Travel
- Visiting The Romantic Borromean Islands On Lake Maggiore
Isolla Bella, views from the shoreline We dedicated an entire day of our trip on Lake Maggiore to visit its most famous attractions - the Borromean Islands. We started the day with a stroll on Stresa's shoreline and after admiring the magnificent...
- Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm. Unesco World Heritage Site
Palaces and castles always fascinated me and tickled my imagination. Therefore it will come as no surprise that on our last day in Stockholm I dragged my husband to see Drottningholm Palace. The reputation preceded this place for being listed as...
- Seville. Casa De Pilatos And Its Amazing Gardens
It is difficult to understand why Casa de Pilatos from Seville is called a house and not a palace. With 500 years of history behind it and some amazing flower gardens, this is one of the most beautiful and intriguing havens in Seville. Casa de Pilatos...
- Seville. The Astonishing Royal Alcazar Palace & Gardens
The Royal Alcazar of Seville is a place to fall in love with and one of the top attractions in Seville. Originally a Moorish fortress ('alcazar' basically means fortified castle), it is now a huge royal palace with some of the most...
- Palace Of The Countess Of Lebrija In Seville
The Palace of the Countess of Lebrija is one of my favorite places in Seville. It gathers one of the most impressive Roman mosaic collections in Spain and I'm a sucker for ancient stuff. So, yeah, 1+1= I love it here. After spending a couple of hours...
Travel
Walking Around the Fabulous Blenheim Palace & Gardens
Blenheim Palace is one of the few princely residences that made it the UNESCO World Heritage list. Even so, probably the most outstanding detail about it is that it is the birthplace of Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister during the Second World War.
Blenheim Palace celebrates the beginnings of the English Romantic movement and the victory of the British troops over the French in the War of Spanish Succession. It was then presented as a gift by the English people to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough in recognition for his victory in 1704 at Blenheim and it remained within the family ever since. Nowadays Blenheim Palace is used as a private residence, therefore, out of the 187 lavishly decorated rooms it has, only a few can be visited and no photos are allowed inside.
But the gardens are a totally different matter. Blenheim Palace is set within 2000 acres of beautiful parkland that encompasses the second largest maze in the world and a butterfly house. One can walk for hours on end through these gardens, picnic, rest, relax, meditate, enjoy the sun, etc.
I just love the passion and the energy the English people invest in creating perfect landscapes. Maybe always a bit afraid of adding too many details, the gardens are so well cared for and everything looks so in place that I can't help but wonder.
The palace is situated a short trip from Oxford, in the much celebrated English countryside, and is definitely a must visit.
Quite a few movies were filmed here too, 'Young Victoria', 'Gulliver's travels', and 'Harry Potter' being just some of the most recent and famous ones.
Somehow I believe Blenheim Gardens are for England what the Villandry Gardens are for France...
The rose garden was one of my favorites, partly because the roses were the only flowers in bloom. I would love to visit Blenheim Palace again in spring sometime, when the daffodils are in bloom...
I have the feeling that the place is more popular with the locals than with the tourists from abroad though. When we visited in mid July the terrace overlooking the gardens was packed with British people. The gardens weren't that packed, but then again, they are huge, so it's impossible to get crowded. We had to cue for photos of the waterfalls though.
My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our long and lazy walk by the river. It was so romantic and everything was so green, and we love green, green is good!
The old Cedar of Lebannon trees looked so alien! We loved them, and so apparently did the creators of 'Harry Potter', because they used one of these trees with a particularly 'O' shaped hole in the trunk in the movie.
- Visiting The Romantic Borromean Islands On Lake Maggiore
Isolla Bella, views from the shoreline We dedicated an entire day of our trip on Lake Maggiore to visit its most famous attractions - the Borromean Islands. We started the day with a stroll on Stresa's shoreline and after admiring the magnificent...
- Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm. Unesco World Heritage Site
Palaces and castles always fascinated me and tickled my imagination. Therefore it will come as no surprise that on our last day in Stockholm I dragged my husband to see Drottningholm Palace. The reputation preceded this place for being listed as...
- Seville. Casa De Pilatos And Its Amazing Gardens
It is difficult to understand why Casa de Pilatos from Seville is called a house and not a palace. With 500 years of history behind it and some amazing flower gardens, this is one of the most beautiful and intriguing havens in Seville. Casa de Pilatos...
- Seville. The Astonishing Royal Alcazar Palace & Gardens
The Royal Alcazar of Seville is a place to fall in love with and one of the top attractions in Seville. Originally a Moorish fortress ('alcazar' basically means fortified castle), it is now a huge royal palace with some of the most...
- Palace Of The Countess Of Lebrija In Seville
The Palace of the Countess of Lebrija is one of my favorite places in Seville. It gathers one of the most impressive Roman mosaic collections in Spain and I'm a sucker for ancient stuff. So, yeah, 1+1= I love it here. After spending a couple of hours...