Blenheim Palace

Continuing with my UK tour, onward to Blenheim Palace.  This is my first visit to a palace and like Salisbury Cathedral it was something to behold.  The only downside to this visit is that there is a horrible art exhibit taking place inside the palace by Michelangelo Pistoletto.  Personally I call it crap, not art.  Ultra-modern shit of mirrors, writing on walls, yellow car in the pond and piles of rags. Doesn't match the decor of the palace at all, no matter how much money they are paying to be in place, it should not be inside this beautiful palace. (Click the images for a bigger view)

Even adding as a pano it was tough to capture the size of the palace

From the front doorstep looking down one side

The tents were part of a Christmas Bizarre that was setup.  Some really nice arts, crafts and clothing but the prices - ouch.

The front foyer of the palace.

The ceilings throughout are amazing.

Even the walls!   Many of the scenes were subtly capturing the dominance of the British over the French which was a big thing during this timeframe.

A sample of some of the crap "art"

More crap and what a shame that it's on the ceilings and floors of such a magnificent library.

The library.

An organ at the other end of the library.

Winston Churchill grew up and Blenheim and proposed to his wife there.   A very interesting display is there regarding his entire life.   These were his ribbons and decorations.

The grounds in the "backyard".

There were a few of these around the grounds and I kinda like them.

The side of the palace.   This is apparently used for the movies.   Nothing to really remove to make the scene timeless.

Can you image living in a place like this?

The doorstep

The view from the doorstep.  Those are lawnmowers (sheep) off in the distance.

Inside what they call the "secret garden".   Would be much prettier in the summer or earlier in the fall.

Out the front door you can just see on the other side of the gate there is a long walkway over a bridge up to a tower.  You can see it in the video I linked in the first sentence of this post.   Very cool.