After a fun day in Belgium, it was back to England just like that. The Eurostar had a special terminal in the Brussels train station, since London bound trains had to undergo immigration, unlike the Schengen zone trains. I noticed that this train didn’t have as good leg room as the last. The two hours went by quickly and it was back to London.

My destination now was Hampton Court Palace, a place I was unable to see in my visit the previous year.

It is probably the biggest attraction nearby to the area where I was staying. The Palace was absolutely massive, one wonders how long it took to build such it.

The best part of this palace is the lack of crowds since it is far west of the city center, so most of the visitors are locals and school groups. Like most palaces here, there was a grand entrance.

Upon entrance, there were various square-shaped chambers that were easy to get lost in.

The bottom floor had various rooms with exhibits.

One interesting facet of these palaces is that the back looks as good or better than the front. I suppose this is why it’s called a palace.

There was an immaculate garden in the back that looked to go to the horizon.

This type of cleanliness makes one feel better about the exorbitant ticket price, at least it’s being used to maintain the facility.

After a few hours of meandering around, it was time to exit. However, I saw the Hampton Court bridge just in front of the entrance and wondered if there was a way to canoe. Just my luck that there was a man renting them out for 10 pounds per half hour, with a 20 pound deposit. I told him a half hour is all I needed, and he sent me off and wished me luck. I quickly discovered that making the canoe go straight was rather difficult with just one person. After a few minutes I figured it out, and understand why rowing is considered such good exercise. After canoeing to one side of the bridge and the other, I was satisfied. Here I realized that parking was the most difficult part of the operation, similar to landing a plane. After laughing at me for a few minutes, the man helped me out and let me go about my way. This type of experience is what makes traveling fun.

After this, it was a trip back home and a few hours rest before my first ever time at the horse races.