Of course the palace has an older and much more complex history and is more than just about Henry VIII, but this is who I know the most about really. We spent the time to see both the garden and some of the palace.
Both are quite enormous. In the Palace we visited Henry the eigths apartments and the gigantic kitchens that serviced and fed everyone. We also wandered through the apartments of William III and Mary II. The palace isn't lived in by any royalty anymore - in fact its not really lived in by anyone anymore. The apartments and decorations are all restored to certain periods and are quite different depending on the era. Well worth the look, but you could spend days there just to see everything.
The gardens are on a huge scale and actually really enjoyable but aren't complex or overly ornate. They are surprising simple and while not ordinary, certainly somewhat plain at which I was slightly surprised.
They are however lovely to walk through and have lots of areas that are sectioned from each other to give quite different themes and ideas.
The rose garden was quite spectacular. It was in full bloom and the smell was fantastic - I think it is safe to say that if you go to a garden in Europe in May, it will have an amazing rose garden.
There were perrenial boarders and wilderness and formal pond gardens and lime and yew walks.
Some of the gardens that were viewed from windows inside suddenly made sense. They seemed ordinary when in them, but looked spectacular when seen through the windows. Obvioulsy were designed to be looked from the inside...voila!.
We were lucky enough to be there when there was an exhibition on about how and who designed the gardens and in what era and which purpose....so that made the gardens much more relevant.
Suddenly it drizzling...what is it with this English weather. We are having our first wettish day and having to get our coats out...and of course we are wingeing about it. Hope for a fine day tomorrow.
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