Mom and Dad are here - Hampton Court Palace

Pictures: 1) Dad and me with the London Eye behind, 2) Mom and me in front of the Imperial War Museum, 3) jocund daffodils, 4) King Henry VIII and 5th wife Kateryn Parr 5) one of the gardens at Hampton Court, 6) smelling one of the beautiful trees, 7) beautiful flowers in the gardens of Hampton Court






Mom and Dad arrived (after their plane the day before got canceled) on Saturday morning. After I met them at their hotel, they took a nap and later I walked them around a large portion of London. They were really troopers running off of three hours of sleep. I took them through Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Big Ben/Parliament, down along the river, and when we were almost at St. Paul's Cathedral we stopped at Ye Old Cheshire Cheese for dinner. It was really good, but the food took forever to come out so the nice Australian waiter brought us free dessert. I love the atmosphere of that 1667 pub, and I wish I had time to go there again before I leave!

On Sunday we took the tube all the way to Waterloo Station to catch a train to Hampton Court Palace, but the man at the ticket counter said not to bother because they were working on the rail lines and it would take over an hour and a half to get there! Instead we went to the Imperial War Museum where we listened to two WWII veterans talk. One of them was very old indeed (I think his name was Ron) and he had literally been in almost every major European battle of the war. He was one of 92 troops that survived Dunkirk from his battalion (out of over 900 to start with). He then fought in North Africa where he said the spiders were huge and terrifying, then was in the campaign that invaded Italy starting with Sicily. As they made their way north through Italy, his mate who had gone through everything with him was sitting across from him in a trench when a bomb landed between the 2 men's legs. The bomb exploded toward his friend. When Ron opened his eyes he saw his friend blown to pieces and was covered in his blood and guts. He said that was the worst moment of the war for him. He got away with only a piece of shrapnel in his head, which they took out and replaced with a metal plate. He also had his knee blown nearly off in Italy and a bayonet through the stomach, yet after each injury he was sent to hospital and after a bit of recovery, sent back into the fight. He continued to fight at Monte Cassino (which incurred tremendous losses on the allied side) all the way up through Austria and such.

Ron returned home after the war ended, having been away for six years . He was one of 5 boys and 4 girls. When he returned he discovered that all his brothers had died in the war, and both his parents and three of the four sisters had died in the bombings of England. I can't imagine what he must have felt like - after living through all he'd lived through, only to discover he had only one sibling left.

The audience was free to ask questions and I asked if he'd known about any of his family's deaths before he returned, and he said no. He hadn't been able to mail or receive letters the entire time he was fighting because there were not post offices - all the towns were blown up. He said even when they were given a few lira to spend in Italy there was nowhere to spend it.

A boat finally took him back from the continent to England and it was a US LST. He said he loved the Americans because when he got on they asked him what he wanted to eat, and they brought him the best food he'd ever tasted in the whole six years. They even had ice cream and coffee. haha

After listening to the war vets, we went to the Holocaust exhibition. I'd already been there last time, but I thought it was so moving I wanted Mom and Dad to see it as well. We spent quite a while there.

After that we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and looked for a place to eat, finally settling on Bella Italia. It was pretty yummy. From there we went to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner, and my friend Natalie (who is studying in Scotland this semester) was in town for the evening, so she came over and had dinner with us and watched "Twilight" which Mom brought with her. Mom made a delicious meat loaf with steamed green beans, rolls, baked potatoes, and ice cream bars for dessert (well, we bought those). It was SO nice to have a home cooked meal.

Today we did make it to Hampton Court Palace and oh how beautiful it was! It was even lovelier than last time - all the flowers were in bloom and it was such an overload of gorgeous imagery! I wanted to drink it up and felt inadequate to do so properly. There were absolutely fields of daffodils and tulips, and even with my stuffed up nose I could smell the flowers! We also got audio guides for the palace and walked through the house that was first built by Wolsey, later taken over by Henry VIII, and then lived in by King William and then King George and his wife Caroline. There was also a special celebration of the marriage of Henry VIII to his last wife, Kateryn Parr which we got to "witness" (i.e. - dressed up actors). It was pretty entertaining.

After returning to Waterloo station we got pastys for dinner (yummy pastry breading with meat and potatoes inside).

That has been the last few days in a nutshell. Tomorrow I think we'll go to the Tower of London (where some of Henry VIII's wives were executed...I'm telling you, this man is somehow involved in everything having to do with England).