London, Tuesday, May 19

On this day, we joined a tour bus and traveled to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court.

Windsor Castle is the Queen's residence outside of London. It is only about 45 minutes - 1 hour away. The nearby town is Eton, where the prestigious boarding school is located. Both Prince William and Harry were educated there. It is a gorgeous castle. Here are some pictures.



Queen wasn't home when we visited. The castle was large enough that we could tour a good portion of it. We walked through several state rooms (or apartments) that housed hundreds of paintings, many I remember seeing in text books. There were exhibitions of armors, swords, shields, emblems, etc.











Within the walls of the castle was St. George's Chapel. It is really a fairly grand cathedral. King Henry VIII is buried in it; we actually walked over the spot that marked his grave.













Hampton Court originally belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, King Henry VIII's right hand man. The Cardinal fell out of the favor of the king when he returned from Rome failing to have secured permission from the pope for the king to divorce his first wife.


After the king had his Cardinal executed, he took over Hampton Court and made some improvements upon it. This year marks the 500th anniversary of King Henry's coronation. Several museums in and around London had on exhibition many of the king's personal effects.

Hampton Court is known for its beautiful gardens.


The River Thames runs along the grounds of Hampton Court. A good movie to watch is "A Man for All Seasons" about Thomas More and King Henry VIII. Parts of the movie were filmed at Hampton Court.