Hampton Court, Abbey Road, and Americans

Today was a Bank Holiday, so I opted to spend my free day at Hampton Court.  I took the train out at around 10:30 and was in the palace by 11:30.  Despite the crowds, I do not think I had experienced so much peace and quite since I arrived.  The Palace is beautiful and vast...I will openly admit that I had to consult my map quite a few times as I attempted to see everything that interested me.  As the day went on, the grounds became more crowded, but I still had a great time wandering the Palace and Gardens.  I was particularly taken with the Chapel Royal (where Jane Seymour's heart is supposedly buried under the alter) and the exhibit about Henry's Women.  Also, there were actors in costume portraying King Henry VIII, Kateryn Parr, and numerous courtiers, which was fun to see.  I also really enjoyed the outdoor maze.  It reminded me of the meditative labyrinths that I had previously read about, and I really felt at peace while I wandered through it (even with squealing children running around me in the narrow walkways).

On my way back to Nido, I didn't really want to hurry, since I knew that I would not go out again tonight, so I took a slight detour to Abbey Road for my Beatles pilgrimage.  Yes, I got a picture, and no, it's not very good (it's from a slight distance and there are other people crossing...Photoshop to the rescue!).

A slightly off-topic note: I have encountered several other Americans since I arrived, and I must say, the Midwesterners stick out like a very polite, gracious sore thumb.  Yesterday, I met a couple at Speakers' Corner that currently resides in South Carolina, who berated me for voting for Barack Obama (to which I responded "I'm in college" and smiled, like the sweet Midwestern girl that I am).  While I was having tea at Hampton Court today (yes, I had tea, and the most dense slice of chocolate cake I have ever experienced), a Texan businessman sat across from me, quickly downed his espresso (he is only here for a week, and was just visiting the Palace to kill time and keep himself awake), and joked that I was just slacking off for the summer (to which I responded, sweetly again, that I have spent the last two summers working a cafe job to support this trip, and that I will be working while I am here).  Finally, on the train back into the city this afternoon, I sat in front of an American couple that seemed to be around my parents' age.  As soon as I asked where they were from, I noticed the man's Colts t-shirt.  :)  Steve and Sarah, the Purdue grads who live in Indianapolis, were the kindest, most gracious and polite other Americans I have met in my week here.  They seemed genuinely interested in my internship (they're here as a vacation to celebrate Steve's birthday), and we swapped stories of our plans.  Before we went our separate ways at the train station, he patted me on the shoulder and told me with genuine concern to be careful while I'm here.  In a nutshell, this is my shout-out to my Midwestern friends back home.  We're definitely the most effective ambassadors.  :)  (And we certainly need ambassadors now...one of the workers at an exhibit at Hampton Court asked where I was from, and when I told him "Indiana...it's near Chicago" thinking that Chicago would be a good point of reference, he replied "Oh, near Michigan.  Flint, in particular."  I inquired as to whether he is a Michael Moore fan, and my suspicions were correct.  He told me that his only real representation of American comes from Michael Moore's films, apart from his knowledge of our involvement in war.  I just hope that he thinks slightly higher of us after meeting me...)