Learning some history on a bike
I’ve always been interested in history & the Tudor period in particular so I was super excited when my husband announced he had booked a trip to Hampton Court Palace as my birthday present. The main part of the day was a guided cycle tour around HC park. I’d never been to the area before & had no concept of the size & scale of the park area.
On arrival at our meeting place a lovely young Dutch woman introduced herself as our guide & allocated us a cycle each. We were a group of 7 in total including 3 American visitors from Texas. The bikes were really interesting; vintage Dutch bikes with no gears & pretty heavy. Our guide assured us that the route was perfectly flat so no gears were necessary, although as a Yorkshire cyclist I couldn’t quite imagine 8 miles with no hill!
We had a little practice cycling around the car park. Although the upright position & wide handlebars felt very different at first the bikes were really comfortable & easy to use once we’d got the hang of it.
We set off around the park & almost immediately came across a large group of deer. They were perfectly relaxed about the surrounding bikes, people & occasional cars, our guide explained the deer have inhabited the park since Tudor times so never escape or wander onto the surrounding roads as they feel totally safe in their home. We went carefully round them as it was rutting season making the males unpredictable, not a good idea to get too close to those antlers!
Our guide was brilliant and kept us entertained with lots of information about the history of the park along with little stories and fun facts. The weather was really kind to us and we were able to sit outside to have a quick lunchtime beer halfway through. I’ve not been to London very often but I was really surprised what a large, beautiful green space the park provides. Cycling around it was really easy and a great way to explore the area. I would recommend it to anyone planning a visit.
(Our cycle tour was booked through coddiwompletours.com)