Oxford

When we first got into town we thought we'd wander around and try to see some of the main sights.  The first place we went to was Christ Church, and it was closed for a wedding.  We saw lots of kids (well they looked like kids to us!) that were going and they were all in either white tie or dress uniforms!  Here's a couple that I saw on one of the balconies.

Here's a picture of the church to give you some idea of the size.  I can't imagine what type of wedding would require a church this size.  No doubt some royalty (the 43 sub-duke of Normandy).

The next morning we decided to head out to Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill, built by the first Duke of Marlborough in the early part of the 18th Century.  The first Duke was the General of the Army during the war of Spanish succession, and played a large part in winning that war.  In recognition of this, Queen Anne made his a Duke, gave him the lands Blenheim is on and 250,000 pounds with which to build the palace.  As you can see, he made good use of the money.

Susan liked this statue, which she called a really short soldier.  It reminds me of Marvin the Martian from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

This was the ceiling of the anteroom.  I'm sure there's a story there, but I have no idea what it it.

Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside the palace.  As you can imagine there were huge numbers of portraits, statues, tapestries , ornate furniture and everything else you would expect.  In addition there was a very interesting exhibit on the life of Winston Churchill (who was made an honorary American Citizen by JFK), including lots of pictures that he painted.  After he retired from politics, Hallmark created an entire line of cards based on his paintings.  He said that after he got to Heaven,  he was going to spend the first million years painting and "get to the bottom of it".

There was also an exhibit on the first Duke of Marlborough and the War of Spanish Succession and how he managed to defeat the French (and win himself a Dukedom).

In addition to the palace, the grounds are incredible.  There are formal gardens.

Water terraces, complete with sculptures of sphinxes.

And ponds with obelisks.

 

There was a rose garden (even if they weren't really in full bloom).

Not to mention acres and acres of lawn.

There was another garden, the Italian Garden, but it was private so we couldn't get in.  But we did manage to get one picture over the fence.

Then we went into the nearby town of Woodstock for lunch, but could not find anywhere to park, so we just headed back into Oxford.  After lunch we thought we'd go visit some of the more famous colleges (a college is really just a fancy dorm.  It's where the students have their rooms and eat their meals.  They actually go to classes in other buildings owned by the University).  But it was a Sunday, so all the colleges were closed.  We knew we were going to Cambridge the next day, so just planned on visiting some colleges there.

We just stumbled up this museum of Science as we were walking about.  I assume all these busts are supposed to be famous men of science, but I couldn't find any descriptions.

The museum had all manner of scientific instruments that had been used through the ages, but the most interesting thing to me was that they had a blackboard that Einstein had used when he came and gave a guest lecture.  It was developing equations to measure the size and age of the universe.

Then I took this picture.  I can't decide whether it was for the bridge or for the car.

I had on the list of things to see the Radcliffe Camera.  I had it in my head that this was going to be some optical device that would show an image of the city.  Turns out the name comes from the Latin for room, and that is really just a study room for the Bodlian library, with an underground tunnel to take books from the library to the Camera.  The building itself is pretty interesting.

The library itself is one of only three in England that is entitled to receive a copy of every book published in England.  However, it's not a lending library.  Even one of the kings (I'm thinking Charles I) was not allowed to take a book out (I'm thinking if I were King, I'd take out any book I wanted).

We kept looking for a college that was open that we could tour, but never found one.  This was the closest we came to getting into one.

So while we didn't get into a college, I did manage to find a street vendor where I bought an Oxford tee shirt.  I guess that's as close as I'll come.