Hampton Court Palace

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.

As this was my first visit to London to see a palace of any kind, I really have nothing to compare it to. Perhaps it's just not my type of thing, but the only thing I found interesting and actually the sole reason why I went was for the hedge maze.

The gardens were impressive, but it rained half the time that we were there so it made it somewhat difficult to enjoy. We actually manuevered through the maze as it was pouring rain. It was a fun experience, but more fun doing it dry.

As for the palace itself, the exterior looked amazing, but the interior was so-so and I found it a bit boring. There wasn't much to see that was different from the next room. Yes, it was grand and spectacular, but only for the first 5 minutes.