Hampton Court

Today we took a lazy & scenic boat ride to Hampton Court. Starting at Westminster Pier aboard the Connaught river boat, we began our meandering 22 mile southwest journey along the River Thames. (The Connaught is a historic boat built by Salter Brothers Oxford in 1911). The trip was very relaxing except when it got too cold and masses joined up down-below.



Only the German tour group was fairly rude - pushing in to sit right up against us and telling Connor "you need to move over" (even though this was an hour into the trip and we were sitting there from the beginning of the trip). But I wasn't going to let that get to me (I have an elbow you know).



The exciting part of the trip was going through the 2 locks - one at Richmond and the next at Teddington. This was the first for us traveling through a lock. Here is a picture of Kyle looking out... you will see the water line when we entered and then again when we ready to leave the lock.



We arrived at Hampton Court (home to King Henry VIII) in the afternoon. The kids wanted to go through the hedge maze, so we paid $20US to do this (after instructing them not to exit right away -- got to get our money's worth!).


Then we wandered through the gardens. The rose gardens were amazing - roses the size of my fist (sorry, not too poetic) and fragrant just strolling pass.