Traveller's being a bit unfair about Warwick.

The castle IS disneyfied, and some of us find it pretty tacky as a result. But the town's parish church is just about the most spectacular surviving example of pre-Reformation religious art in Britain, and a glorious slab of real medievalism. It's surrounded by a small enclave of secular old buildings, such as the Lord Leycester hospital, which make for a jolly walkable historic area - and one which, unlike most other towns in the area, isn't crowded with crocodiles of young tourists who really wish they were somewhere else.

The town centre, while hardly competing with Florence or Venice, is still a pretty good antidote to the castle's horrors. Or a good way of offering a party a choice of activities.

>>We enjoyed Warwick Castle very much. Of course, like every proper English castle, it is haunted and possesses a certain magical power. The magical power Warwick Castle is, it brings out the truth. Take MIL. When we were ready to descend into the dungeon, my mother-in-law said “I don’t want to go into the prison. I have already been so often in prison in my lifetime.” This is an aspect of MIL’s life which I had not known so far, and I am glad that the magical power of Warwick Castle made this clear.<<

:-)) Lovely!

Lee Ann

Day Nine: Opulence! Opulence!! Opulence!!!

The day had come to leave the Cotswolds and to head for Oxford. On the way, we stopped in Woodstock, another charming town.

Woodstock is also famous for a family of militarists who is living there in a most controversial home. On www.fodors.com there is a grim controversy whether Blenheim Palace is a gorgeous architectural monument or just a great heap of kitsch.

www.blenheimpalace.com

Of course, I was eager to get an impression of my own.

Let’s put it this way. >Style< means using a limited number of patterns out of the infinite wealth of geometrical forms. Gothic architecture uses pointed arches only, renaissance architecture uses rounded arches only, classical architecture uses columns and portico. >Elegance< means using a minimum number of geometrical forms while respecting the golden cut. The world’s most elegant buildings are the simplest ones, like the pyramids, the Acropolis or the Chrysler Building.

Given these definitions, Blenheim Palace is neither elegant nor stylish. Instead, it is opulent. Period. Go there to get your own judgement.

Inside, there is a museum of Winston Churchill who was born there. I learned that it is a false belief that Winston Churchill was a politician (who, BTW, had some nasty habits like smoking cigars which had been dipped into Cognac). I learned instead that Winston Churchill was a god. Period again.

Around noon, we arrived at Oxford where son #1 was supposed to attend a summer school at Oriel College. After chatting a while with the college’s guesthouse’s warden (who also owned “Fatboy’s Pizza” which gives an impression how he looked) we left our son and his friend (who had just arrived with the bus from Heathrow) and drove to our hotel. The Cotswolds couldn’t let us go, so we landed at Cotswold Lodge Hotel which is a cozy place just north of Oxford Centre.

www.cotswoldlodgehotel.co.uk
And my review: http://tinyurl.com/6psp2g

We had booked half-board and invited our son and his friend for dinner into the hotel. By the time, I picked them up at the guesthouse they had already found the supermarket and bought the most urgent supplies, that was 16 cans of beer and a bottle of whisky. They also had taken revenge for the EURO 2008 final by having a football match against some students from Spain. I also met a figure in shorts and an ill-fitting t-shirt who turned out as their teacher. I saw that everything was going well with their summer school and took them for dinner.

The Cotswold Lodge Hotel has an AA rosette for good food. They serve a three-course dinner at 15£ which is more than fair, especially if compared with an ice cream cone in Lower Slaughter. I chose an iced melon and yoghurt soup, minted lamb skewers and rich chocolate dessert. The waiter was a little reserved, but after I had ordered a round of cocktails in the lounge, a bottle of champagne (again at a very good price), a bottle of white wine, a bottle of red wine and after he realised that my credit card had been approved he grew remarkably friendlier. (The Polish waitress, however, was a bit out of her depth with all the bottles).

As an after-dinner stroll, we accompanied the boys on their way back to the dorm. Oxford centre was charming at night, especially since the average age of the passers-by was about 21 and especially the girls were wearing almost nothing (it was one of the hottest days in England for a century). The boys got telescope eyes and bid us good-bye long before the dorm was in sight. Oxford appeared somewhat different from what they had expected.

This is the last but one installment.

fabulous report! I've just passed a pleasant hour of a quiet Friday afternoon at work! Thanks :)

I will be sorry whtn this Trip Report ends and I know I am not alone...if there was an all-time prize for great reports, you could compete for it!

Hi traveller,

I enjoyed your account of Blenheim, but I think you've missed the point. Whenever were stately homes meant to be stylish or tasteful? their purpose was to house the owner, his family, and servants in whatever way best showed off his wealth and power and he could afford. if that meant throwing up a new wing that clashed horribly with the existing one, or tearing down something beautiful, so be it. and furnishings are for comfort, definitely not style. these are homes, not show palaces.

as for the deification of Churchill, we used to live within walking distance of Chartwell, so experienced this at close quarters. those who have taken a tour of the house will have seen his [IMHO] appalling daubs next to materpieces by the great impressionists, and in the garden they will have admired the wall he built, which i had on good authority was tidied up considerably by professional builders who were doing some work at Chartwell at the time.

but again, to say these things is to miss the point about him, and why he is so revered by the British.

loving the report,

regards, ann

The Duval champagne marketing people must be hopping this summer. Almost everywhere I've been this year, Duval champagne has been the house champagne, at restaurants/pubs in the UK, Brussels, and even Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany.

Great report!

Day Ten (the Last Day): The Father of Human Rights And On Tolkien’s Footprints

Our last day in England. This evening, we were booked to fly home. This left us Oxford for the morning. Since we had learnt from Fodors.com that many colleges have erratic opening times, especially in the mornings, we were just lazy and restricted our tour to these colleges which have professionalized touristic visits.

Christ Church College is most professional in this respect. They have opening times like a museum and charge 4.90£ per adult. For this, you get a self guided tour through one of the most impressive colleges in Oxford, including a visit of the Cathedral and the Great Hall (which has already been set for lunch).

The Great Hall was crowded with visitor from all continents who kept on taking pictures with mobile phones. Most of them appeared to admire Christ Church primarily as the setting for the Harry Potter films. I was mostly impressed by the imposing, dignified way to build a student’s restaurants and by the oil paintings depicting the great alumni of this college. On the right wall, almost in the centre, there is the portrait of John Locke – the father of human rights and of most written constitutions (the U.S. constitution even contains whole sentences which have directly been taken from John Locke’s books). But this founding father of western civilisation is well balanced by portraits of Henry VIII., Elizabeth I. and Cardinal Wolsey who are more representative for the specific British tradition.

Christ Church is also worth a visit because of its cathedral where you still can detect some structures dating back to Norman times. A most rewarding tour!

www.chch.ox.ac.uk

Next, we peeped into Oriel College (where our son was supposed to study right now) and proceeded to Merton College, which was closed on Monday but, thanks to ElendilPickle, we looked at Tolkien’s study’s window and followed his footprints on Addison's Walk and under his favourite tree in the Botanical Garden (where he used to walk and sit and talk to his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis).

www.merton.ox.ac.uk/
www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/nature/walk_magdalen.shtml

Magdalen College opened for visitors at noon and also charged a nominal admission fee (4£ per adult). Unfortunately, the Hall was closed until 14:00, but it was nice enough strolling through the buildings (they have a nice cafeteria on the riverbank) and across the grounds where you find the most meticulous English lawn and grazing deer (not on the lawn).

www.magd.ox.ac.uk

Being at Magdalen, we thought about punting on the Thames but dismissed it because it was too hot. On our walk back to the hotel, we peeped into the Bodleian’s courtyard (impressive enough) and, through the windows, into Radcliffe Camera (no need to go inside).

From the hotel, we took the car to drive to Wolvercote Cemetery, where the Tolkiens are buried. The grave is well-marked and easy to find. Their stone is engraved with the names of Beren and Luthien, and visitors have left coins and cute Lord-of-the-Rings memorabilia on the grave. Otherwise, it was a quiet and solemn place and we were the only visitors.

On the way from Oxford to Heathrow, we stopped at a nice picnic area in the countryside to eliminate our last supplies and to empty our last bottles of wine (no liquids on the plane!).

The last hours in England we spent in Terminal 2. Did I say it was a hot day? This does not happen often in England. At least, Terminal 2 has no air condition. Inside, it was as hot as in a glasshouse. The woman at the security check happily confiscated bottles with cool water from the passengers and rubbed her (considerable) breast with the ice-cold bottles (and did not care about the peeping metal detector).

After two hours soaking in the terminal, we finally found a tiny, secluded spot which was air-conditioned. It belonged to a pub, and to our surprise, they served a bottle of wine at 11.95£ and a decent curry at 6.95£. England’s cuisine bid us farewell in a much better way than it had welcomed us – although, this time, it was Indian-British cuisine (BTW, the only time that we had ethnic cuisine in England).

The end.

Thanks to all who gave me good advice here on this forum before our trip and to all who made comments on this trip report.

I will be happy to answer further questions.

I loved reading your trip report! Know that it's helping travelers in 2011! Thank you from this traveler going to England from Hawaii!

I don't know how I missed this first time around. Thanks,camay, for bringing it back to the top. And many, many thanks to Traveller1959 for taking the time to write such a fun and informative report!

You are welcome (I changed my username since then).

Wow, I am happy to say that I have had the pleasure of reading this trip report prior to visiting some of said locales next month. Thanks so much for an enjoyable Mother's Day morning read :)

I just found that Woolacombe has been selected among the world's best beaches:

http://www.tripadvisor.de/TravelersC...eaches-cTop-g1

Even though this is a old report, it's a great one! Bookmarking.