Hampton Court Palace Gardens

After we had come home, changed and had something to eat after having had such fun on Sunday morning doing the Tuff Fitty Triathlon Club’s annual Frosty Aquathlon, close to where we live in Littlehampton on the coast of West Sussex, the furthest thing from our minds was to go home and take it easy for the rest of the day.

 

The main reason for that was that we had work to do that involved driving to the beautiful City of Bath. There Steve would be loading the truck for clients who had been showing their wares at the Decorative Fair that had been on for a few days. It was then that I scribbled down the poem I used yesterday in the time it took the guys to load the truck.

 

The client had enjoyed good sales at the show but there was still some unsold stock to be picked up and taken back to their warehouse close to our business premises outside of Arundel. 

As we were driving to Bath on Sunday, with the countryside looking decidedly spring like with flowers coming out everywhere and trees breaking into blossom, I mentioned to Steve that we should try to fit in a quick trip up to see the daffodils in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace which are such a joy to wander through in spring.

On the journey that day we had listened to quite a bit of ‘The Torment of Others’ by Val McDermid; that kept the conversation down to a minimum as we both concentrated on the plot that was a little hair raising and not a little bit creepy murder story. We didn’t finish it that day and still had two and a half hours to finish the book. 

This morning after we had completed our Tuesday morning turbo session, Steve said that if I would like to, we could duck out of work today and make the trip to Hampton Court Palace. Steve was raised in nearby Kingston-Upon-Thames and so knows and loves the area well. I love it as much because it is steeped into my favourite time in English History; The Tudors.

Of course I jumped at the offer of a nice day out dipping into history and walking the grounds and gardens of a favourite tourist attraction, and of course we would be able to finish our book on the journey there and back that is not a long drive at all.

When we arrived and parked the car we went into the Tilt Yard Café there for coffee and a snack. Steve had a cup cake with his cappuccino, whilst try as I do, I cannot choose anything but the Maid of Honour cake because you don’t see them anywhere else, well apart from the Maids of Honour Café by Kew Gardens then.

In the café we met an American man from New York City who like many visitors from the USA was armed with several cameras. We had a nice chat about this and that and President Trump, and it came to our notice that he did not have any idea about the history attached to this wonderful palace and grounds. We gave him a few of the more important points that made this a very special place all in the time it took to queue up for our coffees, drink them and eat our cake, there was not time on our schedule for a full lecture which he could get from a guidebook when he went inside the palace. Then, we in turn surprised him when we told him that we try to pop up every year just to walk around the gardens when the daffodils are out. He was also surprised to be told that the waterway there was the River Thames that he was amazed had popped up so far from central London. Nice man.

We knocked all information on the head at that point to get away and get on with our own plans for the day. It was a beautiful quite sunny day for our little treat of wandering around the grounds. Not all the daffs were fully out but one of the good things about these gardens is that there are so many different varieties, that the show lasts for a long time so whenever you go, there will be plenty to see though some may be dying back as other later types are just starting.