Blenheim Palace, according to their brochure, was conceived in 1705 by Sir John Vanbrugh and is a masterpiece of English Baroque architecture. It was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough following his historic victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. My first impression is that the grounds were magnificent, you could see they went for miles and had interesting looking buildings and statues amongst them but we ran out of time to explore them so maybe in August I will go back just to do the outside although our calendar is already looking a bit full already.

The buildings from the entrance we went through looked ungainly and the huge expanse of space on our approach which only had gravel made it look quite barren and sparse. Other aspects of the palace were very nice though and I have included some photos so you can see the contrast. No photos allowed inside so I robbed a couple off the brochure, The best features were the Long Library and the ceiling panels at the entrance we went through, six eyes, three blue, three brown and one of them is featured above. The eyes were restored in April 2008 and were painted in 1928 by Gladys Deacon, the 9th Duchess of Marlborough.

The family still live in the palace but part of it is open to the public and it is very nice. One of the guides said they still have Christmas dinner in the formal dining room that we viewed. The interior walls in the central part were all stone and marble but the salons were decorated with furniture to match wall coverings. The Blenheim tapestry was away being cleaned so we missed that. The salons that we viewed were very ornate and had 22 carat gold embellishment on the ceilings. Some of the ceilings had murals, the long library was supposed to have had three mural panels but the first Lady Marlborough was a difficult woman and she quarreled with the artist so the panels remain blank. There were two parts to the viewing, one was a guided tour of the rooms with a display about Winston Churchill who was born at Blenheim. the second part was very clever and involved an automated show where you walk up to a portrait and hear about the laying of the foundation stone and building celebration, then another door opens and welcomes you in to where the lady of the house is causing the poor architect problems, there is a dummy with her back to you and her face reflected in what looks like a mirror, another dummy above is holding a length of stone molding up. The ladies maid in the corner relates part of the story and the two dummies engage in dialogue. Very clever. When that presentation finished the door opens and you are invited into the next room and so on. I found it very good and there were also some facts and figures about wages and job descriptions from different eras in the palace.

Woodstock is the township adjacent to Blenheim Palace. There are many pubs there because Woodstock is an old coaching stop, not a sign of a horse but loads of small quaint old drinking establishments and lovely old buildings.

Oxford City is crazy which is why we catch the bus there. A tongue in cheek guide to Oxford that Martha owns claims the bus drivers are trying to systematically reduce the number of tourists, students and locals and I would believe it too. The streets were clearly made for horses and carts so when too many buses go down one street at once and stop at their designated stops everything comes to a standstill which is a good time to cross the road, but you betta be quick. It is obviously a university town of many hundreds of years 700 I think, I left my leaflets at Martha's and I am in the Forest of Dean as I write this so you can google that if it is important and correct me if I am wrong. Early learning was about people sitting and listening to learned men and then colleges were formed. Oxford University today consists of about 38 different colleges. The architecture is amazing, very studious looking so I took lots of photos. I walked down towards the Magdalen Bridge (pronounced maudlin) which is next to the Magdalen College.

The two photos above are taken from the tower of the St Mary the Virgin Church. It costs 3 pounds to climb the tower, only 20 people allowed up there at one time. The sign said it was 127 steps but they did not mention that was steps for the actual tower itself and there were more before you got to the bottom of those steps. The steps were narrow and spiral and steep, fortunately no one mentioned that either. Up I went only to meet a gaggle of Americans on their way down. I stepped into the window ledge space and let them pass, after a whole heap had descended I said how many more up there, only two was the reply from somewhere above (you couldnt see around the corners). When they came past they said I was almost at the top and it was worth the climb. And it was. Up there space was minimal too but we managed, the view was interesting and breathtaking.

Christ Church college looked the most impressive to me and it had the advantage of being open as most of the colleges are a bit sporadic with their opening times, probably because people are inside them trying to learn things and dont want a lot of noisy tourists disturbing them. On the day I went the Cathedral was closed and some people had come back to view it only to be disappointed again. Apparently, according to the tongue in cheek guide to Oxford, this is normal. Anyway I did see the Great Hall which is very Harry Potter, Hogwartsesque with its stone walls, woodpaneling, portraits, tables set for the students dinner that evening and just the sheer size of the room. The first picture is actually Colfax Tower which stands in the centre of Oxford between Queen and High Streets.

As I said I am now in The Forest of Dean but more on that next week. Martha is having a break from Hazel and getting on with some things such as training for her Karate Grading on Sunday so I hope she does well. Then on Monday the 14 Jul she will drive up to Anglesea to pick me up for the ferry crossing to Ireland. She dropped me off at Didcot railway station last Saturday and I caught the train to Gloucester where my cousin Lawrie and his wife Eileen picked me up and drove me to their place in Sling, near Coleford in the Forest of Dean. The trains were pretty fast, when they went through the station without stopping they were pretty scary. Quick and comfortable journey of just over an hour from Didcott to Gloucester so it wasn't too bad on the inside of them.