Blenheim Palace and Oxford

I am sorry I haven't blogged the last few days. I have just been trying to play catch up since we got back. Monday we had class, so I didn't get any pictures. But we go to the National Gallery for homework and it is amazing. I love being able to see original paintings that I have studied more than once. 

Tuesday was our day trip to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Both were beautiful and I loved them!

 Blenheim was given to the First Duke as a gift from the King for the victory of the Blenheim Battle during war with France. I would say it's a pretty generous gift. 

 In the back of the palace, the gardens are imitated like the gardens in Versailles. They are a much smaller scale, but still beautiful.

 Of course I had to go to the Rose Garden!

 In my class we are learning about Baroque Art. Claude is a painter that is known for doing some of the first landscapes. Much of the Blenheim estate is modeled after Claude's landscapes. It was beautiful and green!

 All the girls on the Study Abroad decided we are going to fight for the current Duke's son so that we can live in this palace. I enjoyed the palace, but I would just prefer the land and all the gardens haha :)

 Then we went to Oxford. Here is the covered market. I liked the stores names. One store is called, Nothing and the other is Next to Nothing haha. Oxford was really cool. I told my mom when we skyped later that night that she should pay for me to go to school there. 

 All of the buildings are really neat and the education provided is amazing. Their university is structured a little differently so that was fun to learn about. 

 This is Radcliffe's Camera. It is actually a library which I didn't know. 

 This place is amazing. Mom was laughing at me when I told her about it, but I loved it. So you notice that amazingly beautiful tree? Well it's famous! This is where the fourth Harry Potter movie was filmed. Here is a link to see what I am talking about. I WAS THERE!!! :) haha that was so cool. But this is part of New College. 

 All the architecture is amazing here. It is also really quiet and there were a few students that were studying. But I really liked this place.

 Harry Potter was here!

 We continued walking through the streets and found this cute little candy shop. I got some candy ropes and they were delicious. 

Then we went to participate in Evensong at Christ's Church College. It's a service that the Anglican church has and it was different, but really cool. I thoroughly enjoyed it! That was so cool. 

Anyways, that's what I did yesterday. 

Today I didn't get any pictures, except one and I am too lazy to upload it. But I went to another art gallery today and I went by myself. I felt like I was officially a resident of London because I made it to the gallery and then to a store all by myself and I knew what I was doing. So cool! I am loving London and can't believe I have already been here for 3 weeks. 

Cheers!