ENGLAND TRIP: Day 6: Part 2: Blenheim Palace: Train/Butterflies/Maze

This is a continuation of our experience in Blenheim Palace.

Tom on the grounds of Blenheim Palace's backyard

TRAIN ON THE GROUNDS: Not a full scale train, but a smaller scale train that takes people from the main house to the "Pleasure Gardens." The narrow-gauge railway links the Palace to the Pleasure Gardens. Its a diesel locomotive called "Sir Winston Churchill," that pulls three canopied carriages and can reach a speed of 12 mph.  HERE'S A SHORT VIDEO WE MADE ON THE TRAIN:

GARDENS ALL AROUND THE PALACE:  Surrounding the Palace are over 2000 acres of beautiful ‘Capability’ Brown parkland, lakes, fountains and formal gardens including the recently restored ‘Secret Garden’, the Italian Garden, the Water Terraces, Rose Garden and Grand Cascade.

The Marlborough Maze - The Marlborough Maze is the world's second largest symbolic hedge maze, designed to reflect the history and architecture of the Palace. The maze covers an area of just over an acre.  OUR EXPERIENCE: We went into the maze, but once inside realized that there were LARGE mud puddles within and we would've been soaked and muddied had we continued, so we turned around and found our way out!   HERE'S A VIDEO WE MADE AT THE MAZE ENTRANCE:

Tom and Rob in the backyard of Blenheim Palace

Butterfly House -In the Butterfly House, we saw exotic tropical butterflies in free flight. This is a hatchery that contains many species bred on site. More exotic butterflies can be seen depending on the season. The Monarch from North America, the Owl butterflies of Central and South America and the Heliconius butterflies, also from Central and South America. I have no idea which ones we did see, but they were beautiful. I did get some on a short video.

VIDEOS IN THE LAVENDER GARDEN AND BUTTERFLY HOUSE:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT: Off to Shakespeare's Town: Stratford-Upon-Avon