Monday, November 24, 2008
11/22 Saturday and 11/23 Sunday - Oxford
hello! i hope you all had a nice weekend. brian and i took a last minute trip over the weekend to Oxford. and i mean last minute...we didnt secure a hotel room or get the bus tickets until friday afternoon! we left london early (and i mean the-sun-wasnt-even-up early) saturday morning and made our way to oxford. its only about an hour to an hour and a half bus ride from here, so not bad at all. we werent sure how the weather was going to turn out as there were clouds and darkness looming on the horizon...in typical english fashion. but thankfully, we ended up having a gorgeous day!
we arrived in oxford a little after 9. after a quick stop in the tourist information office to get a
couple maps, we were on our way to the first stop on our weekend get away - Blenheim Palace. It is 20 mins or so outside of Oxford and where Sir Winston Churchhill was born and raised. what a lucky bastard. the place was ENORMOUS. seriously, the pictures dont even do it justice! we got there around 10 and thank god we got there early...there just so happened to be a christmas craft fair going on in the palace grounds that weekend and by the end of the day the place was a mob scene. anyway, a little history for you...Blenheim Palace was built for the 11th Duke of Marlborough as a gift from Queen Anne when he defeated the french. it took over 30 years to build. it was declared a world heritage site in the 80s and is quite an amazing site. the palace is situated on 2100 acres of property, and although it seemed like we covered 2099 acres, im sure it was more like 20. we explored as much of the grounds as possible, without me freezing to death, and saw many of the palace gardens, waterfalls and other hidden spots.
we pretty much spent the first half of the day at the palace and then returned to oxford in the
afternoon. after a quick lunch we went on a little walking tour around town, and then checked into our hotel. a little bit about the hotel...all i can say is that our room looked like Victorian era floral prints had thrown up all over the place. not one inch was not covered in flowers or floral prints. oh, except for the brown carpet. it suited our needs just fine though, and was clean and warm (once we closed the window) so we decided to stay. we headed back into town that night for a couple of pubs and dinner. mulled wine seemed to be a favorite of the town, and i happily went along with that. over all we give oxford two thumbs up, cute town with lots of history and culture, lots of shopping and pubs. we saved some exploring to do for sunday, but woke up in the morning with remnants of snow on the ground and pouring cold rain. brian and i looked at each other and headed straight to the bus back to london. overall a fun weekend :)
pictures will be posted tomorrow...i forgot my jump drive today so i dont have them on me. but make sure you check out the blog tomorrow, the pictures of blenheim palace are amazing!
we arrived in oxford a little after 9. after a quick stop in the tourist information office to get a
couple maps, we were on our way to the first stop on our weekend get away - Blenheim Palace. It is 20 mins or so outside of Oxford and where Sir Winston Churchhill was born and raised. what a lucky bastard. the place was ENORMOUS. seriously, the pictures dont even do it justice! we got there around 10 and thank god we got there early...there just so happened to be a christmas craft fair going on in the palace grounds that weekend and by the end of the day the place was a mob scene. anyway, a little history for you...Blenheim Palace was built for the 11th Duke of Marlborough as a gift from Queen Anne when he defeated the french. it took over 30 years to build. it was declared a world heritage site in the 80s and is quite an amazing site. the palace is situated on 2100 acres of property, and although it seemed like we covered 2099 acres, im sure it was more like 20. we explored as much of the grounds as possible, without me freezing to death, and saw many of the palace gardens, waterfalls and other hidden spots.we pretty much spent the first half of the day at the palace and then returned to oxford in the
afternoon. after a quick lunch we went on a little walking tour around town, and then checked into our hotel. a little bit about the hotel...all i can say is that our room looked like Victorian era floral prints had thrown up all over the place. not one inch was not covered in flowers or floral prints. oh, except for the brown carpet. it suited our needs just fine though, and was clean and warm (once we closed the window) so we decided to stay. we headed back into town that night for a couple of pubs and dinner. mulled wine seemed to be a favorite of the town, and i happily went along with that. over all we give oxford two thumbs up, cute town with lots of history and culture, lots of shopping and pubs. we saved some exploring to do for sunday, but woke up in the morning with remnants of snow on the ground and pouring cold rain. brian and i looked at each other and headed straight to the bus back to london. overall a fun weekend :)pictures will be posted tomorrow...i forgot my jump drive today so i dont have them on me. but make sure you check out the blog tomorrow, the pictures of blenheim palace are amazing!
**UPDATED 11/28 - pictures have been added! also, click on the link below to see all of the pictures from Oxford**
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