{"id":12,"date":"2012-02-26T20:17:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T20:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legreann.com\/IrishTwit\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2012-04-22T16:31:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-22T16:31:33","slug":"cornwall-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/legreann.com\/IrishTwit\/?page_id=12","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, September 4, 2011 | Blenheim, Oxford and Abbots Grange"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blenheim Palace<\/h1>\n
\"Entering<\/a>

Entering the Blenheim Palace Grounds<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived at Blenheim Palace and walked a couple hundred yards from the grassy parking area past a small gauge railroad track and through tall, black and gold gilded entry doors. We purchased our tickets and wandered through the palace rooms educating ourselves about its history. The palace was a gift to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough for his role in a military triumph against the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim.<\/p>\n

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\"Vines<\/a>

Vines on Blenheim Palace Walls<\/p><\/div>\n

Many of the exhibited displays revolved around Queen Anne who funded the palace construction and to Winston Churchill who was born in the palace.\u00a0Winston, by some stroke of fate, overshadowed his predecessor. There were also large oil paintings and artifacts relating to the Spencer family lineage. The Churchill-Spencer surnames were merged by \u201croyal licence\u201d (typical English political finagling of bloodlines. Therefore, the much beloved Lady Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales, became a direct descendent of John Spencer, the 1st Duke of Marlborough.<\/p>\n

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\"Fountains<\/a><\/dt>\n
Fountains and Gardens behind Blenheim Palace<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Exiting the interior halls of Blenheim, we walked through the well manicured gardens of boxwoods, statuary and fountains. Despite our late season arrival with fading rose blossums and overcast skies, the crisp lines of crushed stone paths lined with greenery were a pleasure to stroll through. Soft pastoral backdrops completed a picture worth painting from Winston\u2019s very own brush.<\/p>\n

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Oxford<\/h1>\n
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We walked back to the car, plugged in our new destination into the SatNav and headed southward to Oxford about ten miles to the south. We found a public parking lot and figured out to use the pay and display. Instructions weren\u2019t very clear and other people had trouble as well. We dropped in our pounds, placed the ticket on the dash and wrote down our location so we culd find our way back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A red, double decker Oxford tour bus stopped on the street so we walked up to and began to enter. He asked if we had tickets and we said no. He started to explain where to get tickets but suddenly had to move because of traffic behind him.We akwardly exited the bus but it pulled ahead twenty feet or so and stopped again for a stop light. He opened the door, we e re-entered again and he finished his conversation saying he would take us to the ticket booth up ahead. Pulling into a bus parking lot, called to the attendent at the booth, we paid our fare and he handed us a tour map and some ear buds. He explained that you could ride the bus all day and get on and off as you wished and to plug the earbuds into a panel at your seat for a pre-recorded tour in different languages on several channels or choose the channel that provided a live presentation. We told him that we would like to get off at the Christ Church stop and he said he would call it out when we arrived. We meandered through the city streets and listened as a gentleman pointed out all the historical buildings along the way. The driver called out \u201cChrist Church\u201d, we exited and followed the signs to the entrance gate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Christ<\/a><\/dt>\n
Christ Church Meadow Gate Garden<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

We couldn\u2019t get in the \u201cTom Gate\u201d entrance so we walked around to \u201cMeadow Gate\u201d which opened into a well-groomed lawn flanked by stone walls planted with flowers. The stone walked led to a wide open area of crushed yellow limestone and to our surprise, cows were grazing in a field to our right. We followed other groups of people to the ticket booth and entered the complex.<\/p>\n

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\"Christ<\/a><\/dt>\n
Christ Church Nave\u00a0<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Christ Church was part of our Harry Potter tour. Many scenes were shot at various locations here in the ancient (1000 years old) cloisters, rooms and quadrangles. No scenes were actually shot in the Great Hall as it was replicated through C.G. in the studios. A small gray-haired gentleman guide with a booler hat, recounted an anecdote of a child who said that this couldn\u2019t be the real Hogwarts Hall because it only had three rows of tables, the pictures moved and there was no ceiling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Some interesting facts:<\/h1>\n