7.28.09 London.

our first time on a double decker. that was a moment to be documented.

The tube station is getting used to seeing us bright and early, although today we got to “sleep in” and meet at 7:50. It was another train ride and our first double decker bus experience to arrive at the Blenheim palace right near Oxford.

The palace was built in 1705 and is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is the cousin of one of the Duke’s of the palace. The current Duke is the 11th duke to inhabit the palace and what a lucky man he is. The place is amazing and we were able to just tour it on our own. After being mislead to go on an audio-guided Disneyland version of Blenheim, we were let out of the creepy moving figured rooms and were able to actually see the house. One of the rooms is the actual birthplace of Winston Churchill and they have the original bed bells on the side of the bed you could pull and have servants come assist you. The staterooms were similar to those of Vaux and beautiful as would be expected.

i just love the color of the palace. brady and I pondered how it came to be that color. sadly, we still don't know.

first gardens.

the lawn. i don't think it's possible to grasp how far it goes.

The house isn’t terribly large when comparing to many of the palaces we’ve seen already, but the gardens get me every time and here was no exception to these gardens. The lawn literally went on for miles and miles and was perfectly manicured. I can’t imagine keeping these grounds clean and pristine. We happened upon the secret garden and while not totally living up to its name, the garden was beautiful. It was just as you would imagine an English garden to be and more with benches, a meandering stream, and butterflies perched perfectly on blooming flowers.

it was magical really.

family photo in the garden. it was hard to stay on the tree if you can't tell.

Our day was ours to explore so after another long bus ride back, we made it to the city center of Oxford. With the weather promising for a sunny day of 70 degrees, we got rained it. Typical really but luckily it didn’t last long.

yum yum crepe.

Our first priority was to get food and fast cuz we were dwindling with no energy. A lovely crepe stand fulfilled these needs and I was ever so pleased with my chicken and cheddar crepe. Brady and I were also wanting an Oxford sweatshirt just because why not? I really wanted one with no hood because those are my favorite so I was on a mission to find it. We found a store full of Oxford paraphernalia, yet no hoodie-less sweatshirts in sight. Bummed but still wanting some Oxford gear, I ended up buying a still very cute hoodie and was pleased with the purchase. Brady was still wanting one so we headed literally 3 stores down and what should be the first thing I see when I walked in but a hoodless oxford sweatshirt…exactly what I wanted. I mustered up the guts to go back to the first store and return my newly purchased hoodie to get the one I really wanted. It was totally worth it and as I type, I sport my Oxford souvenir and love it.

we support london tourism.

It was a short trip to the city of Oxford but I think I’ll attend there one day. It’s a lovely town yet much farther away from London than I thought. The train ride home was filled with more sleeping for me. I have been trained to instantly become sleepy once I step on a train and sleep the hours away until we get home. We got home early and it was so nice to just have the day to ourselves and relax, and that is what I’ve been doing ever since we got home. Thank you flat 17 for letting me rest my feet for a while.