OMG this is the penultimate day of vac. S & I separated -- he to Hyde Park and the transportation museum, I to Hampton Court, some 20 mi outside London.
He was VERY happy there. There were hoards of kids pretending to drive the vehicles. Did I notice why the
London subways were so 
deep, instead of cut 
& cover like NY? Well, London built trains to the suburbs before NYC, but by an act of Parliament couldn't build through the middle of town (which is why there are so many different train stations in a ring). But how to get people from the trains to wk??? At first there were horse-pulled trams. Then, around 1865 -- so 30-35 yrs before NYC--but steam-powered, because electric motors weren't powerful enough to pull trains till around 1900. The Circle Line was cut & cover, but the others were far deeper, w/ ventilation holes every so often to vent the smoke & heat (but see next post -- I think S hadn't seen all the Tube exhibit at this point).
I had a lovely day at Hampton Court -- caught the 9:06 out of Waterloo station. The ticket machine gave me 6 (count them, SIX) ticket stubs for a round trip & I had to ask the guard which to
use to get through the barrier. Half the palace is Tûdor -- there were audio tours for the Tudor kitchen (which fed some 1,000) and the Henry VIII state apts (huge banqueting hall), and Henry as a young man (I thought he had red hair? but the video -- maybe from the TV show? showed a v. virile handsome dark haired man).
Went to the cafe for lunch (by then, the Henry VIII section was getting crowded -- the one thing I've learned besides arrive early in the day is to go to lunch early -- by the time I'd finished eating, the line was out the door). Had to relinquish audio on the way to the cafe, so after lunch toured the Christopher Wren part of the palace w/o. Was pretty well palaced out by then. HUGE rooms w/ 30'ceilings -- had to have been drafty in winter. Enourmous portraits mounted 10' up on the wall. Outside were massive cone-shaped yews (?) and a grape vine planted 1768 & still producing (the grapes -- prettily packaged -- were on sale in the garden store, so of course I had to buy some at maybe GBP 8 / lb?). I think it was Trollope's Small House at Allingham ? where a decision to mend the chimney in the small house's grape house signified a turn in sentiment by a noble patron. (OMG I just checked on my bb & was right-- it's so reassuring sometimes to be able to remember something).
So many things to check when I get home. Like, who was Lady Jane Grey and why was she executed? I had her mixed up w/ Jane Seymour, the mother of Edward. Oh, OK, I could find that searching on my bb too. She reigned 9 days, after the death of Edward & before Mary I.
Stung by S's characterization of my clothes as "frumpy", I dressed up for dinner last night in an outfit I'd bought for London, and we went to a French place Fodor's liked nearby. S had the prix fixe; I couldn't resist the lamb (so not prixe fixe), S sort of shell-shocked by the price, but it was VERY nice. Aren't these thrilling chronicles?
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