Hampton Court Palace

This is a very big building, steeped in British history, but somehow is lacklusture and lacks the elegance of other similar stature buildings.

The gardens are well laid out, but can only be enjoyed in summer.

A great place to go if you are a fan of the Tudor era, never seen a European palace before, a historian, or have plenty of time as a tourist in London, but is easily missable if you are neither of those.

This is really easy to find. You can take the southwest train from Waterloo to Hampton Court. When you get out of the train station, walk over the Thames River and the Palace is on the right side. The gardens are beautiful and everything is kept up wonderfully.

I had visited the palace seven years ago and really enjoyed it but after a nagging from my daughter we visited again yesterday ( 28th August ).

I made the drive from Kent and found it really easily as the directions were clear from the M25.

We each paid £ 13 which included the Palace,gardens and the maze.

The gardens were beautiful and in full bloom and we even paid an extra £ 2 to take a tour round by wagon which was interesting -although the large fountain was not switched on when we passed as we were told it only comes on every ten - fifteen minutes to save costs !!

Two if by biggest disappontments were the rooms in the house and the cost of lunch.

Remembering back the rooms were filled with interesting furniture, objects, ornaments and pictures but now a lot seem empty with only a few pictures on the walls and no furniture in some and others with just a bed and again pictures and so going around the house can be done quite quickly.

Yes there are people in period costume and I enjoyed a talk given by one man about the history of the house but no costumes to look at and yes the house is lovely but you cannot stare at the outside for ever.

We bypassed the coffee shop and decided to eat in the cafe so we could have a hot meal but with only three choices ( none of which we like ) we opted for a sandwich- two sandwiches, two cakes, two packets of crisps and two drinks cost £ 18 !!

No wonder tourists think the UK is expensive.

Perhaps a lot of the furniture etc was removed after the fire but I now think it is time to put it back and make the Palace a place than will be remembered.