Blenheim and to London

July 7th (Mon) – Today we woke to rain again. I didn’t sleep very well as we were on another small bed (Mike and I just don’t well on a double bed; we need at least a queen) and I’ve also had the sniffles. I don’t know if I’m allergic to something or if it’s just a low-level cold but I keep getting stuffed up and sneezy. In any case, we were the first people down for breakfast, so the tea room was quiet and breakfast (the same sort as always) was relaxing. We had planned to head for Blenheim Palace when it opened at 9:00, but when we asked our inn keeper, she explained that the grounds open then but that the palace itself doesn’t open until 10:30. As it was raining pretty heavily, there was no point in heading over to explore the grounds first, so we hung out in the room until it was near time. Then we checked out, loaded up the car, stopped at the Post Office to load up our phone, and then walked to the Palace.

Given the off and on nature of the rain, we had asked our inn keeper if we could drive up instead, but she told us that you couldn’t really get that much closer anyway. This turned out to be untrue, but the walk was nice enough as the rain was only a mist at this point. The grounds are huge – and there was a beautiful lake with lots of water birds in it. I think I saw a pheasant on the lawn, but I couldn’t get close enough to really know what I was looking at.

We had a short wait at the main entrance before they opened, but as it was covered, it was pleasant to sit and walk and look about the exterior. This is actually the home of the 11th Duke or Marlborough, who lives in the East Wing of the house. I have to say, it was pretty magnificent. Really elegant and we had an interesting guided tour. We learned that the first Duke of Marlborough had been given the title, the land, and the money to build the estate as a reward for defeating the French in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. This was quite a victory for England and thought to have been a brilliantly fought campaign, and Queen Anne was not stingy in her gratitude. We actually got to see some wonderful tapestries that depict that victory and others as well (there are 10 in all but we only saw 9 as one was off to be cleaned) – and we got to see the actual dispatch John Churchill, the first Duke, sent from the battlefield to say he’d won. The only paper he had on him was a receipt from a tavern and he wrote his hasty message on one side of it. The family still has it and it is on display in one of the rooms. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the palace, so I couldn’t take any pictures to remind me of the rooms there. As you might expect, there was lots of marble and, strangely enough, a lot of French furniture; the latter was apparently purchased by the 4th Duke (we were told that at that time, lots of the French nobility were unloading their furniture, which was why the Duke was able to purchase so much of it). Perhaps the most impressive room to both of us was the immense library that ran the length of one whole side of the house. The ceiling was amazing, really beautiful, and I wish I could have had a picture. Between the ceiling and the books, I know exactly where I’d spend my days if I lived in that house.

There have been 10 more Dukes since John Churchill’s time and the current Duke, No. 11, is in his 80s (and has been married three times; interestingly enough, there were portraits of Wives No. 1 and 3, but not of No. 2 – wonder what the story is there?!). Winston Churchill, although never in line for the succession, was born there and liked to spend a lot of time there, so there was a big exhibit about him at the palace, which was fairly absorbing. He was quoted as saying that he took two big decisions at Blenheim Palace: to be born and to marry (having asked his wife to marry him while visiting). After this, we strolled around the gardens (also commissioned by the 4th Duke and undertaken by Capability Brown, a popular and very talented landscape architect of that time) in the small window of sunshine we had. This meant that we got rained on going back to the car, but it was worth it to have seen the brief slice of the gardens that we did. If we’d had more time, I could have spent another several hours there.

As it was, we were already late to return the car in Oxford as we’d intended and although I called, there was no answer at the Oxford office and the main number didn’t seem to know how to handle our dilemma. So we decided to head out as soon as we could. I had looked up the general location the night before, so that got us in the right area. I knew we shouldn’t cross the river into the heart of the city and as we were coming to a bridge that would cause us to do so, we turned right for lack of an alternative. This turned out to be the right road and we found the car drop-off location by accident. However, we hadn’t gotten gas yet and so we passed it, went back to the main road, and ended up driving around for another 40 minutes or so looking for a gas station (we did get to see a bit of Oxford this way, whereas we had decided we didn’t have time for it before). Needless to say, we were a bit testy with each other and we finally decided that the best plan was to get back on the highway we’d come in on as there were gas stations on that road at various intervals (please don’t ask why we hadn’t gotten the gas on this road to begin with). Having accomplished this, we dropped off the car and I think Mike was very pleased to be done with it. He really did a LOT of driving and I’m sure it was tiring for him. For me, I’m glad to not have to look at another map and try to figure out where we should turn every ten minutes or so. I’d be willing to be that navigating the tube in London will be a piece of cake compared to this.

The train station was about a 15 minute walk from where we had dropped off the car and as we had a rain-free window, we walked it. We were seconds too late for a train just leaving (the whistle blew just as I was paying for our tickets) and so we had a half hour to kill before the next “fast” train. This was better than running flat out with our luggage as we’d had to do to catch the train to Canterbury when we first arrived, so I was happy to sit and wait. Although our train left promptly, it was delayed on the line “due to the lorry hitting the bridge in front of us in the Banbury area”; I can quote this because the subway driver said it many times with profuse apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. They made the train wait until they had inspected the bridge for safety, so the fast train turned out to be no faster than the slower train that had left 5 minutes before ours. We got to London about an hour and twenty minutes later, which wasn’t bad at all really. It was pouring, though, so we took a taxi to our hotel – and I was just as happy since I was tired of lugging luggage through the streets.

Our hotel had been described in my guide book as “newly renovated and positively plush” so I was a bit disappointed at the actual look of it. Although I think it has been redone, it still looks as if it has seen better days. Also, our room was made up as a single (two twin beds) instead of one king. The little old man with very bad teeth at the desk was really nice, though, and he said they’d do it up that way the next day. Size-wise the room was larger than I expected, so that is the silver lining, I guess. Unfortunately, the tub/shower combo looked like it was left out of the refurbishment and could best be described as looking like a medieval torture device. It was permanently dirty, the shower curtain smelled sour and was mildewed at the bottom, and I was feeling like being stinky for several days might be better than using it. Still, when we asked where to find a laundry and a place to eat, our escort from reception was very helpful – and his directions turned out to be mostly right. We left to find dinner, but checked in at the laundry about hours and costs, and then went on to the Prince Edward pub for a beer and fish and chips. It had been a long, not so smooth day of travel, but we both felt better after a pint and a short walk around the area of our hotel, which is in the Kensington Gardens/Notting Hill area of London.

When we got back to the room, Mike discovered that there was only one towel for our showers next morning, so he walked down to the desk and was told they’d bring more up. When that happened, we also discovered that our friend Deb Kelemen had called us but for whatever reason they couldn’t put the call through. As we had forgotten to write Deb’s number down and didn’t have internet access at the time, we hoped she would call back. Another nice hotel man discovered that there was indeed a problem with our phone but they fixed it in short order – just in time for Deb to call back. We agreed to meet in St. James Park the next morning in order to see “pre-changing-of-the-guard” activities near Buckingham Palace, which are apparently better than the actual event. That night we fell asleep to the sound of London traffic.