British Monarchy | A Girl, Her Boy, And Their Dog

Does anyone else remember that song from elementary school? “I am Henry the 8th I am, Henry the 8th I am I am. I got married to the widow next door, she’s been married seven times before….” I had forgotten all about it until coming to London and learning more about the history of the monarchy. Now every time I hear Henry VIII’s name, I can’t get that stupid song out of my head. Hopefully I didn’t just do the same for you, but you can at least rest assured that I will also be suffering, singing the stupid song in my head throughout my writing of this post. On our last weekend in London before Christmas, the husband and I took a trip to Henry’s old home, Hampton Court Palace, for a tour and some ice skating.

Hampton Court Palace

Another View of the Palace

Hampton Court Palace is an old British Palace on the river Thames. While it has not been in use by the British Royal family since the 18th century, it is best known for it’s most notorious inhabitant, Henry VIII. The palace was initially built for Thomas Wolsey, a favorite cardinal of the King, but when he fell out of favor, the King took the palace and enlarged it (after charging Thomas with treason and forcing him to flee London). Henry spared no expense in doing so, and it is said that the fountain at the front of the palace used to contain wine, which anyone visiting the palace could drink.

German Choir Singing Christmas Carols in One of the Halls of the Palace

Given that the palace has not been inhabited since the 18th century, it is much older and not as grand as the other palaces that I have visited in England. That being said, it is still massive and quite impressive. Just know that if you are visiting in the winter, as we were, it has not been fitted with modern heating, so expect to be cold!

The Husband and Me Exploring

Overlooking the River Thames

The most impressive part of visiting the palace, for us, was walking around the grounds. Set right on the river Thames, it is in a beautiful location and the grounds are impeccably cared for. If you are a huge grapevine fanatic, they do have the largest grapevine in the world in their garden, which was planted over 240 years ago. You can apparently eat the grapes in the summer, but nothing was living on that vine when we were there.

Grounds of the Palace

Humoring Me and Posing for a Picture

A Pretty Tunnel

After our palace visit, we headed to the pub across the street, The Mute Swan, to warm up before heading back to the palace to ice state. They have a delicious sticky toffee pudding that is well worth a visit in itself.

Some Delicious Welsh Rarebit

Such a Beautiful Location for a Skating Rink

After warming up over some beers and food, we headed back to the palace to ice skate. Many of the famous sites in London set up ice skating rinks during the Holiday Season, and Hampton Court Palace is one of them. I didn’t get the memo that if I was on a date, which I sort of was, I needed to be scantily clad despite the freezing weather. Apparently I should have worn a mini skirt and crop top if I was really trying to impress the husband–which, if I’m honest, I wasn’t. After an hour of skating around, looking at the beautiful lights on the palace, and laughing at the people dressed in next to nothing to impress their dates, we were on our way back to South Kensington. Skating was so fun, and also reminded me how thankful I am to be married and not have to do that to impress a boy (not that I ever did).

He was Such a Good Sport About all the Photos

Lights on the Palace at Night

Back in South Kensington, we headed to a local pub, the Drayton Arms, for some mulled wine for me and beers for the husband before heading upstairs to their theater for a show. I could go on and on as to why I LOVE pubs, but I won’t. One of the reasons, though, is that many of them have theaters upstairs where they do short, very intimate shows. This one was so intimate that the cast was 4 people and they referenced the audience throughout the show. I was called out for being poshly dressed–the first and likely last time I’ve ever gotten/will get that compliment. The show was really great, and after I explained the ending to the husband, he really liked it too ;).

Don’t worry—I’m still singing that stupid song in my head, too!

The last day trip that I took with my parents during their visit was to Windsor Castle. Located about an hour outside of London, and Her Majesty’s weekend home, it’s an easy and beautiful trip outside of London that I would definitely recommend if you have some extra time while in London. We hopped on a quick from Paddington Station, and an hour after leaving our central London flat, we were at a beautiful castle in the English countryside.

Winsor Castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman Invasion by William the Conqueror. It is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world, and I can assure you that no matter how many perfect Disney castles you’ve seen in movies, it will not disappoint. As I have learned, like most other opulent things owned by the British Monarchy, Windsor Castle was later rebuilt and renovated at great expense by George IV. If you ever are on Jeopardy and a question comes up as to who commissioned/purchased something expensive owned by the royals, you will be right 95% of the time if you answer George IV. I thought that my budgeting skills were bad, but this guy makes me feel like I could be the Director of the Congressional Budget Office or the US Treasury.

One of the Castle Entrances

Before exploring the castle, we watched the changing of the guards on the castle grounds. I have to admit that it was very different from my experiences at Buckingham Palace. I’ve always found Buckingham Palace’s Changing of the Guard to be incredibly organized and impressive, this one, not so much. They just couldn’t quite seem to line themselves up correctly, and I found myself wishing that the music would stop as someone in the band was incredibly off tune. I felt like I, having been last chair of the flute section in 6th grade and then quitting because I was terrible and hated it, could have played better. To make a short story long- if you have to pick between changing of the guards at Windsor and Buckingham Palace, fight the crowds and go to Buckingham.

The Band With One Not-So-Talented Member

After the Changing of the Guard and the hideous band, we returned to the castle entrance for a guided tour of the grounds. The guides know a ton about the castle and its history and the tours are free, so you really have no excuse to not take one. St. George’s chapel was the next stop on our tour, and is a chapel where many of the more recent British monarchs are buried and worship when staying at the castle. Unfortunately, you can’t take any photos of the inside, so you’ll just have to visit yourself to see it. There is this thing I’ve heard of called google that might also have some photos if you really want them ;).

St. George’s Chapel

Next, we visited Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. They are some seriously impressive dollhouses, and I can virtually guarantee that no one reading this blog has ever had a dollhouse quite like Queen Mary; they are certainly nicer than my actual house in Ohio. The houses all have running water, flushing toilets, and electricity. Everything in the house works and is real, from the miniature guns that actually fire miniature bullets, to the wine bottles filled with actual wine, to the miniature paintings done by famous artists. I have to admit, I played with a barbie for the first time in my life a few weeks ago with my very girly niece, so dollhouses were never my thing, but they are seriously impressive and worth at least a cursory look-see.

The Castle Grounds and the Entrance for Her Majesty’s Most Important Guests

After visiting the very impressive exhibition of famous and important works from the archives of the royals, we headed to the main event, The State Apartments. Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures inside here either, so you will have to use your imagination or visit yourselves. George IV really spared no expense in decorating and outfitting the State Apartments, and its rooms include works by famous artists such as Rembrandt, DaVinci, and Canaletto. The rooms are still used by the royal family today to house and entertain various world leaders and other important people. There are staff members in each room and I highly recommend asking them questions because they are often present at these very important events and know a lot of cool facts that the audio guide does not. My favorite (the funniest) anecdote that I learned was that when US Presidents visit Windsor Castle, they cannot use the normal room for entertaining heads of state, St. George’s Hall because we bring such an entourage that they have to set up another room entirely…sounds about right.

A Castle Gate

Visiting the state rooms takes at least an hour or two as the rooms never seem to end. By this point we were very hungry, so headed of to a delicious lunch at an Italian restaurant called Castello, and then were off to explore the town. While tiny, it is definitely worth a walk around, as it is a very quaint, cute little English village.

Shops and Restaurants in Windsor

All Decorated for Christmas

After a short walk back to the train station, we were on our way back to London. The Queen has her own private train that she often takes up to Windsor. Unfortunately, we were not invited and took the regular old train back to London in time for dinner.