They must have known we were coming, it was closed.

This morning we woke at 5am, we tried to go back to sleep but with our circadian rhythm not fully in our new time zone, there was no chance of getting back to sleep. We spent some time watching a little tv and then having breakfast.

Sunrise this morning was at just after 8 am and then we were presented with the scurrying squirrels of Norma and Tony's backyard. These joyful animals are
great to watch and are full of energy whilst raiding feed from our host's bird feeders.

For us, it is a very interesting sight but from what we are told they aren't pleasant guests.  They have tendencies to dig up the gardens, dig holes in the grass and eat all the birds feed.

We have also learnt the squirrels in the UK are also mostly a cross breed of the British and North American variants. The British squirrels of past were mostly ginger but now are a grey ginger variant.

After breakfast, we walked to Hampton Court Palace, but there was an issue...

In winter the front of Hampton Court is transformed into an ice skating rink. Our cousin Jamie is currently manning the box office and we were given the task of dropping off his Santa hat.
I mentioned to him that the front gates of the palace were closed, he said, of course, the palace is closed today, tomorrow and boxing day.

After a brief conversation he went back to the box office and we found only the Hampton Court Palace Gift shop was open. I asked the staff member about the closure and was abruptly told 'even we need holidays'. I decided not to push the issue.

The afternoon then needed to be adjusted, we meandered through the bridge road shops and had a pub meal at The Albian.

Tomorrow, Christmas Day.

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