Daytrip Deux

Saturday was another lost chance to catch up on some much needed sleep, as we had to meet the coach at Harrington Gardens at 8:45 for our daytrip. Carolyn and I were actually among the first few to arrive, and of course had to wait for some stragglers, but we managed to leave South Ken pretty much on time. Our tour guide’s name was Linda, and I can describe her entirely with one phrase: she loves the sound of her own voice. As we pulled away from Harrington, she gave us a brief time table of what we would be seeing and doing, promising to let us “get in a nice snooze” before arriving at Blenheim Palace. That would have been possible if she hadn’t repeated everything she said multiple times, adding different adjectives each time OR step in as weather-man, giving us a detailed forecast for the next eight hours (basically it poured then stopped. the end.). In any event, the drive from South Kensington to Blenheim Palace took about an hour and a half, perfect timing for our 11 o’clock guided tour. The Blenheim Palace is the only private estate in England to be called a palace; every other is owned by the Crown.

 The Palace was originally given to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, as a token of appreciation (pretty nice “token,” huh?) for beating the French and the Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim; however, it’s main claim-to-fame is that is the birth-place of Sir Winston Churchill. He was born six weeks early, to his American mother, in one of the front bedrooms of the Palace. We were able to see the room as well as first “baby cloth” (19th century onesie) and his first locks of hair. He also proposed to his wife Clementine at the Palace.

In the the Gardens

 The rest of the tour highlighted the beautiful painted portraits of past dukes and duchesses, ornate murals, and exquisite tapestries. After the 40-minute tour was over, Carolyn and I ventured out to the gardens to admire the perfect hedges and fountains, and to take a few pictures. Facing one way, the majestic palace towered behind us; the other featured the sparkling lake and fountains. Carolyn immediately wanted the nature background, while I assumed the Palace would be our back-drop. I think we finally found something we don’t agree on! In any case, we got the best of both worlds (I hope everyone has been catching on to my subtle Hannah Montana references throughout the blog) and had pictures taken in both directions. After admiring the gardens, we headed in to the small café for lunch: enter scones. We both got a home-made lavender scone with a small pot of strawberry jam; Carolyn said it was the best scone she’s ever had, and although I can’t say I’m a scone connoisseur, it was absolutely delicious (and the jam was incredible).
After lunch, we met back at the coach for the 15 minute drive into the heart of Oxford. Unfortunately, their term doesn’t start until October, so there were no brilliant British men to be found, but we did manage to take in a good part of the town, including Christ Church, which is probably the most well-known constituent college of Oxford University. It is absolutely breathtaking; I can’t even imagine it being someone’s “campus”! We were excited to find out parts of Harry Potter were filmed there, and even saw the inspiration for Hogwart’s dining hall (they had to recreate it on a larger set because they didn’t get permission to use it).

Hogwart's Dining Hall Inspiration!

Christ Church College

However, the pinnacle of our day was the wedding that was taking place while we toured around. They had rented out the Cathedral for the ceremony and the dining hall for the reception. We saw a few of the guests (Carolyn even stepped in as photographer for one), but of course the highlight was seeing the groom and (handsome) groomsmen having their pictures taken against the spectacular backdrop. We could not stop gushing over how incredible it would be to get married there (or at the Palace… we saw a wedding there too!). Guess we’ll just have to marry someone from Oxford!

Next stop was “Alice’s Shop” (Lewis Carroll’s The Old Sheep Shop), where the real Alice used to buy her sweets 140 years ago, and which Carroll incorporated into “Through the Looking-Glass”. Now it is a store dedicated to all things Alice in Wonderland. We still had about 2 and a half hours to spare before heading back, so we decided to just walk around and shop (don’t worry parents we didn’t buy anything except an Oxford t-shirt!). We saw some really cute and expensive things, and some really cheap and not-so-cute things; why does it always work out that way? We also checked out the “Eagle and Child,” Oxford’s most famous pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both worked on their most well-known pieces of literature. By this point, our feet couldn’t take the cobblestone streets for any longer, so we found our way to a cute little home-made ice cream store for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up before meeting the coach for our journey back to South Ken. When we got on the coach, there was really no reason for Linda to use the microphone, as we had been given information on the same route coming in, and everyone was exhausted by this point. Instead, she decided to go on a 10-minute discussion about the following day’s trip (which about 98% weren’t going on), practically giving us a play-by-play. At this point, Carolyn and I were both so tired, we started laughing over her commentary and couldn’t stop. Luckily she decided to give the mic a rest and give everyone a little piece and quiet on the way back. Amen. We both snuck in a short nap, but by the time we got back to our flat at around 6:30 we were beat. A quick dinner with some flat mates and some Skyping was all we could handle before calling it a night. 8+ hours of sleep tonight will be a (much needed) treat!
xo LC