[Winston Churchill]
Everybody knows Churchill, right? He’s one of those “historical figures”, generally regarded as one of the most important leaders in British and world history. He was born at Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock in the county of Oxfordshire. And that’s the place I’ve been today.
Blenheim Palace was build between 1705-1722 as the gift of a grateful nation to reward John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, for his great victory over the army of Louis XIV at the Battle of Blenheim in Bavaria (1704). The Park, a royal hunting park from the time of Henry I, was the gift of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts, a family inextricably linked with Blenheim.
We’ve spent whole day there, as there were plenty to see. Apart from the palace itself with the exhibition in honour of the famous man, there is also a huge (and I mean – really HUGE) park, so beautiful, that it leaves you breathless. There is also a big column dedicated to the military victories of the First Duke of Marlborough. And a Pleasure Garden with the second biggest in the world green hedge Maze and a butterfly house…
I can’t tell a lot. Its just have to be seen…walked the parks…see those trees that stood there for centuries…literally…the park is just so amazing – you never want to leave! It was designed by Probability Brown – the famous English landscape designer. The main idea of the design is – “naturalization” – he didn’t plant exotic plants, haven’t done any “artistic” extras. The park is just as it is – the trees…seemly in no particular order or grouping…the grass…just mowed…nothing on it except from the trees…and the landscape look magnificent! So natural and so well –groomed…and so stylish too…
The Pleasure Gardens is just a small area full of games attraction there - Marlborough Maze. Which we did in about 10 mins…Boooooring. I think that modern generation of teenagers is too smart for such fun. Having practiced in arcade style games, they are now developed instinct of finding exit from any kind of dead-end…So the teenager with us didn’t give us much chance to enjoy the Maze – we’ve been following him and suddenly we were in front of an exit…Too quick to my liking...Few other notes about our trip:
The butterflies in Butterfly House…amazing creatures…so fragile…and so beautiful…like a tiny fairies, they fly around plants. Softly touching visitors with their wings…
There happened to be two important events in Blenheim this day:
The Gardening Challenge - the TV show, where various teams get to build a little designer’s garden. Then they would select a winner…it is a TV show but apparently you can walk there, see the gardens, even take pictures…some gardens were nice, some were strange…the rest – plain boring. Still it was nice to see all those crazy or classy ideas. One day…I will make a change in my own garden too…[~sighs, knowing this is not the first time she promises]
and the other one - in ther evening there gonna be an open air concert of Diana Ross and Rod Stuart. We've seen the chairs and the stage, being set up during the day in preparation to the main event.
Hmmm...the last thing to mention - I saw a very srtrange wine there in the shop...the Birch Dry Wine. The Birch???!!! I was so intrigued that I bought it. and we tried it in the evening... mmmm...nice...I never knew before that you can brew the wine from literally anything!
Anyway. It is too late for writing more. So I’ll stop for now. A picture to follow:
