Flying Solo Once Again: Blenheim Palace
I thought that my only adventure left would be Belgium with the Hertford Choir, but during my last few days in Oxford, I decided to plan one more solo adventure for myself, sort of like my trips to Bath, Paris, and Stratford at the beginning of term. I had heard from some other friends that Blenheim Palace was only a thirty-minute bus ride away. So I woke up early on Sunday morning and caught an early bus toward Woodstock.
If you don’t know what Blenheim Palace is, don’t worry; I didn’t know before I traveled to the UK either. But my tour guide on the Discovering Shakespeare’s Country Tour said it was a great part of the Cotswolds, something not to be missed. The royal family doesn’t live there; it’s actually owned by the Duke of Marlborough. The first Duke was allowed to build it after winning a great victory at the Battle of Blenheim (see where they got the name?). The really cool part of the house’s history is not the Duke though, but one of his relatives, Winston Churchill. He spent a lot of his childhood at Blenheim, riding horses and exploring the vast grounds. In fact, he was born at Blenheim. I loved reading about this great man. I knew before that he was a great politician, but I didn’t know he wrote books and painted. Hallmark even printed some of his best work as greeting cards. I know that British children learn a lot about Churchill in their history classes, but I didn’t in mine so it was great to learn a little bit more.
