by Hampton Court while I was doing a bike ride on the Thames Path. I rode to the palace from my flat, passing by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, a UNESCO world heritage site due to its contributions to historical and modern cultivation (left). Their creation started in the 18th century around Kew Palace, which the royal family used as its summer residence. Just down the river on the opposite bank is Syon Park House, built in the late 16th century on the site of an abbey, where Catherine Howard was imprisoned for a year before her execution at the Tower of London (right). Today, it remains the London home of the Duke of Northumberland.

 

After riding the path from Putney to Hampton Court, through Richmond and Kingston, on another day I decided to ride the next section, from the palace to Windsor. On my way, I passed The Anglers pub, where a group of rehearsing Morris dancers blocked my path for a bit (top left). But eventually, I reached Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world (top right). The first king to live there was Henry I in the 12th century. Many royals lived, temporarily anyway, across the river at Eton College (bottom). Among its alumni are Princes William and Harry; UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron; economist John Keynes; poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; writers Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Ian Fleming; actors Hugh Laurie and Eddie Redmayne; and even adventurer Bear Grylls.