capsfan2002

Am starting to explore Richmond a bit more. Today, went and did a tour of Agecroft Hall. This is a 15th century English Tudor home which was moved to Richmond from England in the 1900s. The home in England was in danger of being demolished. They only moved a part of it but it's still huge. They took it apart piece by piece, numbering each piece for assembly in the US. The home was put together with 19th century modern features (like working bathrooms). The woodwork inside the home is original and gorgeous. More about this home at: http://www.agecrofthall.com/ The tour guide was very good. Was an hour long tour of the interior. No photos allowed inside. They have a very good collection of furniture from the 14th-16th centuries. According to the guide, they also rotate ... read more

Tonight, went and saw the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Around the holidays, they put up massive amounts of holiday lights. All kinds of animals, insects and themes galore. Way more than are in these photos. I need a bigger tripod so some photos did not turn out. You can read more about Lewis Ginter at: http://www.lewisginter.org/ Somewhere I need to go back to in the spring when the flowers are blooming! Just sharing to my friends and family back home some of the sites of Richmond!... read more

Well, this was my last day of site seeing in Budapest. Was planning to go stand in line for the Parliament tour but when I got up and saw incredible blue skies starting to poke through, I nixed that idea. Did not want to waste what little I had of daylight (sun sets by 4:15 pm here) standing in line. So, instead, I headed over to Parliament to check out the outside of the building. The Hungarian Parliament is, I believe, the third largest in Europe. Very large gothic building. Following that, I took the tram over to Chain Bridge and headed back up Castle Hill to get some better day shots than I had been able to have before. Bought another delicious funnel cake (yum, yum) and walked over to the Fishermen's Bastion and old ... read more

Well, woke up at 5 am and I can't sleep so might as well write an update on my Day 2. Storm clouds were there when I got up in the morning so decided to try to spend some time indoors seeing some museums. At the top of my list was the Museum of Fine Arts located at Heroes Square. The square is a very large open space with some monuments and museums on two sides, the Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts. It is also adjacent to a huge city park which houses a castle which was created to reflect various architectural styles present in Hungary. Quite unique to see a castle like series of buildings with such varying styles on it. In fact, a bit confusing to the eye. A surprise ... read more

Today, my big event was going to be a trip to Hampton Court and then some miscellaneous things in the late afternoon and evening if time. It's my last site seeing day in London. I grabbed the train (only 9 £ roundtrip!) and took the 35 minute ride to Hampton, England. Hampton Court You immediately see the property on coming out of the train station. It…is…huge. And I love it. I am a fan of the tudor building style. My dream home would be tudor inspired with a big office/library with floor to ceiling bookcases for all my books. Back to reality…since I was there a little early, I walked around the public garden area for awhile and snapped some pictures and got a lay of the land. The flowers were still very much in bloom. ... read more