Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace Entrance

This is the Duke of Marlborough’s home and is still lived in by the family.  It is the largest Duke’s home in England.  John Churchill, the first duke won the battle of Blenheim in 1704 against King Louis XIV’s troops. 

Column of victory - view from entrance of palace over the Grand Bridge

It was a pivotal point in the centuries of wars between France and Britton.  As a reward, Queen Anne rewarded him by building him a nice home set in 2000 acres of parkland.

Grand Bridge- Queen Pood

He however only lived in it, in an unfinished state, for two years before he died. It was completed at the family’s expense after his death.

Water Terrace

Entrance Hall
 

Several of the later dukes were playboys and squandered the money, so had to sell off paintings and furnishings.  As a result, the house is not stuffed with paintings and furniture, but still has an impressive presence.

Drawing room
 



State dining room

Library -organ at far end

 

Chapel

Later notables of the family:   Winston Churchill, a cousin of the duke, was born in the palace, and Princess Diana is a descendant.

Winston Churchill's birth room

 



Cotswolds

Chipping Campden

An area of rolling hills, all the towns are tucked down in the valleys near the streams that were used for their power. This is the part of the country that grew the best wool until the industrial revolution, and the wool market collapsed. 

Lower Slaughter mill house

It is now the place that Londoners escape for the weekend being only an hour away. They are the DFL (down from London) crowd. This is the Black Butte of England. 

The house prices have gone up so much that young locals can’t afford to buy homes.  As a result, many towns while quaint are aging. As the population gets older, schools are no longer needed, so they close.  Resident numbers decline, services such as busses are cut causing isolation of older locals. 

The building codes are strict in the Cotswolds and the houses must be built with lime stone, have stone, slate, or thatched roofs. We noticed all the houses here are much larger than those found in our area.  We were told that many were originally several attached houses that have been converted into one home.

 

We walked from the town of Bourton-on-the-water.  It is the Venice of England with the rivers running through it channeled like cannels. The area is known for walking, and busloads of people were arriving to walk through the town and hills. A very touristy place.

Bouton-on-the-water

Center of town at Bourton-on-the-water

We stayed at Chipping Campden, a smaller town but a more normal town with houses of various sizes, lots of kids, and not as many tourists.

Chipping Campden High Street

 

Chipping Campden

 

                    Rollright Stones are a stone circle set on top of a hill near Morton-in-Marsh. 

It is a Neolithic site and parts are 4500yrs old.  We were given divining rods, and as you walked through the circle the energy from the earth made the rods move. 

 It was very interesting.  If I thought of John, while in the circle, my rods would point to where he was standing even if he was out of sight. In addition to the circle there was a kingstone, and a grave site.

Grave site

Kings Stone

 

 

Coeliac UK Gluten Free Awareness Walk

Coeliac walk at Lower Slaughter

Saturday, May 18^th we participated in a gluten free walk for Coeliac UK.  It took place at 4 locations, and we picked the Cotswolds, because we hadn’t seen that part of England yet. The walk was about 7 ½ miles through rolling hills, horse and sheep country.  We had over 75 walkers at our site, but we were split into groups of 25 it keep it enjoyable.  The weather cooperated, even though rain showers were expected, we had a very nice day with sun and some high clouds.

Walking through Bourton-on-the-water

Wild English bluebells in forest

Our group

Heading toward Upper Slaughter and lunch

Lunch stop a river ford in Upper Slaughter

Kissing gate in hedge row

Venezia-Venice

Taking advantage of the bank holiday the first Monday in May, we took a long weekend and went to Venezia as the Italians say or Venice.  It is a 2 hour flight from our part of England.  It takes longer to get to the airport, check in, board the plane then it does to fly there.

Being an island at the north end of the Adriatic Sea, it has one access point by land and the rest by water. It actually is 118 small islands connected by canals and bridges, but you think of them as one island.  A cause way has been built for trains, buses and cars.  It arrives at the north end of the island and that is where all land transportation stops.  From there on it is all water or foot transport. Vaporetti, water buses, connect points along the Grand Canal which runs down the middle of the Island. 

Grand Canal

Probably the most expensive bus system in the world at $9 for a single trip, or $24 for a 12 hour ticket of unlimited rides. 

Vaporetti at St. Mark's stop

We took a bus from the airport to the island and then a water taxi to our stop at San Giglio. 

Walk way from our Vaporetto stop to our B&B

 From there it was a short walk to our B&B. We were on a side canal and our room over looked the canal. 

 

Walk way and canal in from of our B&B

 It was used by the gondolas all day, and they often came by serenading the passengers.

View from our window

We spent 2 ½ days walking all over Venice.  It was easy to get mixed up as the buildings are tall, and it’s hard to get your bearings.  We actually got good at wandering around the neighborhoods and finding our destination.

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

 There are bridges everywhere, about 400, as well as dead ends that ended at a canal. Churches are everywhere.  There are over 81 of them in the approximately 6.25 square miles that make up Venice.

San Giovanni Bragora- Vivaldi baptised here

They are very unobtrusive and you can easily walk by a church without realizing it’s there.  Most of the outsides are unimpressive but the interiors are expansively decorated.

The Basilica Di San Marco or St Mark’s is the most famous church. It has certainly the largest square. 

St Mark's square, church and bell tower

The clock is magnificent, the bell tower impressive, but the church is over the top.


Clock in St Mark's square. Chimes,tells time in Roman numerals, and give current astrological sign.

             It has on the outside every imaginable kind and color of marble.

Main entrance to St Mark's

 The mosaic floor inside is dizzying, and the gold, silver, copper and glass tiles on the ceiling are the only impressive and unifying factor. It was not our favorite church.

Floor of St. Mark's

 

Ceiling of St Mark's

 John’s favorite church was the Basilica Di Santa Maria Della salute because it is built in the round with all of the side chapels round also.

Basilica Di Santa Maria Della Salute

Interior of the Basilica

Mine was San Moise because the carvings behind the altar were so unusual. 

Church of San Moise

They are life size of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God.

Altar of San Moise

          The Palazzo Ducale connected to St Marks is a very impressive palace.

Largest Hall in Palazzo Ducale

We both enjoyed wondering through its expansive and lavish rooms as well as crossing the Bridge of Sighs and touring the jail.

Bridge of sighs- connects Palace Ducale on left to Jail on right

 Many years ago our Renew group was asked to choose a saint as our groups name sake. We looked for the oddest saints we could find. We picked St Rocco the patron saint of communicable diseases.

Statue of St Rocco

While in Venice, we found a school named after St Rocco. So a visit was a must.  It was one of our favorite stops. It was called a scuola (school), but was really more of a guild hall.

Upper Hall of San Rocco scuola

The paintings were by Tintoretto, and they call it his Sistine chapel. They told the complete history of Christ in life size paintings. Every surface was covered in paintings.

Ceiling of Albergo Hall in San Rocco Scuola

 The Saint Rocco church was next door but under renovation so was only open for mass on Sunday morning.  It holds relics (bones) of Saint Rocco. It would have been nice to see the inside of the church.

John at entrance to San Rocco church

The Rialto Bridge is impressive and stands where the first bridge crossed the Grand Canal. 

Rialto Bridge- the site of the first bridge over the Grand Canal.

It is massive and has shops all along the center of the bridge.  It is a mass of people on weekends. Anywhere near it is crazy with shoppers. 

Middle of the Rialto Bridge

While we liked the bridge, it was nice to get off into the quieter

neighborhoods away from the tourists and shoppers.

Murano glass studio

We spent part of a day on the island of Murano which is known for its glass blowing factories.  They make amazing creations including jewelry, vases, chandeliers, statues, glasses, and dishes.

Glass sculpture on the island of Murano

 

A gondola ride in Venice seems a must, but we did have second thoughts as its $107 for 40 minutes.  We bit the bullet and did enjoy the ride through the canals.

Our gondolier John

 Our Gondolier, John, was young about 30 and spoke English well, so he was able to point out special sights along the way and answer all our questions.  There are 425 gondoliers in Venice and the job and boats are handed down from father to son.  They start training with the boats at the age of 12. 

There are some gondolas that serve as ferries across the Grand Canal where there are no handy bridges, about $1.30. On these you’re expected to stand on the journey across so we didn’t venture onto one.  The Grand Canal was very choppy, and I didn’t fancy standing in a gondola to cross it.

The Grand Canal has the Vaporetto or public water buses, private taxis, gondolas, delivery boats, garbage boats, service boats, ambulances, police, and private boats going all the time. It’s not a tranquil water way.

Verona's Roman Arena

Verona is an hour by train NW of Venice, so we ventured there one day.  It has the largest and best preserved Roman Coliseum or Arena in the world.  They still use it today for concerts.

Interior of Arena- set up for the up coming opera performance.

 

We also visited Castelvecchio a castle built by the medieval rulers of Verona the Della Scala family. Very different from English castles.

View of castle's entrance and outer walls from the Castle. Hole if forground remnants of a church.

Castle (white) with part of outer wall

Verona is the stage for Shakespears Romeo and Juliet.  Juliet's family home is quite the attraction.  the balcony was added in 1921 to play up the tourist angle.

The house of Capulet (Juliet's family)

 On the return to the airport, we took a water taxi. It made a complete circumnavigation of the island stopping at outlying islands and then heading to the airport. 

Kathy in water taxi on the way to the airport.

It was a good way to sum up our trip and leave. We enjoyed our visit, but Venice is a very expensive city.