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Published: August 2nd 2015
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Anyone who knows me knows about my near-obsession with Tudor history. Therefore, my time alone in London was planned out to allow me to see the most historical Tudor sites as I could, given my limitations with time and transportation. My first day back in jolly old England, I headed out to Hampton Court Palace - an absolute must-see for any Tudor enthusiast!
Obviously, I knew all about Hampton Court Palace's storied history, but I bought the guide book anyway because it was a great souvenir and I still learned things I hadn't known. After a coffee and a pastry, I set off on my tour, using my book to get around all the famous areas. The rooms I liked the best were (obviously) all tied to Henry VIII - the banquet hall where he dined with Anne Boleyn, the famous hall where Catherine Howard was supposedly apprehended, screaming at the King to show her mercy, and the small room where Henry married his last wife, Catherine Parr. The council room was also really cool, as they had a recreation of the council members speaking and holding a meeting there.
After seeing that, I went through the rest of
it, including the kitchens, the wine cellars, and the rooms that were tied to the later royal families. Everything was so amazing, and I loved it so much I didn't mind doing it alone anyway, as I did it at my own pace and could linger where I wanted to. The staff were sometimes in costume, too, and one courtly-dressed man greeted me as he would a courtier back in the day. That was pretty cool, haha.
Once I was finished there, I made my way back into the heart of the city and tackled my other big Tudor site: the Tower of London. Here, I got an audio guide so I could walk through with the guide telling me what to do, and I could skip and move around to cover the areas I wanted to hear about. This made it a great tool for me, who had some specific things I wanted to see (the place where Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Gray were killed, for instance) and some things I didn't bother seeing because the wait was too long (like the crown jewels - a 3 hour wait!). But I did see the armor
collection and some of the cells and interiors that I hadn't known about, so that was exciting.
At the end of my Tower of London excursion, it started raining, which wasn't a problem - that night, I met up with one of my old coworkers from my conversation school in Japan. It was so nice to see her again! We had some yummy local beers at a craft brew bar, and then some delicious Spanish food (with wine)! We had a great night talking and laughing and catching up, and I went home very full and content.
The next day, I took some time to venture out to Shakespeare's Globe Theater - a recreation, as the original burned down in the fires, but a very faithful one. I walked along the riverbank from the station, and it was very nice and beautiful and the weather was great. I got there just in time for a tour starting, so I hopped into that and got to go through the theater and see all the cool aspects of it, like the doors that actors appear from beneath the stage, and the upper wings where the audience sits. I love Shakespeare,
so I was very excited about seeing this. After I was done, I had some lunch by myself at a nearby cafe, and sat and read my new Tudor history book on my Kindle.
From there, I just meandered aimlessly and took in some of the sights, like the London Bridge, and then went back to my hotel, as I was very tired and needed to pack up everything to fly to Germany the next day. It wasn't a super busy day, but I saw what I wanted to, so I was happy with my time spent in London.
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