England March 20th

Before leaving Oxford we drove around the city. Oxford is a busy college town with a lot of history. There is the university with its literary history and other areas with royal history. Did you know that Queen Elizabeth was exiled here when her half sister Mary was put on the throne. After getting lost around Oxford, we made our way to Blenheim Palace. The house was HUGE! I guess that is why they call it a palace. It is the birth place of Winston Churchill. There was an interactive story telling of the house that Nathan said he could have passed on. I thought it was interesting to learn the history of the house. There was a huge organ in the library room that a German prince played on, as well as some other famous people. Every room in the palace was ornately decorated and filled with fancy furnishings or oil paintings of dead relatives. There was a statue of queen Anne in one of the rooms and it was unable unrealistic portraiture because it depicted her skinner than she really was. Queen Ann had 17 pregnancy in 18 years and she outlived all of her children...that must have been tough. The gardens of the palace were spacious and peaceful. There was even a maze garden which Nathan and I kicked butt at. I think the most crazy thing about Blenheim Palace is that people still live there! Yep that's right. The 11th duke and his 3rd much younger wife live there...kinda crazy.

The Cotswolds was next on our list. The Cotswolds is a collection of villages in the country each with its individual charm. I don't know if we didn't go to the right village or not but it wasn't as great as it was made up in my mind. Yes the drive between villages was pretty but the tillages just seemed to look the same. Perhaps I need to spend more time there? Anyways, it was fun to explore the area even if it wasn't what I expected. We ate lunch in stow on the wold and had some delicious food. We looked at a few antique shops but everything I liked was SO expensive. We also saw the first Inn in England which is still used. It was built in the 500 I think.

We drove around the Cotswold up to Stradford Upon Avon which is the birth place of William Shakespeare. By the time we got there the attractions were closed but we were able to see the outside which was fine with me. From there we drove to outside of Birmingham where our B&B was. The nice place about this place is that they had a restaurant so we didn't have to go far for food. We were exhausted again by the end of the day.