We'll start with last Tuesday! I woke up with the preconceived notion that Tuesdays would be my one day in the week dedicated to day trips to other parts of England! I was purposefully being very spontaneous about it too. I didn't look at a map or anything I just filled my backpack with a days worth of necessary items and set off. I made it to the bus terminal and peered longingly at the signs above each bus port. Most of the buses go to London and some go to Cambridge. I plan on going to London every Wednesday so I didn't want to go there and Cambridge is like a 3 1/2 hour bus ride (one way) so I am saving that for a weekend trip. Then there was a sign that said buses to Bedford!!! With me being the huge It's A Wonderful Life fan that I am I thought it would be awesome to go somewhere that must be something like Bedford Falls!!!! I went to the ticket-master and asked how long it was to get to Bedford. 2 1/2 HOURS!?!?!? I can't do that. It was already noon. So, I asked him what he might recommend for a day trip and he said I should go to Woodstock. It is only 20 minutes away and it's super adorable he was telling me. SOLD! I bought my ticket and settled into the bus letting my imagination fill with thoughts like 'I'll probably find some ancient palace, or some magical waterfalls or something amazing'. I was off! Sure enough, about 20 minutes later we were winding down the tiny, quaint, cobblestone streets of Woodstock. LOVE! I instantly fell for it's charming ancient architecture and even just the way the town was laid out.
I didn't want to get out in the middle of town because I wanted to start at one end and sweep through the city. As we rounded the last bend in town and started into some tiny neighborhood. I noticed a huge, towering structure off in the distance behind the houses.
The curiosity welled inside of me! I suddenly couldn't care less if all of the adorable houses in town spontaneously combusted, as long I saw what the heck that monument was! I didn't know if the bus was taking me towards it or not and because I only bought a ticket to Woodstock, and we were now leaving Woodstock, I thought I'd better just get off the bus. There I was standing in the middle of a mess of houses blocking me from the unknown awesome structure gleaming in the distance. There seemed to be a vast expanse of nothingness directly behind the row of houses along the road and between me and my destiny! But how was I supposed to get through them without seeming like a spazz, crawling over and through someone's yard and busting through their back gate!? Then, as if by intelligent design, I knew to walk to the left and pass about three houses. When I turned to face a driveway I noticed it had a small gate at the far edge that said footpath! Triumphantly, I ran towards it! Thank you GOD! I busted through the gate and was at the edge of the hugest field ever! It was like a dream! Rolling hills of emerald green grass with gorgeous trees intermittently sprouting up. Off to the far left was a huge pond! With a closed off boardwalk covered in ducks and geese! That would have to wait though. I could almost taste success. There was nothing between me and this monument that no longer represented anything from English history but now was a monument built for me alone. Erected to glorify the time I defeated not knowing what a thing was!!! Against my will, I had to actually follow the footpath because had I strayed from it I would have been vexed with about 30 lbs. of extra weight put onto the bottom of my shoes by the ridiculously thick English mud. The path took me in an indirect route towards the pond. I should have been excited to see all of the beauty along the way but because I am very single minded sometimes I was gently fuming that I couldn't frolic through fields to victory.
That's when it happened! The monument had been standing about 400 yards directly in front of me over some hills and suddenly seemed to fade away when my eyes caught sight of the most amazing palace I had ever seen! It was far away but nothing could disguise it's magnificence.
The thought of wasting any more time trekking towards that silly monument was now laughable. I had a greater purpose now! I had no choice in the matter either. It drew me nearer and nearer to it. I was passing people on the trail with a vengeance! It was growing more and more gorgeous the closer I got to it! I knew nothing about this place except the fact that I couldn't take my eyes off of it and there were now dozens of other people surrounding me in the same silly stupor that I was in, walking like zombies towards this, for lack of a better word, castle. If someone came out of the front door looking like Quasimoto and told us to drink some Kool-aid I am convinced that we all not only would have drunk it but would have fought to be the first in line!
I reached the palace gates and that's when I learned that it was just that, a palace. More specifically it was Blenheim Palace. I still knew nothing about it. It was without question though that I would be going inside of this place and learning everything there was to know about it whether it meant selling my first born or not! There were signs with arrows leading around to left side of the palace. There I found a gift shop and an ice cream parlor. Which totally makes sense. Because when I think of ancient palace I think "As I tour the gardens that were designed before my great grandmother was even born I'd really like to be enjoying my 'love it' size Strawberry Blonde from Cold Stone's"
I spent the next 5 hours touring the palace and grounds. It was incredible! I ended up finding a palace and waterfalls!!! There are over 200 rooms in the palace, an organ that is over 300 years old and is the size of my old house (not kidding). We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but here are a few of the grounds and the chapel.
The grounds were equally as impressive with rose gardens throughout, a gorgeous boathouse, and waterfalls. The most impressive part is that it was mostly all man-made. That's slightly sad but when you think about it at the time they hired a landscaper to do it things like a back hoe and tractors and all that jazz didn't exist so they had to dam up the creek and dig out ponds the old fashioned way....... slaves. Which is also not cool but way more impressive because it looks so beautiful and natural.
So, a little history of Blenheim palace. It was built as a monument/gift to the First Duke of Marlboro by Queen Anne. He led the Allied forces against the French during the wars of the Spanish Succession. In 1704 The Duke led the army in the Battle at Blindheim (Blenheim) and received the surrender of Marshall Talland, leader of the French forces. The First Duke of Marlboro was named John Churchill. So, as you can imagine, many years later the Seventh Duke of Marlboro's grandson was named Winston. Winston was born in the Palace and spent most of his early life there. He was also very good friends with the Ninth Duke of Marlboro and his wife. Winston was the great wartime leader! And is probably the most recognized and celebrated Prime Minister. His grave is about ten minutes away from Blenheim Palace in the family lot at St. Martin's Church in Bladon.
All in all, it was an incredible day! I loved every bit of it! I hung out in Woodstock that evening and ate at one of the local pubs. It was delicious!
Check out pictures online of Blenheim Palace. You can see some of the rooms inside. It's so amazing!
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