After we got up the next day, we headed to Blenheim Palace, the place where Churchill was raised. I’ll admit I was a bit reluctant because I was getting all castle/palaced out, but my mind was quickly changed. The Palace had two floors to visit. The first floor had all of the traditional type rooms that we have seen elsewhere but Blenheim did something special for the kids. While the parents were listening to the audio guide, the kids had a scavenger hunt where they had to find certain things in the paintings on the wall. It completely kept them from being bored. I wish the other palaces and castles did something similar. The upstairs of the palace was devoted to the history of the palace – the original Duke & Duchess of who lived there and followed it through current day. (The 11th Duke of Marlborough, a cousin of Winston Churchill, still lives there.) Again, the presentation was very engaging and both girls said they loved the palace. I highly recommend it. But then we came to the icing on the cake – the gardens. We took a little train to the gardens which had a large playground, butterfly garden, 4 life-sized chess games and a large maze – bigger than the one at Hampton Palace. Ainsley won and got out first after going to the center. We stayed until it was closing. Then we headed back to the city. Another travel note – driving back toward the city on a Sunday evening/night is like driving on the beltway during rush hour. Our 1 ½ hour trip took more like 3 hours with the traffic. But we finally made it back. It was a great weekend.
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