A Day at Blenheim Palace
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Welcome back to another post detailing my England adventures in March 2019. It's hard to believe this was almost a year ago....I seriously get emotional thinking about it and looking at these pictures, reliving the memories, because this day was one of my favorites!
What a day this was in England/Oxford/Woodstock! I don't think I realized what a DREAM Blenheim Palace was before I went....it was all my period drama fantasies rolled into one! Not even going to lie, I think the soundtrack to Pride & Prejudice was ringing in my ears all day :)
After my sister & I arrived in Oxford we started planning out the concrete details for our next couple of days. We had a list of things we wanted to do, but not all of them worked out logistically. We really wanted to go to Stone Henge, but the distance and transportation were a LOT to work out in our time table. We (I) really wanted to visit Highclear Castle (where Downton Abbey was filmed) but sadly they were closed for the season when we were there (sobs). With all of that, we decided to visit Blenheim Palace at the suggestion of our hosts.
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Blenheim Palace was the home of Winston Churchill & is full of so much rich History! Blenheim Palace is now the home of the 12th Duke of Marlborough, continuing on with it's historical British heritage. Fun fact about Blenheim Palace, is that it is the only estate called a "Palace" that never housed a Royal Family! It is also one of England's Largest houses and was built
Blenheim Palace has also been featured in many films (movies & TV) often being used as the Royal Palace. It has been used in the TV Show "The Royals", Cinderella, & even the new Do Little movie (plus many more).
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I went online the night before to book our tickets & we bought our bus fair to Woodstock. We woke up early the next morning, took our mile long track into town (that sounds so "Austen" when you I say it) and made it to the Bus stop, boarded and started our journey to Blenheim Palace.
Blenheim Palace is located in Woodstock, which is about a 30 minute bus ride from Oxford. Next to visiting estates and wondering streets in England, some of my favorite sights are the countryside from a bus window...it is truly breathtaking!
We arrived outside Blenheim Palace around 8:30 am (I think) and made our way down the VERY LONG driveway! Since we took the bus, it dropped us off right at the Entrance to the estate, which meant we had to walk down the long drive (which is about a mile long) to get to the Entrance (quite a way to start one's morning).
Upon arrival we popped into the cafe for a quick latte and sausage roll (another one of our favorite English treats).
After we finished our quick breakfast, we started to explore the estate! We both got headsets so that we could hear about all the different rooms, which was educational. Funny thing, is that my sister HATES museums and visiting estates (that is really my forte), but she actually loved Blenheim Palace...so that says something.
Blenheim was designed in the English Baroque style and is truly breathtaking in its grandeur, size, and beauty. The interior of the palace is truly beautiful with marble floors, gold accents, and beautiful paintings and tapestries. Each room is more spectacular than the one before and they are all unique in their own way, purpose, and color. The library at Blenheim was truly incredible, not to mention there is a huge organ at the end of the room. Blenheim also has its own chapel which is classically beautiful, but the grounds were truly one of my favorite parts of the whole estate. The Garden right off the estate reminded me of something from an Austen novel and it overlooked the river that ran through the estate.
After we had finished exploring inside the Palace, we ventured outside to explore the grounds. Blenheim is truly a massive estate and one could easily spend all day there. We spent close to an hour walking along the grounds, exploring the garden, hiking down to the water fall & pump house, and meandering along the river paths (all in all it was about 1.5 miles)....it was perfection!
After we finished exploring the grounds directly around the estate we headed inside for an afternoon tea of "Earl Grey" and Maple Cake. There is nothing quite so wonderful as having tea at a Palace.
While we would have loved to have spent more time at Blenheim exploring the other garden on the estate and then walking into the town of Woodstock, we sadly had to catch a bus back into Oxford.
On our trip to England we visited so many amazing and historical places, but Blenheim Palace remains one of our favorites and the one we continue to talk about to this day.
If you ever find yourself in England you absolutely HAVE to visit Blenheim Palace. If I ever get to go back to England I know I would easily go back to Blenheim without a second thought!
- Madison