20 May 2005 - London (last day)
Today we went to Kingston-upon-Thames. While on our way out to Bushy Park and Hampton Court Palace we had a look at the shops. One travel agent had posters advertising holidays in New Zealand, including travel to the "Capital of New Zealand - Queenstown". Think they left the word 'adventure' off the start of the sentence.
We had a walk through Bushy Park which is a Royal Park in which deer were kept to allow the royal family to go hunting. The hunting has ended but the deer are still in the Park, along with Swans, geese and lots of ducks. One thing I learned today is that Swans have trouble digesting white bread so if you ever feed swans take wholemeal bread. We had fun looking at the Deer and walking through the English forest.
After lunch at the Kings Gate Pub, we went to Hampton Court Palace, which was the country retreat of King Henry VIII. We had a look through the palace on a guided tour - the guide was dressed in period costume - and saw all sorts of signs of the palaces inhabitents, including the motif of Catherine of Aragon that was overlooked when every trace of her was removed from the palace. We also went to the Haunted Corridor, where the ghost of Catherine Howard can sometimes be heard pleading for her life outside Henry's door. We had a walk through the gardens and found the centre of the maze.
After all this walking, my feet were very tired so we headed back to Annette's place. We've been watching TV and I found a channel called 'Men and Machines' which was showing 'Motorway Patrol' from New Zealand showing incidents on Auckland's motorways. Then during the adverts they showed a promo for the Travel Channel for the Filth Files, another New Zealand TV programme - why show a TV show about dirt in Auckland to potential travellers? These Brits are crazy!
Tonight we are planning on taking Annette to dinner to thank her for putting us up this week. Tomorrow we head off to Ivybridge in Dartmoor.
We have not finished with London yet as we will be back for 5 days next month. So far I have formed the impression that all British suburbs look like Weatherfield (Coronation Street) and everyone speaks very politely - all announcements on the tube are filled with please and thank you.
I'm not sure if there are any nearby Internet Cafes to Ivybridge so posting may be less than daily for the next week or so.
We had a walk through Bushy Park which is a Royal Park in which deer were kept to allow the royal family to go hunting. The hunting has ended but the deer are still in the Park, along with Swans, geese and lots of ducks. One thing I learned today is that Swans have trouble digesting white bread so if you ever feed swans take wholemeal bread. We had fun looking at the Deer and walking through the English forest.
After lunch at the Kings Gate Pub, we went to Hampton Court Palace, which was the country retreat of King Henry VIII. We had a look through the palace on a guided tour - the guide was dressed in period costume - and saw all sorts of signs of the palaces inhabitents, including the motif of Catherine of Aragon that was overlooked when every trace of her was removed from the palace. We also went to the Haunted Corridor, where the ghost of Catherine Howard can sometimes be heard pleading for her life outside Henry's door. We had a walk through the gardens and found the centre of the maze.
After all this walking, my feet were very tired so we headed back to Annette's place. We've been watching TV and I found a channel called 'Men and Machines' which was showing 'Motorway Patrol' from New Zealand showing incidents on Auckland's motorways. Then during the adverts they showed a promo for the Travel Channel for the Filth Files, another New Zealand TV programme - why show a TV show about dirt in Auckland to potential travellers? These Brits are crazy!
Tonight we are planning on taking Annette to dinner to thank her for putting us up this week. Tomorrow we head off to Ivybridge in Dartmoor.
We have not finished with London yet as we will be back for 5 days next month. So far I have formed the impression that all British suburbs look like Weatherfield (Coronation Street) and everyone speaks very politely - all announcements on the tube are filled with please and thank you.
I'm not sure if there are any nearby Internet Cafes to Ivybridge so posting may be less than daily for the next week or so.
posted by Michael at
5:13 PM
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