Back and Forth Across the Pond

This blog includes most of the photos taken on the grounds of Hampton Court. I did not visit all of the gardens because they cover over sixty acres. There are still a lot of photos to see, though. But first, a bit of history. I didn't go into as much detail with my previous post as I usually do. This Blogger app is frustrating and it takes me so long just to get the pictures in place that I really skimped on the descriptions before. So here's a condensed history to fill in the gaps.   Cardinal Wolsey bought Hampton Court in the early 1500s and set about turning it into a stunning palace. He gave it to Henry VIII in the late 1520s because he was falling out of favor with the king. The king had a massive court, so his first project was to construct the kitchens that I included in the last photo blog. His court totaled around 1000 people. That's a lot of mouths to feed. He also built the great hall, which was the last medieval style hall built for royalty. This was the king...

Visiting Hampton Court Palace has been on my bucket list since before bucket list was part of our vernacular. So when it was cheaper to buy a week's pass on the coach service to London than to buy the individual days I needed, it made sense to spend one of my off days at Hampton Court. This is a blog of that afternoon I spent there. I am breaking it into pieces because I took about 120 photos and I'm using about a hundred of them. Today's entry is going to cover the palace's first occupant, Henry VIII. Well, I should say the first royal occupant. You see, Cardinal Wolsey built Hampton Court for himself and he made it very grand and lavish. When the king saw this, well, let's just say it raised a royal eyebrow and Wolsey promptly gifted Hampton Court to His Majesty. Henry expanded the property and made it even more fit for a king. He added things like a gigantic kitchen capable of preparing massive banquets. He also finished the chapel. We weren't allowed to take...

I love old churches. One of my favorite things to do when I'm in Europe is to visit the beautiful old cathedrals, minsters, abbeys, and churches. The first grand old church I ever visited here was the Yorkminster in York. It is an incredibly beautiful building rich with history. I always enjoy visiting the minster when we are in York. However, I enjoy it not just because it's beautiful and grand, I like it there because it feels nice. I feel good when I'm in Yorkminster. In the 800 years or so that Yorkminster has been around, it has absorbed the emotional energy of countless people who have gone there to worship, pray, celebrate weddings and christenings, and to bid farewell to deceased loved ones. All that love has made Yorkminster feel good to me. I step inside and I'm happy and content. It makes me want to linger. What's interesting to me is the fact that different churches feel very different. In the fourteen years since I made my first trip to the UK, I have v...

I've seen a lot of dogs here. There is a park near the neighborhood bus stop and there is a lot of people there with their dogs. Seeing I a lot of dogs isn't a big deal. What surprises me is that every single dog I've seen has been a pure breed. Where are the mutts? Is there some ordinance against them? Or are pure breeds less expensive here than in the states?

Back in March sometime, the elevator went out in our building. We had just ordered Chinese takeout. I didn't want Steve to have to schlep the food by himself, so despite his offer to go solo, I went with him. I figured the exercise would be a good thing. So I walked down fifteen flights of stairs (we live on the 16th floor but there is no 13th) and slowly but steadily climbed back up toting our dinner. A few days later, the fire alarm went off. You're not suppose to take the elevator in a fire and since I did t know if it was a drill or not, I walked down to the lobby. It was just a test of the alarm.  Now my legs were sore after the first climb. My muscles didn't know what on earth I was doing. But this second trip, which was only a descent, caused serious pain in my right hip. Sitting was uncomfortable. I had comps coming up in mid-April and I was worried I wouldn't be better by then. I couldn't imagine sitting on the plane to Houston and then sitting four hours e...

Corporate finally approved Steve's work travel and he booked his tickets today. He has to go to Germany, so he's tacking a few days in England on the end of it. I was so excited when he told me he had made his reservations. I updated my Facebook status to celebrate the fact that three weeks from today, Steve will be with me in the UK for six days. Yay! And then I realized that it's only been two weeks and one day since I left. So I have longer to wait to see Steve than it's been since I last saw him. Talk about a buzz kill. I was pretty certain I have been gone forever. It sure feels that way. 

I was just rereading some of my blog posts and noticed some mistakes. I saw problems with capitalization, lack of apostrophes, and wrong words. I could correct the problems, but I'm afraid a republish will change the post date and put old, but now corrected, blog posts ahead of newer ones. So as much as it pains me, the mistakes will remain.  However, I do want to explain. I did not bring a laptop with me. For the sake of travel convenience (and the fact that my netbook is Windows and I've converted to Apple), I have just my iPad. While I do have a little Bluetooth external keyboard, most of the time I'm just using the digital keyboard to write my blogs. I've grown accustomed to the iPad's autocorrect, so I don't bother capitalizing "I" or actually hitting the apostrophe (it is on a different screen) because autocorrect takes care of it for me. Occasionally, autocorrect doesn't catch what I did and, viola, I look like a moron. Trust me, I'm not...

My friend, Lauren, asked if I could post a few photos of the area where I'm staying. I'm happy to oblige, so here we go.  I didn't go into the archives today because of a sinus headache. It's not a really bad one, but enough that reading tiny 19th-century print would be rough. I decided to pop to the local shops to pick up some soup and figured it was a good opportunity to snap a few pics of the area as I went. I am staying in Botley, a town that is less than two miles from Oxford city centre. It's a pretty nice community from what I've seen. First up: This is the back garden. It backs on to a large park, which is rather nice. Here's the view over the right-hand fence. Here's the view down the road from the drive. It's a fairly typical English neighborhood. This particular part is mostly semi-detached houses. That means there are two homes side-by-side within each house. They're all two stories, so it's like a duplex of town houses. This is a...