To Oxford! But First, Blenheim Palace

Tuesday was an early start (by our standards, anyway) since we had to meet Adam and Bhav to drive all the way to Blenheim Palace, about two hours away.  We piled ourselves and our overnight luggage into the minibus and several of us promptly fell asleep again.  About an hour into the drive, we stopped at a services station, which included a small grocery store, two Costa coffee shops, a Burger King, and some slot machines.  It seemed essentially like a mini mall, which I thought was weird, but apparently they have these at intervals along major roadways.

Security making sure we don't bother the film people.

When we arrived at Blenheim Palace, our first priority was food.  On our way through the main courtyard, we noticed a film crew and security officers; it turned out they're filming a new series called "Royals" at Blenheim.  The security guy who told us this added, "Yeah, the guy from the Chronicles of Narnia is in it too."  In unison, us girls blurted out, "Which one?!"  (It was William Moseley, who plays Peter, but we didn't actually see him.)  Gaping at the gorgeous courtyard and comparing opinions on the Narnia movies, we found our way to the Water Terraces and sketched while we waited for lunch to arrive.  Bhav gave all of us sketchbooks, pencils, and pens so we could try to draw the architectural aspects that interested us most.  Some of the group are pretty good artists...myself, not so much.

The Green Writing Room

After lunch, we took a tour of the public wing of the palace (the current duke and his family still live in private apartments in the east wing).  I almost didn't know where to look, between the furniture brought over from France, the 24-carat gold on the ceiling, the chandeliers, the portraits, the intricate tapestries and the bronze statue of the current duke's father as a baby (yes, it's just as awkward as you're imagining - apparently he hid it in a closet, but his son found it and put it on display for millions of strangers to see).  So I just snapped a lot of pictures and listened to the tour guide's stories about the battles the first duke won.

And then.

We proceeded through yet another doorway into yet another room, but this one did not have gold on the ceiling or a dozen oil paintings of deceased nobility on the walls.  This was the Long Library, and it was blessedly filled with beautiful, beautiful books.  I squealed, took pictures, wished desperately that I could spend a month or two perusing the collection without the pesky glass between me and the shelves.  It was absolutely breathtaking.

 

The tour ended here, at the foot of a (very flattering, according to our tour guide) statue of Queen Anne, so Bhav and Adam told us to explore on our own and meet back at the bus in a few hours.  Some people went to the Winston Churchill exhibit, others to the gardens, and a few of us wound up down by the lake.  We saw sheep, crossed the picturesque bridge, and marveled at the vastness of the palace from afar.  Our afternoon finished with a visit to the gift shop and some sketching time in the courtyard before heading back to the bus.

Blenheim Palace, looking back from the bridge.

Once the group had assembled, we were off to Oxford!  Well, sort of.  An accident somewhere in the city center brought traffic to a halt almost as soon as we got there, and then Adam went past our lodgings somehow.  Eventually we just got out to walk instead, and Bhav led us through town, weaving through umbrellas and puddles (did I mention that it was raining?  This was also when I discovered that I'd left my jacket at the flat in Nottingham).  At last the spires of Magdalen College came into sight and we huddled, dripping on the flagstones, in the lobby while Bhav checked us in.  The rooms were like any dorm room in the UK or the States, which was a bit disappointing considering how picturesque the college looked from the outside.

Oxford through the rain.

At this point, I had personally reached the angry stage of hunger, so we set out to find a restaurant Bhav had pointed out on our way there.  Blessedly, it had stopped raining, but Abigail very kindly lent me her coat just in case.  We had dinner at a burger place after much indecisive wandering, then found a pub in which to watch some of the Germany vs. Brazil game.  It will surprise very few of my lovely readers to hear that I was among the small party that left this sports-crazed venue early.

More on our adventures in Oxford in the next post, which should be up shortly.