Today our plan was to go to Hampton Court in the afternoon.
Morning we got up early, had breakfast and went to Tower Bridge. We walked on the bridge and I found out that they allow us to go up the Bridge where there is a walk way. Decided we would do that either the next day or Monday.
Walked on the Jubilee Walk. These walk ways are marked , so that people can walk these paths and will be able to see many of the famous monuments on the way. This is called as Jubilee walk to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee year of accession. (previously it was called Silver Jubilee walk and now it is simply called Jubilee walk).
On the Tower Bridge.
The upper portion which connects the two towers, which is seen very clearly in this picture is the connecting bridge on top of the Tower Bridge. This is what we decided will see later.
This is the original London Bridge. The other Bridges are Tower Bridge and Millennium Bridge.
This is The Monument which we climbed the first day.
White Begonias on our way....
The Jubilee walk has many paths and we traced a little of it so that we could see what ever we wanted in the short time available for us.
Just a picture of the inside of the theatre....
First we saw the Shakespeare Globe, a theatre which was reconstructed and opened in 1997. This was built almost like the original theatre where Shakespeare's plays were enacted in 1500s when he wrote them and was destroyed by fire. This theatre is built circularly and people either watch it by standing in the front of the stage or sit in the upper portions which is kind of balcony . (costlier seats). Vinayak had recommended this and asked us to watch a play and told us it will be a nice experience to watch a play standing in front of the stage. But when we enquired about the time of the shows we found out that ,
we did not have time. We just went around the theatre and did not even go to see inside (it also costs money)
We saw the Tate Modern building , and got on the Millennium Bridge. It was wonderful . We walked across it (so many bridges and that too lovely ones on the Thames!) to proceed to St. Paul's Cathedral. It looked lovely. We had decided not to climb up the steps of the Catheral . (enough of climbing steps). Reva had told us it is about 500 steps.
Close up picture of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Reflection of St. Paul's on a Steel Sphere in front of the Cathedral.
We just looked around and took a train to Waterloo Station.
The person in the ticket counter suggested that we take one day ticket on all lines , as we had to go to Hampton Court and from their to Wallignton to a friend's house for dinner both of which are outside the zones of our Oyster card. We bought the tickets for 8 + pounds per person. (This is what we should have done the previous day before going to the Windsor Castle)
We got the train and reached Hampton Court around 12.30 noon. Every body was helpful directing us to the right train. Both Windsor and Hampton Court are small stations. The Hampton Court (Castle) is very near the station and we walked and showed our train ticket and got the entrance ticket for 2 for 1 rate. ( Thanks to Raja who told us about the deal and I had picked up the pamphlets and coupons in the train station)
In front of the Hampton Court.
Hampton Court is huge and we saw Palaces of Henry VIII (Yes the same Henry who married Anne and then executed her) , Palaces of William and also Mary's Palace.
Another one....
The Armoury....
The Palaces of Henry and William are distinctly different from each other. We saw huge Tapestries hung in William and Mary's Palaces. There were huge paintings on the wall which are called as Cartoons which are paintings of the Scenes which are to be copied in the tapestry which are woven in wool. There are many other original paintings on the walls of the State rooms.
I have to read British History. Though I know little about Henry VIII, I need to know about Kings/ Queens after and before him. (This I recorded last year but yet to get hold of a book on British History. Hope to do it soon.)
The Gardens are Huge and toooooo good. (Earlier we had our packed lunch the great uppuma before entering the Palace in the huge lawns outside.) We spent almost the same time in the neatly laid out garden as we spent inside the huge palaces.
The entrance to the maze....
Inside the Maze.........
The much needed rest to my legs......
The water body inside the Garden....
The neatly laid out garden with lovely sculptures.......
Hampton court from the Garden side.
Another beautifully laid out flower beds. this was enclosed with a gate and we had to take picture from outside..
It started raining outside while we were inside the Palace. The famous unpredictable weather God of London has been very kind to us so far and it rained when we were inside seeing the Palaces. We took out our umbrellas which we carried with us always and stepped into the lovely gardens.
Hey and Presto it stopped raining. Beautifully laid out gardens with lovely flowers, trees and plants. There is a huge maze built? out of bushes and we managed to enter it and also come out successfully after a little bit of struggle.
There is a vine garden which is there since 1700 A.D. and still yielding ( they told us normally they sell these grapes but we could not get any.).
We called our friend Mr. Rajakulendran and he asked us to come to Wimbledon and then take a train to Ikea. (All I could see of Wimbledon was only the station as we did not have time to visit the famous Tennis Mecca)
Though the station which we had to get down was called some thing else and not Ikea people told us where to get down. The train from Wimbledon was a small train which was more like a tram which I think was a feeder tram from main stations. Our phone which we had loaded with local Sim, just got finished the money which we had loaded and went almost dead after we informed our friend that we are on the local tram.
I got so worried how I would locate where he is waiting for us without phone, and luckily saw him waiting for us and he drove us to his house.
His house is a nice house built in the early 1900s and had old world charm to it with a lovely garden space.
Arundhathi , his wife who is our friend was waiting for us with a lovely home made dinner. He dropped us back in a different bigger station ( I think Wallington) and we came back to our room.
Morning we got up early, had breakfast and went to Tower Bridge. We walked on the bridge and I found out that they allow us to go up the Bridge where there is a walk way. Decided we would do that either the next day or Monday.
Walked on the Jubilee Walk. These walk ways are marked , so that people can walk these paths and will be able to see many of the famous monuments on the way. This is called as Jubilee walk to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee year of accession. (previously it was called Silver Jubilee walk and now it is simply called Jubilee walk).
On the Tower Bridge.
This is the original London Bridge. The other Bridges are Tower Bridge and Millennium Bridge.
This is The Monument which we climbed the first day.
White Begonias on our way....
The Jubilee walk has many paths and we traced a little of it so that we could see what ever we wanted in the short time available for us.
Shakespeare Globe theatre.
First we saw the Shakespeare Globe, a theatre which was reconstructed and opened in 1997. This was built almost like the original theatre where Shakespeare's plays were enacted in 1500s when he wrote them and was destroyed by fire. This theatre is built circularly and people either watch it by standing in the front of the stage or sit in the upper portions which is kind of balcony . (costlier seats). Vinayak had recommended this and asked us to watch a play and told us it will be a nice experience to watch a play standing in front of the stage. But when we enquired about the time of the shows we found out that ,
we did not have time. We just went around the theatre and did not even go to see inside (it also costs money)
The Millennium Bridge
We saw the Tate Modern building , and got on the Millennium Bridge. It was wonderful . We walked across it (so many bridges and that too lovely ones on the Thames!) to proceed to St. Paul's Cathedral. It looked lovely. We had decided not to climb up the steps of the Catheral . (enough of climbing steps). Reva had told us it is about 500 steps.
Picture of St. Paul's Cathedral from the Millennium Bridge.
We just looked around and took a train to Waterloo Station.
The person in the ticket counter suggested that we take one day ticket on all lines , as we had to go to Hampton Court and from their to Wallignton to a friend's house for dinner both of which are outside the zones of our Oyster card. We bought the tickets for 8 + pounds per person. (This is what we should have done the previous day before going to the Windsor Castle)
We got the train and reached Hampton Court around 12.30 noon. Every body was helpful directing us to the right train. Both Windsor and Hampton Court are small stations. The Hampton Court (Castle) is very near the station and we walked and showed our train ticket and got the entrance ticket for 2 for 1 rate. ( Thanks to Raja who told us about the deal and I had picked up the pamphlets and coupons in the train station)
Hampton Court is huge and we saw Palaces of Henry VIII (Yes the same Henry who married Anne and then executed her) , Palaces of William and also Mary's Palace.
Tapestry.
The Armoury....
The Palaces of Henry and William are distinctly different from each other. We saw huge Tapestries hung in William and Mary's Palaces. There were huge paintings on the wall which are called as Cartoons which are paintings of the Scenes which are to be copied in the tapestry which are woven in wool. There are many other original paintings on the walls of the State rooms.
I have to read British History. Though I know little about Henry VIII, I need to know about Kings/ Queens after and before him. (This I recorded last year but yet to get hold of a book on British History. Hope to do it soon.)
The Gardens are Huge and toooooo good. (Earlier we had our packed lunch the great uppuma before entering the Palace in the huge lawns outside.) We spent almost the same time in the neatly laid out garden as we spent inside the huge palaces.
Some Flowers in the Garden..
The water body inside the Garden....
The neatly laid out garden with lovely sculptures.......
Hampton court from the Garden side.
Another beautifully laid out flower beds. this was enclosed with a gate and we had to take picture from outside..
The Grape Vine which is there from Centuries.....
Those lovely trees which look like big Mushrooms and also a water fountain.
It started raining outside while we were inside the Palace. The famous unpredictable weather God of London has been very kind to us so far and it rained when we were inside seeing the Palaces. We took out our umbrellas which we carried with us always and stepped into the lovely gardens.
Hey and Presto it stopped raining. Beautifully laid out gardens with lovely flowers, trees and plants. There is a huge maze built? out of bushes and we managed to enter it and also come out successfully after a little bit of struggle.
There is a vine garden which is there since 1700 A.D. and still yielding ( they told us normally they sell these grapes but we could not get any.).
We called our friend Mr. Rajakulendran and he asked us to come to Wimbledon and then take a train to Ikea. (All I could see of Wimbledon was only the station as we did not have time to visit the famous Tennis Mecca)
Though the station which we had to get down was called some thing else and not Ikea people told us where to get down. The train from Wimbledon was a small train which was more like a tram which I think was a feeder tram from main stations. Our phone which we had loaded with local Sim, just got finished the money which we had loaded and went almost dead after we informed our friend that we are on the local tram.
I got so worried how I would locate where he is waiting for us without phone, and luckily saw him waiting for us and he drove us to his house.
His house is a nice house built in the early 1900s and had old world charm to it with a lovely garden space.
Arundhathi , his wife who is our friend was waiting for us with a lovely home made dinner. He dropped us back in a different bigger station ( I think Wallington) and we came back to our room.
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