Blenheim Palace: Or, Woodstock With No Hippies

Surprisingly, I was not ditched by Josh for our trip to Blenheim Palace. In fact, we even had time to go to the bus station for breakfast before we needed to board our bus. While at breakfast, we ran into Dr. Snyder and his family who were on their way to London. (Which is where we could have gone if someone hadn't been so uncommitted, but I'll let it go from now on. Just remember, I'm the victim in all of this.)

Despite having traveled on double decker buses before, I had yet to ride on the top level, so I decided we should climb the stairs and sit in front seats. That was a mistake. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure we almost died on the way about four times.

Today's trip to Blenheim Palace was special because it happened to fall at the same time as the 2012 GE Blenheim Triathlon. Because of the craziness going on (and our lack of knowledge of how to obtain tickets), we managed to make it to the palace steps without obtaining tickets. So then this exchange happened:

Palace Worker: Tickets, please.

Us: Tickets? We were already supposed to buy tickets?

Palace Worker, very concerned: What, you don't have any tickets?

Us: No. Where do we buy them?

Palace Worker: Hold on, one moment.

So we stood by awkwardly until we were guided to what looked like an emergency ticket booth set up. Apparently, we weren't the only guests who had managed to overlook the ticket booth in the hubbub.

Valuable life lesson: When buying anything, especially a rather expensive ticket, count your change. Because, when you don't, you manage to pay the wrong amount for your ticket. And when you realize you were only charged one third as much as you should have been, it's way later and too late to correct the cashier.

At any rate, we finally made it inside the palace and entered into the Winston Churchill exhibit. Churchill was born at Blenheim and was also where he proposed to his wife. Unsurprisingly, these rooms were the most crowded.

Somehow, we managed to get trapped between multiple tours (in multiple languages) as we went through the palace. As Josh can speak German, he was able to understand and translate what the German-speaking tour guide was saying. When we later came upon the French-speaking tour guide, I only caught a fragment of his speech because of room's acoustics and his very thick British accent, so my translation was less impressive. The English-speaking tour guide simply would not let us be in the same room. Even though it was a free tour and we paid to be there.

However, thanks to Josh's knowledge of the palace, I technically got a really interesting tour. (I'm not really sure how he knew all of this. Odds are he probably read some sign that I missed because I was distracted by the shiny things.)

According to Josh, the first Duke of Malborough gained the palace as a present from Queen Anne for his efforts in the War of Spanish Succession. Skipping ahead a few generations, the ninth Duke of Malborough married the American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt for her money to save the palace. (Apparently, Consuelo is the feminine form of Consuela, which is commonly confused for a female's name.) At this point, the story reminded me of "Downton Abbey" and the marriage of Cora to Lord Grantham. Except, that's television and they fell in love.

Consuelo's mother was apparently obsessed with her daughter becoming a duchess. And even though Consuelo's parents were divorced, her father paid for the marriage to take place. Consuelo didn't want to marry Malborough but did so to please her mother. And after their wedding, he told her that he loved another woman, never planned to return to America, and hated all things that weren't British.

As you can see, he was a nice guy. It's no surprise that she finally left him years later.

After we finished with the castle, we went outside to explore the grounds. At this point, I discovered my camera was dead and I would be unable to take photos. I was disappointed when I was informed that there was a waterfall.

My disappointment deepened after reaching said waterfall. It was rather gross because it smelled terrible and had suspicious looking foam in it. Honestly, I was terrified I would fall in and become transformed by pollution into a sea creature. This trip was also notable because we saw a type of duck that was not a mallard.

Shortly after my waterfall dreams were crushed, we made our way inside because it began to sprinkle. After deciding to eat at Woodstock, rather than the cafe on the grounds, we made our way through town to find a nice pub.

Suggestion: If you have money to burn, you can enjoy Churchill Champagne Tea for £24.00 a person. For more information, visit Blenheim's website. On another note, the palace also does weddings. 

After eating in town, Josh somehow convinced me to go to an antiques fair. It was rather fun to look at all of the stuff on sale, although unlike some people I didn't try to buy a cane. The day was growing late, so we caught the bus back to Oxford.

After returning to Oxford, I managed to get G & D's ice cream out of the trip, and agreed to watch the classic silent German film "Metropolis." 

Although it wasn't the trip I was originally hoping for, it turned out to be a lot of fun. And although I may complain (mostly jokingly), it has to be admitted that the unplanned can sometimes be the best type of adventure.

But I still maintain we're going to Iceland ... one day.