Blenheim Palace

When my friends and I were planning their visit here, we identified a few places we wanted to go. One of the places we all found interesting (in part because of guide book recommendations) was Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Back in the states, we had anticipated taking trains wherever we wanted to go. After being here a while, I started thinking about the downsides of train travel. My colleagues have rented cars and managed to adjust to driving here, but I had some real concerns about whether or not I could handle driving here. When I lived here as a girl, our family had a car and I did some limited driving, but I was concerned about whether or not I could pick it up again after all these years. I talked one of my colleagues in to coming along and possibly driving if I rented the car. With the help of our program associate, I booked a rental car for the weekend. My colleague graciously agreed to walk with me to the rental office. Fortunately, she talked me in to getting an automatic. It turns out that automatics aren't all that common here--particularly as rental vehicles. My colleague has more experience driving a standard shift, and the first car I owned was also a standard shift, but neither one of us fancied shifting with our left hands. We had to wait a bit until they could find us an automatic, but it was soooooo worth it.

My colleague suggested I give driving the car a try, so I climbed in behind the wheel. My colleague coached me out of the parking spot and off I went. We made one misstep (turning the wrong way), but got back to the flat lot and collected our Duluth friends for our first big adventure.

It was a little rough at first. The roads here are quite narrow and the citizens tend to park halfway on the pavement and halfway on the road--sometimes on both sides of the street. Those are the moments which take a few years off the lives of inexperienced international drivers. After a few "curbings" (driving up on the curb to avoid collisions), we were on our way.

My colleague navigated us through the Cotswolds--"An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". It was an absolutely charming drive, although it felt a bit dodgy at times. That said, it was absolutely lovely. As we drove along, we discussed the etymology of the name. A quick Internet check, revealed that the names means "Cod's high open land". Our favorite village was Chipping Campden ("Chipping" is from Old English cēping, "a market, a market-place"). Although we didn't spend any time there, it was so picturesque we regretted not stopping.

Still, our destination was Blenheim and we sped onward (actually, I was very careful to stay at or under the speed limit). The palace is situated outside the village of Woodstock. It was a bit shocking actually to find ourselves on the outskirts of the palace grounds after passing through a seriously narrow street. The grounds are spectacular. We were guided to park our cars on the greens some hundreds of yards from the palace gates. The day before had been rainy, so the grounds were damp and muddy. We sloshed our way out of the lot and toward the palace gates.

The gates themselves are gilded and magnificent.

The gift shop and cafe are huge, but are dwarfed by the palace itself.

Winston Churchill's ancestor John, the first Duke of Marlborough, won the gratitude of Queen Anne after proving victorious in the Battle of Blenheim (Blindheim) in 1704. In return for his service to the crown, Queen Anne awarded Churchill the funding for the magnificent palace and the equally (surpassing perhaps) magnificent grounds.

We chose to go on a guided tour of the house after entering through the portico.

These eyes were painted at the direction of the 9th Duke of Marlborough's second wife Gladys--brown eyes for the Duke, blue for Gladys.

We weren't permitted to take photos inside the palace. Apparently, there's some controversy about whether or not to allow photos. We weren't about to disobey, so we focused on the tour guide instead. Our guide was an elderly gentleman who managed the tour quite effectively.

While the palace is reminiscent of Versailles, it's not quite as opulent. Having said that, it's an incredible "house"--although that word does not do it justice. The porcelain collection was very beautiful. Apparently, the King of Poland admired the Duke of Marlborough's staghounds, and he offered Meissen porcelain in exchange for hounds. The collection of family portraits is extensive and impressive, but not as impressive as the marvelous tapestries.

For my money, the best part of the house is the long library (183 feet by 32 feet). Originally planned as a picture gallery, the 9th Duke populated it with more than 10,000 volumes. The front end of the library has a grand piano. At the far end of the library is a huge pipe organ.

Once visitors pass through the library, the next stop is the family chapel. As it was outside the house proper, it seemed acceptable to take photos.

Outside of the chapel was the beautiful water garden.

After wandering the water garden, we went through another part of the tour which included an animated and dramatized retelling of the history of the palace. The mannequins were animated and positioned against mirrors which used "reflections" of actors. There were also interactive displays allowing for deeper stories and anecdotes.

We ended the day at the gift shop which featured some mighty tempting tchotchkes.

This box of "macaron" trinket boxes reminded me of my daughter's wedding.

These tubes of shortbread aren't tchotchkes per se, but with my clotted cream addiction, they were hard to pass by without purchase. This pillow sports the Churchill/Marlborough family motto: Faithful but Unfortunate.