The Adventures of Team PM: Up to date ...

I think I've nearly caught you up on everything ... when my brother was here we also visited Bath and a few other places that I had already been, hence no new pics to show. Rick and Sharon left on Monday the 25th - we got to the airport a bit late, but they made their flight on time. I then drove from Gatwicks' South Terminal to the North Terminal where Tim and Marlene were arriving. I ended up not having to wait too long.

The first day T & M were here we visited Windsor Castle, where we learned the Queen stayed on most weekends. I overheard someone saying that she had been picked up at 10:00 that morning, we arrived around 11:30 just in time to see the changing of the guard. We didn't plan that at all, we kinda walked right up to the gate and noticed people were lining the streets .... after asking a bobby we found out that the guard would be marching right past us momentarily - kinda cool. Defintely a lot more pomp and circumstance than the change of the guard at Rideau Hall! We went into the Castle and visited an exhibit of Queen Mary's dollhouse which displayed doll clothes too - it was quite impressive and some of the doll clothes looked more expensive than my clothes! From there we went into the State apartments and saw a great collection of art on the walls, as well as some cool artefacts. There was a musical clock in the Queen's Drawing Room that played 10 melodies by Handel - 6 were written specifically for the clock ... I guess if your a royal you can have your clock play the music you want! We also visited St. George's Chapel onsite where we were able to hear the pipe organ play some tunes - including Bach's Aria in G (i think that's what its called). This was much to Marlene's delight as this was the music played at their wedding. We also saw the graves of Queen Elizabeth, her husband and Princess Margaret located inside the Chapel.

From there we drove to another royal palace called Hampton Court, which was given to King Henry VIII as a gift from the Archbishop, Cardinal Wolsey. It combined a lot of different architectural styles due to several renovations over the years, the most notable by William III in the 1690's. It was also this time period when William and his wife Mary planted several yew trees in their extensive gardens, and you can still see these trees today. We didn't go inside due to lack of time, but instead toured the gardens and went through the maze ... we were a little presumptious in assuming that the maze would be easy. It has stood since the Baroque period and is more challenging than it looks :) Also, we were able to see what is thought to be the oldest grapevine in the world, planted during the 18th century.