Blenheim Palace & Oxford

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Blenheim Palace & Oxford

 Europe » United Kingdom » England » Oxfordshire » Oxford By USinUK
July 11th 2007 Today was a decent weather day - mostly cloudy and cool but no hard rain, just a few sprinkles.
We started at Bleheim Palace, a grandiose, over-the-top palace built in the early 1700s by John Vanbrugh (who also did Castle Howard that we visited earlier in our trip). Photos not allowed inside, but it was very opulent - gold everywhere. The buildings and grounds were of enormous scale, hard to capture in pictures.
Next it was Oxford - the university is scattered about within the city. We started with a quick lunch at 'The Eagle & Child', a pub where C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein hung out together. Then we walked around town and visited some of the individual colleges of the university. We spent most of our time at Christ Church College - where Lewis Carroll taught. (Math!) The library at the Divinty School there was used for some sceens in a couple of the Harry Potter movies, and the dining hall in the movie is based on the actual dining hall of this college (see picture).

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