Fit for a King

Day 65

Yesterday, Thursday, we went to Hampton Court. This was (one of) the royal homes for a number of years around Shakespeare's time (Shakespeare, in fact, performed here. This is where Macbeth was first performed and A Midsummer Night's Dream was also done here--in fact, we stood at the top of the Great Hall where plays were performed and quoted some Shakespeare!). The place is simply immense, with all the state and living chambers, and regularly feeding 600 people a day, with an army of servants, cooks, and food suppliers to match.
This clock is really cool.
We're about to go into the Maze! It's one of, if not the, oldest garden mazes.
Debating which way to go...
We made it to the center!
The gardens were my favorite place, especially these funny moundy trees and fountains

Me: Tracy, take a picture of me in front of this really cool long pond! What should I do for the picture?
Tracy: Look pretty
Me: Uhhhhh

Me looking pretty:
Apparently, jumping is the thing to do in this picture spot
The moundy trees had really cool ropey trunks. And a nice British man volunteered to take our picture
More cool gardens with topiary and statues

Also, while we were wandering around, I saw a little boy about 7 or 8 who simply has to be Rupert Grint's little brother. There's just not any other option. He was such a Weasley!

They make candy a little differently here (Bounty is like Almond Joy without the almond, or a milk chocolate Mound). These are for passing our cleaning checks :)

We finally had a free night, so a group of us decided to go out to see a show. They're all right around Picadilly Circus.The first of the Christmas lights at Picadilly Circus
Random really cool cab

We saw Les Miserables!! It was incredible. If you've never seen it, I'm telling you now that your life is not complete until you've see a good production of Les Mis. The singing and music was amazing, and they did a phenomenal job with the lighting and staging. They had a huge circular portion of the floor of the stage that could rotate, which let them do some amazing things with moving characters and sets around. Simply stunning.