We caught a couple of Tudor characters in the Base Court before entering Henry VIII’s apartments.

They are actors for the re-enactment of “The Ambassadors Arrive” show at 11:30am.

The Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace was used for ceremony and entertainments. The Great Hall features a carved hammer-beam roof, typical of English Gothic architecture.

Extravagant tapestries decorated the walls of the Great Hall. (more…)

Hampton Court was built in 1514 by Cardinal Wolsey. It was originally built as Wolsey’s riverside country house. Wolsey is an Archbishop of York to Henry VIII.

The architecture of Hampton Court is of Tudor era with turrets, gables and chimneys.

Gargoyles decorated the front entrance of Hampton Court Palace. The above is a  dragon gargoyle.

A Lion gargoyle. (more…)

Day 7 was the last day for us to use our London City Pass. We decided to venture out of the city to visit Hampton Court Palace which is included in the London City Pass.

We took the Southwest Train from London Waterloo to Hampton Court. The train ride costs 7.20 pounds one way for both of us. It’s slightly cheaper for return ticket. We made it just in time for the 10:06 train.

The train was not full. Plenty of seats to choose from.

The train from Waterloo to Hampton Court takes 40 minutes. (more…)

Our next destination on day 6 was to visit Madame Tussauds. We bought the combo tickets for London Eye and Madame Tussauds earlier. Sherlock Holmes; one of my favourite TV…

We had lunch at Yo Sushi after the visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Yo Sushi is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Price of the item is color coded by the color of the plate.

For 2 pounds, one can have unlimited miso soup or green tea. We opted one each.

We ordered ramen instead of having items from the conveyor belt. The above was Chicken Ramen for Ben. (more…)

Here are more views from the dome.

The bullet like building is known as The Gherkin or 30 St Mary Axe, located in London’s financial district, the City of London.

Low rise buildings.

A green space. (more…)

After the guided tour, I went on to climb up to the Dome. Ben had done that before and he hated the narrow stairways up.

He dropped me at the first level and waited there while I climbed up by myself. It was a windy day.

View of the Millennium Bridge from St. Paul’s Cathedral with Tate Modern at the south end.

These were the narrow spiral stairways that Ben did not like. (more…)

We dedicated day 6 to two main attractions. Our first destination was St. Paul’s Cathedral, a Church of England cathedral. It is the seat of the Bishop of London.

Ben purposely brought me to ride on Bus 15, an old fashion double decker bus.

We got the front row seat.

St. Paul’s Cathedral was designed by Christopher Wren. It took 9 years to get his design approved and it took 36 years to build. The current location had been occupied by 3 or 4 cathedrals. (more…)

Here are some night shots to end our day five adventures.

View of The Shard and Tower Bridge from the city cruise.

Tower Bridge lighted up in the night.

Big Ben glows in the night. (more…)

We took the city cruise back to the city center from Greenwich.

Ben decided to bring to Harrods to grab something from the food hall to bring back to the hotel for dinner.

Got a slice of cake for dessert.

Harrods is a high end department store, even the lift looks posh. There are even perfume bottles in the ladies room. We noticed a lot of middle east customers in the store. (more…)