Did you hear the one about a palace, a bath, and a gargoyle?

This is only my second post, and already I feel behind! Let's get caught up on the past week's events. We went to Blenheim Palace, which is where Sir Winston Churchill was born and where the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough currently live. It was breathtaking. The palace itself is, well, it's a palace, so everything is gilded and marbled and exquisite.

You drive past this lake/bridge on the way in to Blenheim Palace. The lake was dug by hand many years ago, and the bridge is no ordinary bridge...it actually has 30+rooms in it, including a movie theater.

The palace.

A view of the palace behind its gilded gates.

The lake and beautiful greenery.

More beautiful greenery.

After touring the palace, we all took a little train ride across the grounds to "The Pleasure Gardens." There we found a beautiful lavender garden, a cafe, a hedge maze, huge (not quite life size, but big) chess and checkers games, and more.

View from the hedge maze.

Kellen was the fearless leader and led us out of the maze...eventually.

Later in the week, we took the students to Stonehenge and Bath. I have always wanted to see Stonehenge. I can't explain why, but I've always been fascinated by it. Sadly, the weather conditions were just short of a torrential downpour, so I didn't take any pictures. The people-watching was top notch, though. We piled back onto our buses and headed to Bath. We visited Bath Abbey and saw some of the finest fan vaulted ceilings around.

Bath Abbey. And yes, it was a bit crowded.

We then toured the Roman Baths. The idea of it is hard to relate to and honestly kind of gross, but it was fascinating to see so many artifacts still intact.

After Stonehenge and Bath, I had a day off. This was the first day I've had off since arriving in the UK, so I took full advantage of it by sleeping in. Because I've done a lot of the touristy things in London, I decided I would rather spend my day off exploring Oxford. I took the "long" way into town, which is through a gorgeous garden right next to Lady Margaret Hall (from here on will be referred to as LMH). I caught a glimpse of this building on my way out of the park. This building has been one of my favorites since I arrived, but I had no idea what it was.

Turns out, it's Keble College, part of Oxford University (like LMH). I sneaked inside for a look around their courtyard.

A bit more impressive than say, Blocker.



Just a li'l gargoyle.

The rest of my day off was nice. Did a little shopping around town, saw Harry Potter again...all in all, a good day. More updates soon.