Kayla & Vanessa's Visit: Days 4-6

*Disclaimer:

Phew! So, this post is HUGE.

I was originally going to make it "Days 4-7" 

but I had forgotten how many pictures I had of Hampton Court! 

That could probably be made into a post of its own... 

I hope you enjoy it anyway though.

If you need to, you can take a break part way through...

4.

On Tuesday, we went to Falkland Palace.

We made a pitstop in Auchtermuchty, but the Tannochbrae Tearoom was closed.

Closed! 

It was quite a blow.

Who closes on a Tuesday?

Anyways, Falkland Palace.

The gardens were much lovelier than the last time I was there.

She's so cute :)

Heh, she's pretty adorable too.

A girl with her falcon, perhaps?

She makes me laugh :)

5.

There aren't a lot of pictures from Wednesday.

We took the train down to London!

We were traveling for the majority of the day, and by the time we got to the hostel, 

we were pretty much pooped.

We walked around a bit after checking in, but we were in an area 

just too far from the city center to see anything of real interest.

This is more or less how we spent a large chunk of the day:
Reading and sleeping.

King's Cross train station!
Unfortunately, we didn't have time to find Platform 9 3/4...
Kayla and Vanessa were going to try on their way back to Heathrow,
but I haven't heard if they did.

6.

Thursday was bright and sunny.
Hurrah for sunshine in the UK!
We took the Tube and the Overground to Hampton Court Palace.

On ze train.

The Thames.

taDA!
Hampton Court Palace, ladies and gentlemen.

The Clock courtyard.

This amazing mural/ceiling was in the first room we stepped into.

The guardroom, where visitors were made to wait until they were allowed in to see the King.
According to the guide, the weapons (all fully functional, of course) were intended
to intimidate the French visitors in particular.

A tapestry.
Can you imagine weaving something so huge with such incredible detail?
The folds in the clothing look 3D!

Hey look, there's us.

The King's study.

more frames.

This was in the Orangery.
There were many statues all along the wall.

All of the rooms above were built by William III, or William of Orange,

but the older parts of the palace were inhabited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

There were some curious beasties on poles in one of the courtyard gardens:

But THIS was my favourite.

It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book Put Me in the Zoo.

Kayla and I in choir robes.

I love this picture so much.

These pictures are from the kitchens and more servanty areas.

There was a Roman Exhibit.

The Triumphs of Caesar, by Andrea Mantegna

Banquet hall

Outside the Orangery.
Those little shrubs are orange trees.

A nice man took our picture for us in the immaculate, meticulously trimmed Privy Garden.

These next two are from the Pond Gardens.

Giant wisteria

The Great Vine: the largest and probably the oldest still living grape vine in the world.
It's over 240 years old.

Jube-jube trees.

In the lovely Rose Garden:

It smelled amazing in there.

I have never seen (or smelled) so many roses together in one place.

Bushes and bushes of roses.

After Hampton Court Palace, we went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub for an early supper.

This place was so old and cool!

Built in the 17th century, Charles Dickens could often be found here.

After supper, we went to see Wicked in the Apollo Victoria theatre.
It was AMAZING.
Chills and goosebumps and everything!

The stage.

We are very excited and happily unaware of that guy in the picture behind us.