Wilfred and the Hamps

Hello!  It’s me, Wilfred!   I have to be very quick, because I have so much to tell you -- and  Poppy is flying around the flat like crazy packing our suitcase and tearing out to the bank to buy EUROS!   (more on that later). 

This has been the first week of Easter Break at Ravenstone. The weather has been really warm, so every day we do something extra fun outside – like pedal boating on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. 

Pedal boating on the Serpentine

Me getting my crew to pedal faster!



One time, some students taught me to fly a kite in Kensington Gardens



They were good kite flyers

Another time, Poppy took me on a double-decker bus from Kensington High Street to Trafalgar Square so that I could see the big count down to the Olympics clock.

I also met a Royal Guard...

And some London police bobbies...

And one day, our whole family went to Portobello Market.  Portobello Road is a street in Notting Hill, which is just on the other side of Kensington Gardens past the Princess Diana Playground. 

Me and Dad on Portobello Road

On Saturdays, the road is closed and people set up stalls to sell jewellery and pictures and books and clothes and all sorts of old stuff.  Dad wanted to look at old silverware to replace stuff that got burgled last summer, but mostly we just went for a poke around and to have fun. We had a snack at a bakery and I made Dad stand in a long queue on the street so that I could use the public lavatory. 

Me and Poppy having a snack

Me and Dad stand in a queue

The lav looks like a phone box with no windows and you have to go in one at a time (unless you are a kid).  And guess what?  Between each customer, the door closes and WHOOSH! It goes through an automatic cleaning cycle! Can you even believe it?   It sounds like a toilet flushing and washer-spin dryer… kind of cool and gross at the same time. 

Self cleaning...cool and gross...

Dad and I boogie to buskers

But we took two special excursions I really want to tell you about - and they both have Hamp in them: Hampstead Heath and Hampton Court.

Hampstead is a London neighbourhood on the other side of Regents Park.  To get there, we took the District Line from Gloucester Road tube station to Embankment and then transferred on to the Northern Line to Hampstead. 

Hampstead looks like a little English town on a hill high above London.  It feels completely seperate and lots of famous people live there in its big old mansions.  

Me and Dad at Fenton House

Our first stop was the oldest mansion in Hampstead, called Fenton House.   You climb from the tube stop up a steep hill on a windy narrow street to a beautiful old house built in the 1600s.  Today, they keep a collection of very old musical instruments there -- all kinds of harpsichords – which are like old spindly pianos but smaller and tinklier.  I wanted to try them, but they were too old for kids to play.  But the people there were very friendly, and they had cd players, so I could hear what each one sounded like.   

Me inside Fenton House with an old harpsichord...

The best part was on the top floor.  There was a balcony off the housekeeper’s room that had a great view of London... and the next door neighbour’s yard.  The guide told us their neighbour was a film director named Ridley Scott.  I never heard of him.  Dad said he did a really good job of trimming his hedges.    

Checking the view/spying on the neighbours

Fenton House has beautiful gardens of its own.  See our shadows?

 After, we had lunch at a café (called Scrumptious)in Flask Alley and then we walked on the Heath. 

Flask Alley is named after the old Flask Pub.  They call it that
because they used to sell visitors fresh spring water by the flask.
(a likely story, says Dad...)

Hampstead Heath is huge.  I guess a heath is what the English call a big park that is all wild.    Lots of people walk their dogs there through big old, old trees perfect for climbing. 

Me and Poppy on Hampstead Heath

Poppy and me try out a tree

We walked on a path through the wood and came out on to a big field and there was a huge white palace called Kenwood House. 

Me with Dad at Kenwood House

Poppy at Kenwood House

There is an alley of ivy at the side of Kenwood

Me and Dad and Kenwood from the front

The family who used to live here was named Howard.  They had lots of famous ancestors who liked to have their portraits painted.  They gave Kenwood House and its gardens to the people of England along with all the paintings of themselves.  They sure had a lot of paintings and a LOT of ancestors.  We looked at them all and all the beautiful, huge old rooms.  I told Dad, my favorite was the library. 

The Kenwood Library

After all that culture, I needed a SNACK and a good run around.  Luckily, Kenwood had both - ice cream and the perfect lawn.

Chocolate ice cream is the best cure for too many ancestors

While I rolled down the hill with some kids I met, Dad and Poppy checked out Kenwood's pond and all the strange and colourful ducks.

Poppy and the pond



Strange ducks



Afterward, we walked across more Heath – looked at the view of London far below. 

Me and Poppy on the Heath



Can you see the Gerkin?  How about the London Eye?  Big Ben?

When we left the Heath, we caught a double-decker bus back to the tube station.  Dad and I sat up front at the top.  The bus passed the old Spaniards Inn.  In England, stage coach robbers used to be called Highway Men and the most famous was Dick Turpin.  Guess what?  His dad was the landlord of this stage coach inn.  Lots of famous writers drank here, Dad said, with funny names like Keats and Dickens.  When the Spaniards Inn was built 300 years ago, the road to London was a pay road.  The toll booth is still outside the inn.  Even today, the road narrows to one lane and vehicles from both directions take turns going through!

The road at Spaniards Inn still is just one lane wide

The other trip we took was a day out to Hampton Court.  To get to Hampton Court, you take the tube to a train station and then catch a commuter train.  Since Poppy wasn’t too sure of the way when we went out, we left from Waterloo Station.  Thirty-five minutes later, we got off a South West Rail train at Hampton Court Station.

 

Me at Hampton Court Station

Hampton Court is a really enormous royal castle – almost as big as Windsor Castle – but the Queen’s family doesn’t live here anymore.  


Poppy at Hampton Court

The front half of the castle was built in the time of King Henry VIII and the back half was built in the Georgian times.  When you go inside, you can get an adult audio guide or a family one for kids.  Poppy listened to the adult one that told him all kinds of history and stuff.  Dad and I listened to the kids' one.  It was good, because it talked about beasts in the castle.  And because it was shorter. 



The beasts start at the moat, out front.  The lion stands for England.

 

The unicorn stands for Scotland

The audio guide started in the clock court.  King Henry had clocks to tell time and to keep track of the tides so he knew when he could sail down the Thames River to London. Inside, the first room was the Great Hall.     The audio tape told me all about King Henry and about the poor, olden-day ladies he married.  He had SIX wives!  Hampton Court was all fixed up for wife number two, but then he chopped off her head and married wife number three. 



Me checking out a clock in the courtyard

Shakespeare preformed his plays for royalty in the Great Hall.  This is me and Poppy looking like royalty.

The new part was built by Christopher Wren, the guy who
built everything in those days.  He must have been busy!

One whole room was for people to sit and look important and wait to see the Queen. 
This is me, sitting and looking important. 

There was so much to see, it could make your head feel dizzy.

There was lots to see, but I was glad when Dad said he thought it was time for him to go outside and run around in the sun.   It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of families out from London for the afternoon to have fun in Hampton Court's gardens.  

It was a beautiful day and I had no problem finding friends to ask to play.  Can you find me in this picture?

They even have two horses who pull a wagon.  The horses are named, Royal and Aragon.  They are the same kind of horses that King Henry used to have for jousting.  Nowadays, King Henry's jousting field is a golf course and the horses pull tourists.  Oh well, Royal and Aragon seemed happy.    

Horses pull tourists on wagons

Dad and I took a ride!

 

These used to be old jousting fields.  Now, they play golf here.

The view from the King's gate on the Thames 

I took this picture.  Dad and the King's privy garden



You never know who you will meet at a palace.  And guess who I saw?  King Henry!  They had actors pretending to be King Henry and his court on the day of his third wedding.  Dad and I joined the procession and yelled "Long live the King!" and "God save the Queen!"  

Hampton Court is famous for its maze.  They say some people take hours to find their way through, but me and Dad and Poppy did it in no time. 

And that is how we ended our visit.  We caught the train into Wimbledon and then home on the tube on the District Line.

Anyway, I would tell you more, but I have to RUN!  Daddy and Poppy are taking me on the EUROSTAR through the CHUNNEL to PARIS!!   Paris, FRANCE!  CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT!?!  

I will tell you all about Paris next week.  Talk to you then!   Wilfie