A Royal Affair at Blenheim Palace

Regardless of where you live, you probably know that something big happened in England yesterday.

Instead of joining the madness in London, I went along with a group of OCCA and Wycliffe friends to Blenheim Palace to celebrate.

A lot of other people thought that would be a good idea, too. So we took a picnic and found a place on the lawn to watch the "big screen" that would show the wedding.

It wasn't that big, but if we sat up on our knees, we could mostly see it. Well, unless the girls in front of us did that too.

 

These ladies were ready. They dressed in skirts and heels, had a picnic lunch including strawberries and champagne, and brought celebratory party poppers.

Best of all, when we whisked out a cake to surprise our friend Sarah, they even started singing happy birthday along with us! How nice.

 

So we sat on the grass for almost 2 hours and took part in this English extravaganza. We waved Union Jack flags, and the Brits sang their national anthem, "God Save the Queen", which sounds oddly familiar to "My Country Tis of Thee"... hmmm.

After the balcony appearance, a few of us walked around Blenheim a bit. I still can't believe how expansive it is. Every time I visit, I find new places...and they're all beautiful.

We stayed on for afternoon falconry shows and jousting. They flew a Harris hawk and an Eagle owl, which is almost as good as watching a golden eagle circle Jordan Hare stadium. (Ok, maybe not. But it was a good show.) 

 

The jousting part was hosted by King Henry VIII- you know, the Tudor one who had several of his wives executed. 

Overall, the whole thing was a lot more entertaining than I thought. Definitely staged, and more than a little corny, but fun. Here's a video of the horsemen trying to hook little rings onto their lances:

In their defense, they did really well with the larger rings.

 Especially this guy.

 

After that, we walked through the town of Woodstock, where the Palace is located, to see if we could find a place to have a cream tea to continue the birthday/wedding celebration. 

There was a lot of this kind of stuff in the windows...along with signs announcing that they were closed. (The Royal Wedding equals another bank holiday for GB- I'm sure they were all so disappointed).

So, we waited in some pretty heavy rain (glad it didn't come earlier!) for a bus to take us the fifteen minutes back to Oxford. 

A happy way to spend a Friday.