A real life Hedge Maze!

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Day 9: Sun, May 6th

Today we headed away from the East Anglia area, towards the west side, for our 2 days in the Cotswolds. The Cotswold is a large area, full of small picturesque towns. The kind with green rolling fields, and lots of thatched roof cottages.

From Mildenhall, it was kind of a long drive. One of the longest we’ve had so far.
Our first stop was Blenheim Palace located in the town of Woodstock. We didn’t pay to tour the Palace, because it’s way too-overpriced, and I just wanted to see the gardens. The palace is home to the Duke of Marlburough/Churchill family. Winston Churchill was born here, and they had an exhibit about him in the courtyard that we were able to go to, which was very interesting. One of my main reasons for going to the Palace was because they have a really life hedge maze. I’ve always wanted to see one of these. And it didn’t disappoint. We were total geeks, running around like kids trying to find our way out.

After the palace, we drove down the road to Bladon church, where Sir Winston is buried. This is really interesting. He
The Grounds
just has a simple marble headstone. In America, even the most obscure and unimportant of Presidents gets a massive library erected in their honor when they drop dead. And here, one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century, just has a modest statue in Parliament and this simple headstone. I think this shows great restraint on the part of the British.

We then drove to Broadway, known as “the jewel of the Cotswolds”, where we will be staying for 2 nights. This really is the cutest little town. Only a few shops, a couple places to eat. But, lots of rolling green hills all around. We checked into our B&B, The Olive House. Oh I loved this place! Finally a bed that doesn’t feel like cardboard, and a huge bathroom. The hosts were so nice too. The best place we’ve stayed so far!

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Photos

The Olive Branch
The best place we stayed, by far!