This time we were staying in a hostel....a slightly sketchy one at that. But it was a place to sleep and only for one night.
After dropping our bags we met up with a tour group that took us around to see some of the colleges. Again, it's a beautiful city but with a much different feel than Windsor. Lots of neat little shops and winding narrow lanes and beautiful architechture.
We didn't get to go inside any of the colleges but on the odd few, we were lucky enough to be able to see into their courtyard.
Sculputures and fancy adornments are everywhere in Oxford.
This is the bridge of sighs, or the Hertford Bridge.
A building called the "Radcliffe Camera". It was built in the 1700's to house the Radcliffe Science Library.
After our tour we grabbed some sandwiches at a really neat little shop and ate them on the double decker bus out to Blenheim palace. I think this was my second favorite palace of the trip. Did you know that Sir Winston Churchill was born here? They had a fantastic exhibit on his life and the things he did. The current Duke & Duchess of Marlborough still live here.
This whole wing of the palace is the stables. Can you imagine!
The fancy stables that had been turned into an exhibit for something else.
The gardens at Blenheim Palace were amazing. We really should have spent 2 days in Oxford so we could have explored the town one day and spent an entire day at Blenheim.
We did our best to see them all but we weren't even close. There's a hedge maze that we never made it to.
And the Grand Bridge. It once had 3 small streams running underneath it (all man-made) but the famous landscape designer "Capability" Brown, dammed the river and flooded the lake to make it bigger, thus putting the bridge a little further under water. Apparently there used to be some rooms the men used for gambling and such at the base of the bridge. They're now full of water.
Blenheim Palace also hosts a 3 day event. What a spectacular place for a competition!!!
http://www.blenheim-horse.co.uk/page.asp?section=000100010003
I also recall seeing some photos of a group of ladies called "The Flying Foxes" doing a sidesaddle demonstration at Blenheim palace. Wouldn't that be something to see too!
Too bad our timing was off, I would have loved to have seen either event!
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