Oxford & Blenheim Palace

When, in about a week, I'm travelling around for nearly a month, I will have to remember to take some days just to relax and sleep. I can't travel for that period of time at such a break neck speed. And I definitely cannot wake up before 6 AM every day either. It just takes too much out of me.

Our day trip yesterday started with just that...a 5:15 wake up call. I blearily took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast and met Laura down in the lobby at 6:10. Our original intentions were to catch a train from Falmer to Brighton at 6:35 and then a train from Brighton to London Victoria at 7:19, but that did not work out exactly as planned. We get to Falmer train station and read a sign that says "No trains today". Thanks Falmer, way to let us down. Luckily, right after we saw that, the 25 bus was approaching the station which took us into Brighton and we were able to get to Brighton station with time to spare. We hop on the train and about 50 minutes later (I love it when it's not Sunday night and the train doesn't take us 2.5 hours to get into London) we get off at Victoria, get on the tube station, and make our way to the Accent building on Great Russell street. The coach is set to leave at 9:00 and we're there at 8:45 so we have 15 minutes with which to sit around and relax/try to stay awake.

When the coach comes, we get on (all 7 of us...I love WashU but I'm starting to wonder what the students abroad want to do besides party. I understand that 9 AM on a Saturday is early, but come on. Whatever, their loss and I would rather be in a small group anyway). A happy surprise is that a few minutes after we get on, so does our personal tour guide. Who is none other than Angie, who so wonderfully lead us through London for 9 hours back in January. She is full of so much information about anything and everything (and I mean everything) English that she can answer any question you pose her and her answers are fascinating as well. As we drive the 90 minutes or so to Oxford she fills us in on the history of the city and the college as well as the passing scenery. The drive itself isn't particularly eventful....we pass an Aston Martin dealership which was exciting, but that was about it. At 10:30, we're in Oxford!

Sadly the day was grey, cold and gloomy but the city was beautiful. Unlike Cambridge or a lot of universities we're used to, Oxford has no set campus. The 36 different colleges are spread out throughout the city and it's nearly impossible (unless you have a fantastic tour guide with you) to tell you where one college stops and another (or some non-college-related building) starts. The tour starts off with a stop at the largest and most famous of the Oxford colleges, Christ Church. This is the college where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed, so you can imagine for yourself how impressive and magical it all is. Unfortunately the Great Hall (where the dining room scenes were filmed) was closed for the day for some special event so we weren't able to go in. However, Angie (our guide) did not want us to go through Oxford without experience a Great Hall so she had talked to a contact of hers at Oriel College and he gave us a key to the Great Hall there so we could see it. It probably wasn't as big or as impressive as the one at Christ Church, but it was still pretty swanky. I wouldn't mind eating dinner there every night. We hung around there for a little while, but as it was opening for lunch at 11:30, we got out of there at about 11:25 and headed back to Christ Church to look at the cathedral. Which was kind of a typical cathedral. Not particularly interesting or different, but pretty. Although, all the pews are set up facing each other to continue the community-learning vibe that permeates the college. We leave Christ Church, continue to wander through streets, get to the Bodleian library/Divinity School but can't go into either of them because of events and then break for lunch.

Oxford is a beautiful city and all of the colleges are gorgeous and there is such history, but I don't know if I would really want to attend school there. Maybe if I was a full time student and that was my life, I would be okay with the ridiculous amount of work, but as someone just studying abroad for a semester, I don't think so. I'll take the less picturesque, less pretigious college with less work over Oxford. They can't do anything there except for study and I like the freedom to travel around and experience the country.

Another thing that I really liked about Oxford was it's connection to Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll was a math professor at Christ Church College and he saw Alice Liddell playing in a garden there (I think Angie said that she was the daughter of a dean at Christ Church?) and wrote the book about her. Oxford is full of so many little nooks and crannies and little doorways that lead to completely different secret locations when you pop through, that it is easy to see how Wonderland was imagined. Wandering through Oxford, there were definitely some times when we'd walk through some hidden doorway or alleyway and it was easy to imagine something fantastical on the otherside. Oh and one of stained glass pieces in the Christ Church Cathedral used Edith Liddell (Alice's older sister) as a model for one of the figures, which was cool.

After lunch, at 1:45, we get back on the coach and head to Blenheim Palace, about 20 minutes north of Oxford in a city called Woodstock. Special British sighting through the town- Morris dancers! Morris dancing is basically a traditional English folk dance, and we quickly drove by them so we didn't really see much but I was like...oooh English! Just another little reminder that I'm in a different country. Now the drive up to the gates of Blenheim Palace is ridiculous. The place is effing HUGE. We all seriously gasped when we saw it.

Brief history/fun facts about BP: It was a gift (along with the title of Duke) from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough for his military achievement in defeating the French. It is the only place in England that is allowed to be called a palace without having royalty live there and it is one of (if not the) largest private residences in the United Kingdom. The 11th Duke of Marlborough still lives there, although he can only live there 3 months out of the year. Like most of England's noble class, the Duke is asset rich and money poor and really cannot afford the money it takes to maintain such as massive place as Blenheim. If the Duke lives in England 3 months and 1 day during the year, he is counted as an official resident and has to pay full taxes. However, if he only lives in England for 3 months out of the year, he is mostly exempt from taxes, which is all he can afford to be. It's kind of sad because it would be amazing to live in that house all the time and it's unfortunate that he is effectively exiled from his own country for 9 months because of inability to pay taxes. He should rent out some of his rooms, it's not like he doesn't have enough. Blenheim Palace is also where Winston Churchill was born and engaged and he has a strong connection to it because his cousin was, I believe, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, and they got along well so Churchill spent a lot of time at Blenheim.

We couldn't do our own tour through the palace, which was unfortunate because the palace guide we got was about as bland as oatmeal and super uninteresting. I would have much rather had Angie give us her own tour (she did kind of give us one on the bus ride back, filling in the interesting stuff that we missed out on). The building itself was really impressive (sadly, no picture taking allowed inside) and the history was also pretty fascinating but the guide was boring and this weird "untold story" exhibit with animatronic figures was bland as well. I think I would have preferred to wander around it by myself or with Angie (actually I would like her in my ear so she can tell me everything about England all the time). After the tour, we wandered around the grounds and gardens for a little while...not too long, though because it was rainy and wet, and then got back on the coach at 4:45, back in London at 6:15 and back home in my bedroom by 9. A long day but fun. It wasn't my favorite of the day trips but I'm still glad to have done it.

Next travel: ROME! FLORENCE! VENICE! NICE! MONTPELLIER! BARCELONA! MADRID! PARIS! BRUSSELS! AMSTERDAM!

(so excited)