“Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.” Winston Churchill
We left London this morning about nine and motored north and west to Woodstock. It’s our first venture into the backcountry of smaller and warmer towns. In preparation for our trip, we tried to find descriptions and photos of the places we would be seeing but they didn’t do the real thing any justice. Woodstock is everything you’d expect of an English countryside village. Small shops, all very close together, with open doors and owners cleaning windows and sweeping the cobbles. As we now know at days end, every little town we passed through was equally inviting, each having distinctive characters, and delivering a stop and look around message to passerby's. But our mission today in the region of Cotswolds was to explore the birthplace of Winston Churchill, Blenheim Palace.
Churchill’s family has a deep English history of wealth and power and, as we know now his election as prime minister saved the Kimgdom from becoming a possession of the Third Reich. We also know now that he took the fight to the Germans and maintained a strong will to gain victory even in the dark days of Dunkirk and other battlefield setbacks. He has to be viewed as one of the prime reasons the allies won the war.
Front view Winning the war, as great as it was, could not ensure winning the political battle to keep his title as prime minister when his opponent promised free medical care for all. He didn’t believe socialized medicine was a positive answer to long-term public healthcare, stuck to his position and was defeated.
Our continuing wanderings through Cotswolds took us to next to a small boathouse in Oxford on River Cherwell.
where we had lunch in an open/screened dining room. We then boarded our “punts” (look it up) and shoved off, with Jesse poling us along.
A good American coffee to top off out punting.
Our next stop Oxford. I was afraid someone would have checked my transcript and I would be denied visitor status, somehow I made it in.
I don’t guess I ever thought about it but studying at Oxford means you are studying at any one of thirty colleges, all located in Oxford and make up Oxford university. Amazing campuses with students going about their college things and tourists doing their picture taking and googling the best paths to here and there.
Various Oxford U pictures. Sorry I didn’t list building names but I’nm writing from memory and just don’t remember what the guide said.
