Chasncath’s visit to Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace

Having passed Blenheim last autumn, on our way to Broadway, Catherine decided that we should have a 4-night stay at Bladon Chains so that we could visit the Palace. We arrived on the nicest day of the year and were allocated the sunniest pitch on the site. We sat outside until the sun went down!

The palace is just along the road from the campsite, but too far for Cath to walk. The friendly man on the help-line said we could park our ‘van next to the entrance as Cath now has a ‘blue badge’. By the way, you get a 40% discount on the entrance fee when you present your receipt from the campsite. You can then convert your tickets to annual passes free of charge.

On day one we toured the inside of the palace at a gentle pace, forgoing the inclusive guided tour.

Back to the gates, and the 1.3 mile drive back to site.

On day two, we had to park next to the tour buses, so we left our ‘dog’ on guard.

We took in the ‘history’ tour and ‘Winston Churchill’ exhibition. We had planned to take the ‘buggy’ tour around the gardens, but the driver had called in sick so we set off in the sunshine around the park on foot.

We saw the ‘cascades’ from afar, but we didn’t have the puff to make it down and back.

We drove down to the ‘pleasure park’ to see the butterflies.

We were also going to go into the maze; however, the sky darkened and hail started to fall so it was back to base. We’re hoping to go back for another visit later in the year and pay extra for the tours of the family and servants quarters. The daffs had finished and the roses were not due out for another month or so – we’d like to see the gardens in bloom.

 To complete our lovely break, we were joined on day three by our chums, Robert and Marion, whom we first met years ago at Cavalaire sur Mer. They’re caravanners but nice all the same!

 Robert drove us to the Black Prince in Woodstock, for pub lunch, in his shiny new Volvo tow car!