Day 5: London

Our last full day in London was terrific. We are very tired from all the touring, so we had a more relaxed pace today. We decided to take a trip outside of Central London to see a famous palace of Henry VIII, known as Hampton Court Palace.

Our tube passes did not work this far from Central London, so we experimented with buses -- the lines and times are very easy to work with and all buses are included in our Central London tube pass. We made our way to Hampton Court Palace and were greeted by this:

Costumed performers, including Henry VIII on the right

The actors performed a full day of scenes from Henry VIII's final wedding day, to his sixth wife. A little corny, but it worked.

April and the boys wore period robes just to fit in.

The inside of the palace was spectacular.

The great hall.

Inside the palace court room, where the King's court waited to brownnose him, the boys played a board game of the time, Fox and the Geese.

Portrait of Henry VIII. He clearly missed few meals.

On the grounds of the palace, there is the largest hedge maze in England. The maze is half a mile big, and it takes about 10 - 20 minutes to find the center. Then you must find your way out again.
April in the maze.

Panic ensues inside the maze...

After a rest and lunch, we decided to take a boat ride on the Thames back to town.

Some beautiful homes on the river, MTV cribs style.

For dinner, we went to Chelsea. It is a pretty upscale neighborhood with a lot of nice shops and restaurants. After getting off at Sloane Square tube stop, we walked to Buenasera, a truly tiny Italian restaurant with seating that can only be described as "bunk bed chic."

The boys in their "seats" after climbing a ladder. FYI, there is another table directly below them.

The meal was terrific, and April and I enjoyed our prosecco.

We are sad that this was our last day in London. Being in London reminds you of how old this culture is and how many great people have come before us. While we would love to stay for many more weeks in London, we're also excited to start the next part of our adventure tomorrow, in Switzerland. We're going to try and visit the Wimbeldon tennis museum tomorrow morning before our early afternoon flight to Basel.