Our first full day was our day trip out of London. Here’s where having a friend at our destination was a plus – we were able to drive. (Why that was helpful will become clear with our second destination for the day.) We started out in Oxford. We had a lovely look at the Ashmolean Museum, which has one of the most reasonably priced museum gift shops I’ve ever seen. We then did a small walk around, mostly to get us to the Bodleian Library so BF could complete his collection of the small gargoyles and grotesques you can buy at their shop.
For lunch, we stopped in the Oxford covered market. There was a Lebanese wrap stall that was doing brisk business, so we figured it was a safe bet. I had a haloumi hummus wrap that was absolutely fantastic! We also found a great tea shop at the back.
At that point, it was time to head to our main destination: Blenheim Palace, home to the dukes of Marlborough, and birthplace of Winston Churchill. A coworker of BF’s is married to a man that grew up in the area, and she had been to their Christmas show before, and highly recommended it. The palace is stupendous – it’s huge. I’d like to go back in warmer weather, because the grounds are immense, and the regular inside display would be amazing.
They do a themed indoor display every year – this year was Sleeping Beauty. Everything is absolutely over the top. (We had perhaps a little bit too much fun pointing out where we figured the curators of the regular collection must be giving serious side eye to all the glitter.) The last room in the Christmas display is the library, and Sleeping Beauty was waiting for us there. The particular woman on duty absolutely earned my respect when a wide eyed young man told her how beautiful she was, and she invited him to skip down the library with her.
At that point, we had booked the Sleeping Beauty themed high tea in their Orangerie restaurant. I’ve been meaning to do a high tea for a while, and have always just balked at the price. Not that this was cheap, but it was part of the festivities, and was absolutely delicious, and I’m glad we did it here, instead of some overpriced place in London.
Last but not least was the light show. I should mention, this was the only day we actually saw sun on the trip, which worked out wonderfully for this last part – it could have been very muddy on the walk.
It’s a surprisingly large loop – we were out for around an hour and half. The lights were fantastic – there was music going along with the different bits, and the furthest point on the loop had a wonderful light and water show. Father Christmas was waiting at the end. There were places to stop for mulled wine/hot cocoa and marshmallows to toast. It was incredibly well done – excellent suggest from BF’s coworker.