Saturday 12th – Sunday 13th December

For the annual Christmas get-together, the Tea Girls had long-planned a visit to Blenheim Palace to experience their Christmas Illuminated Light Trail. A hotel had been booked, plus tables for dinner at an Italian restaurant.

Covid intervened (several times) but finally as ‘Tier’ levels became higher, we were not allowed to eat together at the two tables of six booked at the restaurant. Plans were adapted so, in the end, husband and I were the only ones to stay at the hotel and eat at the restaurant.

On the bright side, apart from the furthest away couple, everyone made a round-trip journey on the day and we were able to meet in the car park for a socially distanced mince pie and exchange of gifts, before enjoying the light trail. It was so lovely to see everyone and for people to have made the journey. (You were allowed travel at that time!).

Blenheim Palace had pulled out all the stops and their Illuminated Light Trail was awesome! I’d definitely recommend visiting another year – pretty steep at £21.50 per adult, plus £10 parking per car, but nevertheless definitely worth the outlay. Next year’s dates aren’t yet advertised but this is the homepage link https://www.blenheimpalace.com

At the entrance an amazing lightshow to music is projected on the walls of the palace itself, followed by a one-way, circular walk around the large lake with a continuous variety of light displays to enjoy. Below are some photos, although they don’t really do the event justice.

Husband and I stayed at The Feathers in Woodstock https://www.feathers.co.uk, a small hotel right in the centre of the village and a short stroll from Blenheim.

Afterwards we ate at La Galleria in Woodstock http://www.lagalleriawoodstock.com, lovely, lovely people and superb/authentic Italian food. I would highly recommend.

We had been so very lucky with the weather on Saturday evening, not too cold and not too wet. Sunday morning, however, was grim! After a hearty Full English and a hurried look around Woodstock, we headed for home to get out of the torrential rain. ☔️