a 30-minute train ride from london will land you at a favorite retreat of king henry viii. court palace has stood on the north bank of the river thames for more than 500 years, and it's housed famous figures, incling eli mars. cardinal thomas wolsey of york began building the tudor palace in 1514, and by the 1520s, he had "gifted" it to an insistent henry viii, but wolsey was indicted for treason anyway. during his time here, henry managed to find time to remodel. he replaced part of the elaborate great hall, and it's said his tudor kitchen could serve 1,000 meals a day. the wolsey room holds some of europe's finest renaissance paintings, and the elaborate mazes in the garden are famous. the renaissance legacy that we can see-- tharanaritture-- lives on magnificently today, evidence of a tornado of creativity that maybe is unmatched in human history. 500 years after the renaissance, we still marvel at the magnificent work of artists such as leonardo and michelangelo. whatever inspired europe's renaissance, it was a period of artistic growth that forever changed the western

indeed, said at the academy awards when the first nonamerican film won an academy award which was henry the viii, he said even a hungarian can be wrong. [laughter] >> so i had -- when i was 13 or 14, i was given a priceless edition of pillars of wisdom. i grew up surrounded by people who had either known or admired lawrence. i joined the royal air force. at the age of 17 i got my first motorcycle and kept on riding motorcycles until finally a heart attack in central park -- [inaudible] margaret laid down the law and said, that's enough with the motorcycles. so without consciously saying that i emulated or followed lawrence, lawrence was really a kind of living presence the to me. and i would have felt wrong not to have written this book because i think lawrence is largely shaped in people's minds by two different kinds of books. one which takes the view that everything that lawrence said was a lie, that everything that he did was flawed and that everything he accomplished was useless if he accomplished it, indeed, at all. the other which takes the view that lawrence was a kind of secular saint,

. >> reporter: this is where william and harry spent time and so did henry viii and where the bachelors only club for men. just the men. >> reporter: the tour is the brainchild of 29-year-old james bonney who lost a film making job in l.a. to the economy. got the idea from americans for americans. >> you have an obsession with the royals. even a lot of brits don't actually share. a lot of brits actually think they can do without them. >> reporter: but can we keep up? for miles of will and kate. >> we're tackling obesity one yank at a time. >> reporter: kate will soon be walking -- down the aisle, her mom and sis apparently scouted out a gown with bruce oldfield. kate was spotted at a friend's wedding wearing the head turning single girl clothes while she still can. we talked to bruce oldfield yesterday who designed many dresses for princess diana and of course refused to breathe a word about his involvement or not in kate's wedding, but he did tell us she will likely want not one but two fabulous gowns for the big day. one for the church and one for the party afterwards. al? >> wow. al