Blenheim Palace

On the 25th of October, we went to Blenheim Palace-- this was the palace built by Queen Anne for Sir John Churchill (yeah, one of those Churchills) between 1705 and 1724 as a reward for Churchill's victory at the Battle of Blenheim (Blindheim in the German). That battle helped turn the tide against Louis XIV of France's attempts at European domination, and was therefore quite important to the English.

It's a ridiculously huge and beautiful place. (There are pictures on my facebook account. Well, there will be after I'm done with this post, at least). First, however, we went to St. Martin's, a little church down the road from Blenheim where Winston Churchill is buried (along with Consuelo Vanderbilt and several other nifty folks).

Blenheim Palace is probably most interesting to me from a historical perspective because it's the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, and, although he was never really in line to own it, an important part of his childhood. As you might imagine, a great deal of the Palace exhibitions are dedicated to Churchill, and they have, among other things, a large collection of his paintings. I didn't know Churchill was a painter. He was. And he painted like an Impressionist. And he wasn't half bad, either.

Anyway, the tour of Blenheim was mostly unremarkable, except for the architecture. The pictures will do a better job of showing that than my words, so I'll leave you to them.