Blenheim Palace Pictures

This is the front of Blenheim Palace, built for the first Duke of Marlborough in 1704. Winston Churchill was born here, though he never lived here. There is an extensive Winston Churchill memorial and display of his life in the house, including his Honorary US Citizen passport. The 11th Duke and his wife still live in the palace on the east wing (that is the left side of the palace.)



The gardens at the side of the palace. The grounds stretch for nearly 6 miles in each direction except for the town of Woodstock which is just a mile away from the house. It is still a crown estate on perpetual loan to the duke and his family as long as they provided a small "rent" to the crown each year in October.



This is looking towards the house from the sheep meadow half way down the hill from the monument. In the distance are a line of coaches, including ours, so you can see how far away I have walked already.



This is roughly halfway towards the monument, ie about the same position as from the last pictures, except I am walking up a side road. The side road actually only allowed me to cross over about a 1/4 mile past the monument. I couldn't just climb the fence anywhere because it is electrified. I didn't do the hike last year and I was the only person to do it this year. I must be insane.


Another shot from beyond the coaches showing the monument in the distance. It doesn't look that far from this picture, but let me tell you, its uphill and a workout. It's also a potential minefield.




This is the text on the Blenheim Memorial. Hard to read, but I wanted to prove that I actually made it all the way out to the memorial.



These little lambs were my constant companions. I think I saw over three hundred of them during my walk. They all ran away whenever I got close.



This is just a small sample of the "minefield" I had to cross through the fields and then back to the coach. Remarkably my walking shoes cleaned up very quickly with little fuss or muss. I wouldn't recommend doing this walk in sandals or open toed shoes.