On Wednesday morning we caught the underground down to the Thames Embankment for a cruise up the river to Hampton Court. We were a little early so after organising our tickets we strolled up to Westminster Bridge to see all the goings on. Today was the opening of the new Parliament with the Queen and all the trimmings so the crowds were flocking in and police were everywhere. 
After paying tribute to Queen Boadicea, whose statue is on the entrance to the bridge, we returned to the wharf. 
Well it proved to be the most pleasant way to cruise up the Thames. As all the crowds had swarmed to the opening of Parliament there were only about 20 people on board and we sat on the top deck on a bright sunny day, with only a slight chill in the air, and were entertained by the young first mate cum deckhand who proved to be the most competent and knowledgeable spruiker. He gave us a good commentary on the decorative and interesting bridges
and key buildings along the river. Later we just relaxed with a sandwich and a bottle of beer and watched the scenery go by.
We went through two locks, the first one at Richmond,
It was interesting to view the various residences along the river, many very posh and nice and some surprisingly modest, 
as well as some beautiful old boats.
So after this very pleasant three-hour cruise we disembarked at Hampton Court and went to view the Palace. It was all very grand, the original palace having been built as a personal residence by Cardinal Wolsey, the most powerful and influential man in the land under King Henry VIII. Thomas Wolsey, obviously a prodigy and enormously painstaking, hard working and ambitious, rose from relatively humble origins to Lord Chancellor to the King and his most trusted adviser and fixit man. His fall from grace was equally spectacular when he failed to secure from the Pope the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.
Wolsey was stripped of all his positions and property and Henry happily appropriated Hampton Court, which he preferred to his own palace anyway. Henry greatly extended and rebuilt the Palace and the Northern half remains much as he left it although from time to time renovated and titivated by his successors up to the time of the Stuarts.
The next great builders were William III and Mary after their military coup that displaced James II. They employed Christopher Wren to rebuild the Palace but balked at his wish to demolish the whole place and start again due to the cost so just the Southern half was rebuilt in the contemporary baroque style. About half way through they gave Wren the push and passed the job to his deputy, William Talman who had given a cheaper quote and finished the job under budget. Goodness we could do with someone like William the Dutchman in Canberra couldn’t we?
William of Orange (in Holland) was James II son in law and his wife Mary was first in line of succession to the English throne until James finally produced a son. This heightened fears of a return to Catholic rule and William decided to make a bid for the throne of England; in this he was encouraged by powerful figures in England. In November 1689 he landed in England and just to be sure of his welcome he brought along 15,000 of his best friends, suitably armed. William and Mary were crowned as joint monarchs in January 1689; James having departed for France after many of his most powerful courtiers changed sides.
After George II Hampton Court fell out of use by British Monarchs and during Victoria’s reign it was restored and opened to the public.
We returned to London by train and got off at the West End where we were to attend, at St. Martin’s theatre, the 26,059th performance of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”, the world’s longest running play. First we hunted round for a reasonable meal which was much more difficult than we expected. Although there were myriad eateries of varied description, very few were particularly inviting and all were packed. Eventually we claimed a back room table in a pub cum restaurant and had a rather ordinary meal.
As you would expect in England, which seems to have an inexhaustible supply of character actors, the play was very well presented and acted and we enjoyed it very much. We are not allowed to tell you whodunit – that’s a secret. After the performance we were pretty well worn out so got a taxi home.
Thursday was our last day in London, with our flight departing in the evening, so we packed up and then went in to town to the Horse Guards Parade to watch the changing of the Guard. Very picturesque, and impressive when you consider that most of the young troopers had never set eyes on a horse, never mind ridden one, until they joined the Army.
After that we walked up through St James Park, past Buck Palace with more crowds and troops marching to and fro, on up to Hyde Park Corner and then to Harrods. Here we enjoyed lunch – very swanky – and did a little shopping. Bought a train for Mike and some scarves for each of our sons. I only checked the price tag on the first I picked up and bought four of our pick on that basis so got a bit of a surprise at the checkout! The boys did very nicely out of that!
Then it was time to go back to the flat and meet our hire car for Heathrow, followed by the usual mind and bum numbing flight back to our side of the planet. Ben met us at the airport and we went back to their place to see Claire and the girls and then made our way home. It was perfect day on Moreton Bay as we crossed on the ferry: “Hmmm….pretty nice here; why did we leave?”. But it was a fantastic trip; we enjoyed every bit of it.