My Small Adventures

I thought with this blog post I would talk about a few of my own adventures outside of school. Not too long ago we had Easter break. It's basically like Spring Break in the US. Since I had some time off I thought it would be fun to be a bit of a tourist. During my break I found out the Hampton Court Palace was having their 500th year celebration. The palace dates back to the Tudor era. It is also where the Royal School of Needlework have their classrooms. If everything works out I will be at this palace daily starting in September. The photo below is for all of the geeks out there. It is Surbiton station. If you are a Harry Potter fan you may recognize it. It was one of the train stations where Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was filmed. I had to catch a connecting train to Hampton Court here.

When I got to Hampton Court it was wonderful. It was one of the first nice spring days we had here. In fact it only started to rain as I was leaving to go back to Farnham. When you enter Hampton Court you go through a a large courtyard and into a smaller one. Both are very grand and they were where Henry the VIII's guests were greeted. The picture below is of the large courtyard. This place definitely makes a statement then and now.

I took the audio tour which is extremely well done. If you ever make it here I would really recommend it. Throughout the day they did different reenactments. In the remaining Tudor kitchens they had a demonstration of how food was cooked. In Henry VIII's time the man seated by the fire could be turning up to 20+ spits!

The rest of the tour was very nice. I went through the newer section that was built in the Stuart era. I saw my first tourist with a selfie stick and almost got whacked by it. I did take a photo in the hallway that is suppose to be haunted by a ghost but alas nothing unusual appeared on it. One of the best things was the dance through the ages. There was a group of people who represented all of the eras of occupation in the palace. It goes from the Tudor era to a person in the museum uniform. They danced from the smallest courtyard in the Stuart section into the largest courtyard in the Tudor area. Here is a small clip of part of the dance.

Today I took another little adventure. I went to Hyde Park. I've taken the train several times now but it was my first time on the London Underground. It was really easy to use but it was crowded. One of the lines I took also went to Heathrow. Everyone had suitcase and bags.

Hyde Park was very nice. It was a little cool today with the wind. The flowers were blooming which made the whole park look so happy and bright. I went there to meet some people. I've joined a Dungeons and Dragon group and we created our characters today. I am now a Chaotic Good Rogue Halfling. Yes I have official gained another level of geekdom. I'll end this post with two photos of Hyde Park.