Hampton Court

Hello again!
Today we went to Hampton Court, home to both Henry VIII and later William and Mary.

The cool thing about Hampton Court is that there are two different sections to it. Part of it was built during the Renaissance, as seen above, and part was built during the Baroque period, both of which I learned about in my history of architecture class, so I thought it was pretty cool.
In the Renaissance section, there are tons of these columned chimneys. Fun fact: no two chimneys have the same brick pattern.

The Baroque section was really gorgeous too. There's this lovely courtyard designed by Christopher Wren, the same architect responsible for most of the churches in London, since he was hired to design a bunch after the Great Fire of London burned down most of the old churches:

The Baroque section also had these gorgeous painted ceilings and walls:

Here's the back of the palace, which is done in the Baroque style. Both sides of the palace are beautiful, but I think the contrast is really interesting:

The fountain kind of got in the way, but you get the idea.
My favorite part, though I loved looking through the rooms of the palace, was the grounds. They were huge and beautifully maintained. I just wanted to stay there forever, walking around and reading books. I mean, look at it:

It was just really, really pretty. Hampton Court is also the site of the largest grapevine in the world, which I didn't know was something we kept track of, but there you go. I thought it was at least worth a pic:

After seeing just about everything there was to see, we got lunch and headed back. While waiting for the train, I bought a candy bar and learned that British chocolate is really, really good. It's much smoother and creamier than your standard Hershey's bar. I'm definitely a fan.
Anyhow, that was my day today! Tomorrow, some girls and I are going to check out a few markets, and next week, we're all going to Paris!