28th June '13

Last night we moored at Walton on Thames - never seen so many pubs in such close proximity! I also had my hair done, which was a nice bit of pampering that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Today we woke up to the same weather we went to sleep with - rain. I checked the forecast and it appeared that it was in for the day so we went for it and got down to Hampton Court. We are moored right outside the golden gates and it's all rather nice.

Our friend Barbara, who we haven't seen for years, works as a gardener at the Palace here and gave us tickets to get in so we enjoyed ourselves immensely but only managed to get around about half of it and didn't see the gardens or the maze so we've decided to come back as it's just so beautiful. We had to get a weeks licence for the Thames as it was cheaper than 3 days, which is all we really needed, so we'll spend a couple of extra days mooching about.

One slight disaster today - I went into the towels cupboard and discovered that the shower inlet had been leaking, so John had to hike into Hampton to buy some stuff and he has now mended it, so all is well. Thank heavens for a handy man!

Look who was coming into the lock we'd just vacated today - Gloriana - the barge that Steve Redgrave et al rowed down the Thames in the Jubilee Regatta. She was amazing.

Here's the stern as she enters the lock, wow!

Despite not having a name on show, we are pretty sure that this is the houseboat that Pink Floyd used as a recording studio for many of their albums. If not then it's just a very impressive houseboat!

Definitely a bit of name dropping going on tonight - look who we saw at Hampton Court! He was agonising about getting a divorce from Katharine so he could marry Anne. I didn't like to tell him it would all go pear-shaped and that she wouldn't last long, seemed a shame to upset him, it being his palace and all.

I took so many pictures it was hard to know which ones to include - the place was just so amazing. This ceiling is in the entrance to King William III's apartments. It sort of wraps around the walls and the ceiling and is really breathtaking.

This was the ceiling in Henry's Great Hall - so beautifully crafted. Apparently he rarely ate there himself but despite that he had wonderful stained glass windows fitted when he married Anne, then changed them when he married Jane. Oliver Cromwell had them all changed to plain glass when he lived there and then Victoria had them replaced with stained glass in honour of Henry! Oh well, what goes around, comes around.

Just to show that not all the pictures were of ceilings - some were of stained glass, etc, here's one of the servants staircase from Henry's apartments - they are the most splendid 'downstairs' stairs that I've ever seen. They are usually very narrow and dark and a bit manky, these were beautiful.

Back to ceilings! This is another of Williams, in a relatively small room that held a huge bed (you can see the hangings) and little else, but it was where he actually slept apparently.

Is this the original 24 hour clock I wonder? It was dead on time, striking 4.00pm as we were there. It is incredibly ornate and the photo doesn't really do it justice, but I did my best.

John was just checking out the wine cellar! all empty I'm afraid. quite impressive though - this photo is specially dedicated to Natalie and Martin!