We reverted to our normal breakfast time of 8.30 before driving the Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court is currently undergoing some restoration which meant the iconic view of the main entrance was covered with scaffolding. The size of the building is impressive but somehow the history of this amazing place didn’t come alive for me.

The one exception was the Chapel Royal which has stunning architecture and is also one of the areas that has maintained its original use since it was built. Maybe I was feeling the atmosphere of a ’space’ that has remained constant but flowing throughout the years…

The artwork displayed at Hampton Court both on the walls and in frames is impressive and we each had our favourite pieces that we lingered over.

We didn’t explore the gardens as much as we would have liked. It was rather hot and we were also running out of time. We did however walk to see The Great Vine, the largest grape vine in the world and also The Royal (real) Tennis Court which dates to 1625. A garden I would have loved to visit is the Magic Garden, I love a bit of fantasy and it has a dragon! But sadly, adults are not allowed in unless they are accompanied by a child. It was suggested that we could borrow a child and come back another day…

We were a little late back to the hotel so we chose to book into the hotel restaurant, allowing us to chill out after our long day out. The food quality was good but the combinations of dishes didn’t quite work for us. When Mr C’s sirloin steak arrived it was a thick cut more like rump, he did query if he had been served the right cut as did another customer. Both were informed that it was sirloin but cut thicker than usual!

Rather than stay in the hotel for a night cap we strolled across Windsor Bridge to the George Inn which was a lot livelier than our previous visits and presumably because it was a Friday there were no calls for last orders as there had been the previous nights.

Miyamoto Musashi

We set off later than we intended, stopping at Warwick services for lunch. The place was heaving, so we picked up some sandwiches and drinks for an in-car picnic before continuing on our journey, which took us to a small village called Brill. Brill was Tolkien’s inspiration for the village of Bree in Lord of the Rings.

Much to the bemusement of the locals I had my photograph taken with my Shire medal from my recently completed walking challenge. Afterward, as we we were driving along the motorway a Red Kite swooped down, swooping back up only just in time to miss hitting our car. Phew!

On arrival in Windsor we found the Hotel’s offsite car park then made our way to the hotel, Sir Christopher Wren to check in. We took our suitcases to the room before setting off for a cuppa and a walk around Windsor.

Back at the hotel we freshened up before dinner at The Boatman, a place we had dined on a previous visit to Windsor. We had a pre-dinner Prosecco whilst waiting for our food to arrive. Unfortunately the waiter got Mr C’s order wrong and the Roast Beef he ordered arrived as a Roast Chicken portion which he particularly did not want. There were no more roast meals left so he settled for fish and chips instead. There was no real apology, discount or sweetener for the error.

We returned to the hotel bar in order to use the free drinks vouchers we had received for making our hotel reservation direct with the hotel. The bar staff said the bar would be shutting early because it wasn’t very busy that night. This was to the dismay of at least 10 people who turned up just before the bar shut at 10 o’clock.

From the St Paul’s Cathedral website:

The present St Paul’s is the fifth cathedral to have stood on the site since 604, and was built between 1675 and 1710, after its predecessor was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. This was the first cathedral to be built after the English Reformation in the sixteenth century, when Henry VIII removed the Church of England from the jurisdiction of the Pope and the Crown took control of the Church’s life.

The architect of St Paul’s, Sir Christopher Wren, was an extraordinary figure. Although he is now best known as an architect, he was also an astronomer, scientist and mathematician.

Wren was a founder member in 1660 of the Royal Society, a national academy for science, but he was also a man of profound Christian faith. He came from a family of clergy who had been loyal to the Royalist cause during the Civil War, and it was faith that inspired his though. ‘Architecture’, he once explained, ‘aims at eternity.’

As an architect favoured by royalty and state, Wren’s commissions varied wildly. They included the Greenwich Observatory and Greenwich Hospital, and extensive work at Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace, as well as some magnificent building in Oxford, where he studied and worked as Professor of Astronomy from 1661 to 1673.