Richmond upon Thames

After a full English breakfast with all the trimmings I reluctantly headed to the Kilburn Park underground… not only was it operational but it was quiet. It seemed people heeded the warning not to travel unless it was urgent… When you are on holidays from Australia 🇦🇺 travel is always urgent because it’s made up of lifetime opportunities & experiences that you just can’t give up on! I’m certainly not going to sit on my hands for the last week of my holiday and put adventures on hold or in the too hard basket 🧺

Excitedly I arrived at King Henry the VIII Palace! I picked up an audio guide and off I went… The kitchens were fascinating because all of the meat was boiled before it was roasted. Then spices were added so that it actually had some flavour. The kitchens would’ve been so hot because there was six fires going at once in there. Henry predominantly ate meat and there were usually two courses with 40 dishes in each course! 🐷🐬🐏🐄🐓🐀🍖🍗🥩🥩🥩🍷🍷🍷

Tracy Borman was the audio guide historian. She is my favourite all time Royal historian with her chosen expertise in the Tudor times. 👑❤️
I’d absolutely LOVE ❤️ her job! Her office is at Kensington Palace in Queen Victoria’s nursery.

It was a myth that King Henry and his court only drink beer and wine. They also drink a lot of water which was piped in from the local spring.

Very annoyingly there were school groups touring the Palace at the same time as me. How I was a teacher I will never know! They were rowdy, misbehaving and so naughty 👿 Spoiling everybody’s quiet 🤫 enjoyment. Reminded me of my teaching days in London; which were hideous. The children were the worst behaved in the world apparently. Australian and Canadian teachers were loved because of our great discipline training. I recall one teaching day I was told to just keep them busy for the day. They were beyond learning anything! 🙃🤯

I have been constantly reminded during this trip also of the loud, obnoxious, overemphasised voice of the species known as the American tourist! 😳🫢

William the third lived here in the 18th century and was very private. He did not allow the public to watch him eating lunch, which Henry did. This made him much less popular. Watching the monarch dine was a great exercise in public relations! Take a note Leanne LOL 😝 you need to hold court at lunchtime in Sunny ☀️ Brunny! Public dining was the social media of the day.

It is said that on certain nights, Catherine Howard’s (4th wife) screams, pleading for her life can be heard in hallway of King 👑 Henry’s Apartments.

The Georgian part of history was fascinating too. Much of the Tudor architecture was destroyed for the new dynasty. Lavish parties were commonplace often. Sounds like a fun period! 🎊 The most intimate members of the Prince & Princess of Wales watched King George getting dressed! 🙈

The Georgian era ended Monarchy living at Hampton Court Palace 🛑

I absolutely love the Medieval 🏰 Tudor times and this palace was fascinating. I spent four hours exploring and 10,000 steps… I could have easily spent all day!

Unfortunately (…or fortunately…) The train stopped running from Hampton Court because there was a suicide on the line. This is extremely sad and the cockney station 🚉 guard was not being very empathetic; essentially bleating on about how hard it will now be for her to get home! 😳👎🏻
Hopefully they will run again sometime later this afternoon. In the meantime I’m doing the lemon 🍋 into lemonade dance again and having drinks and lunch at a cute local pub! 🍺

To commemorate Henry himself I’m having a pale ale pie with clotted cream mash, buttered leeks, savoy cabbage and rich ale gravy! 🥧En savoir plus