Green Days In England
Can you imagine going to buy a coffee at Heathrow and being told they don’t accept British currency? Or that JFK Airport doesn’t take dollars? As is customary we entered Tunis Airport with a handful of local currency left in our pockets, probably just enough to cover a bite to eat and a coffee before we boarded the flight home, trying to strike that balance between not running out too soon and not having any left at the end.
All we got for our last remaining dinar was shakes of heads and wry smiles: once you’re airside, nobody accepts them. You can pay in euros, you can pay by card, but accepting their own currency is, it seems, not something Tunisia is willing to entertain!
After nine weeks in desert terrain England’s green and pleasant land lives right up to the green part of that reputation and as we drive around in the first few days back in Blighty it seems even greener than either of us had remembered. It’s absolutely lush. It’s absolutely freezing too – after all that sunshine time we are welcomed back by unseasonably low temperatures which struggle to reach 15C (and are at times under 10) even though it’s almost June. And for the second “welcome home time” in a row our heating system has at some point during our trip ceased working and left the house feeling like an igloo on a bad day. Almost.
During our time in Tunisia we saw a post on a fellow blogger’s site which really caught our imagination and we knew immediately that if we could, then we had to. It turned out that we could – but only just, with the London arm of the exhibition due to close just days after our return to England. The site in question is Meg’s always interesting “grandmisadventures.com” (always well worth a read – go see if you haven’t already) and the exhibition is the Van Gogh Immersive Experience.
The exhibition is a terrific set of experiences, first taking the visitor through Van Gogh’s short and somewhat tortured life and taking us as close to the inside of his mind as possible, before recreating his life and times in inspired fashion. Visual reality headsets take you into Van Gogh’s world, watching his subjects transform from field to canvas and from animated to palette. And there’s more to come as you sit transfixed while Van Gogh’s creations and images float around you amid haunting music.
“Have you ever imagined being inside an artist’s mind”, “have you ever imagined being inside a painting”, are the teasers posed by the show’s literature, accurately describing exactly what this inspired exhibition delivers. Michaela’s Mum, an artist in her own right, (@normareadartist) a lover of Van Gogh and our guest for the day, is suitably wowed by it all.
En route to the Midlands to catch up with family we spend a day – Michaela’s birthday actually – visiting Blenheim Palace and staying in the delightful nearby town of Woodstock. Blenheim is a place of true splendour and magnificence, though our plans to take a leisurely stroll around the house and gardens are shattered by the fact that we’ve coincided our visit with a humongous triathlon event in the grounds. Bikes, lycra and burger bars all over the place! Maybe we should have done a bit more research.
Not even that giant event can spoil the bold splendour of Blenheim though, its huge rambling bulk nestling proudly within the beautiful tiered gardens. As with all of England’s great houses, its history is absorbing, fascinating and at times the stuff of blockbuster novels, though we will limit ourselves in this post to just one piece of history:
In 1722, the 1st Duke Of Marlborough died having been pre-deceased by both of his sons. A special Act Of Parliament was needed to enable his daughter Henrietta to succeed to the dukedom and thus save the Palace from potential ruin – the first time in our history that change was made to the automatic succession of the male line. Blenheim’s chequered history has seen it neglected, restored, neglected again and ultimately re-established by its opening to the public by the 10th Duke in 1950, whose second wife, incidentally, referred to Blenheim as “The Dump”.
A mention too for Woodstock, a delightful, quintessentially Middle England town of elegant houses in Cotswold stone, pristine and preened and as genteel as you could ever imagine. For a town so archetypically English, it seems just perfect to visit today, in the week of the Queen’s Jubilee, with the town bedecked in red, white and blue and adorned with more Union Jacks than you can wave a gloved hand at.
It’s all kind of perfect. And a great place to reacquaint ourselves with English ale.
We might have to make the most of it. Our next adventure starts in June and from then we won’t be tasting English ale again until September.
30 Comments
giacomoasinello
Nice to see Woodstock again. Haven’t been there for years!
Annie Berger
A great catch-up on London town and Woodstock before you leave your native shores once again!
Alison
I’ve seen Megs post on Van Gogh and looks fantastic. I’m sure it’s been to Perth. Would love to see Blenheim Palace one day. You’ve been back just long enough to do your washing! But still can’t get those ants out of your pants😄
Belated Happy birthday Michaela
Phil & Michaela
Ha ha yes you’re right, there’s no washing powder which gets rid of those!
Alison
😁
grandmisadventures
Yay, I’m so glad you were able to go to the Van Gogh experience! So interesting to see how different places put on this immersive experience. That was so kind of you to mention me. Happy Birthday Michaela- many happy returns! And my goodness that palace is just stunning. Looking forward with great anticipation on where June will be taking you 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Thanks Meg – our pleasure to give you a name check, without you we wouldn’t even have known about it! June will be bringing us first to the US of A….
Toonsarah
Great to see Blenheim looking so majestic, it’s years since I’ve been there! We did go to the Van Gogh exhibition however – I thought the VR bit was by far the best, a fascinating way to present the paintings and the landscapes that inspired them 🙂 And we had exactly that same problem with local currency the last time we flew back from Marrakesh. I’d planned to use it up on buying small gifts for my sister etc. but was stuck with it – there wasn’t even a currency exchange to change it into something I could use!
Phil & Michaela
Absolutely agree about the VR bit…the best bit of an outstanding exhibition. And yes the same at Tunis – nowhere to exchange your money once you’re airside. Ended up doing a dodgy deal swapping my dinar for a handful of euros at about 50% of the going rate – with an airport employee out of sight round a corner of the terminal…
Joe
Welcome home! After the dry desert landscapes of Tunisia, your return to lush and chilly England must have induced a bit of reverse culture shock. Blenheim Castle and Woodstock look radiant and majestic, flying the colors in honor of the Queen. Is it true that Churchill was born at Blenheim? Happy birthday Michaela. Looking gorgeous!
Phil & Michaela
Yes indeed, Churchill’s birthplace
Phil & Michaela
Oh, and Michaela says “why, thank you, kind Sir”
wetanddustyroads
It certainly is green and beautiful 😁 … and even better with Blenheim Palace as a stunning backdrop. Happy belated birthday Michaela – cheers to many more adventures!
Phil & Michaela
She says thank you!
leightontravels
I always love being back in England after an extended jaunt abroad, especially when the country in question is so different from home, as it was in your case. The no local currency thing at the airport is annoying, that’s happened to me a couple of times. This was my second online look at The Van Gogh Immersive Experience (after Meg’s experience), I’d definitely do it if given the chance. Blenheim Palace is right up my street, a belated Happy Birthday to Michaela!
Phil & Michaela
Thank you! They were both good days out indeed
Valerie Burls
Hello you two.
Monkey's Tale
It’s nice to be home after a long trip isn’t it. Blenheim Castle looks so majestic and beautiful, and so different from your recent posts! Maggie
Phil & Michaela
Yep definitely very different
Andrew Petcher
I recall visiting the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam which was good but there were a lot of missing exhibits that had been loaned out to various exhibitions across Europe. They still charged full price though.
WanderingCanadians
Ha, 15C is actually my ideal temperature for being outdoors! Glad to hear that the timing worked out and that you were able to go to the Van Gogh Immersive Experience exhibit. Blenheim Palace looks lovely, but that’s too bad that it was busier than usual because of the triathlon. P.S. Happy belated birthday to Michaela.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you!
Gilda Baxter
Happy (belated) Birthday Michaela!! How time flies and you are already back, but sounds like not for very long?
Fantastic Van Gogh exhibition, something I would have loved to see. You guys don’t let the dust settle 😀
Phil & Michaela
Thank you Gilda – yep, off again soon!
Lookoom
Blenheim brings back memories of visiting the school, one of the first steps that will lead me to so many other palace visits. Thanks for the refresher.
Lookoom
Blenheim brings back memories of school visits, one of the first steps that will lead me to so many other palace visits. Thanks for the refresher.
Forestwood
What does it say about the value of the local currency if noone in the airport accepts it? Surprising though. Do you have those bins where you can dump foreign cash for charity?
The Van Gogh immersive experience recently finished here, and it must have gone to UK when it left. I didn’t get to see it as it was booked out so nice to see a few pics.
You mentioned the green of England and when I fly from Australia to Scandinavia, I am in awe of the luminescent green of the grass and the smells of the trees. I do miss that when I fly home to my brown earthy country. Having said that, we have had so much rain this year, the grass is green for once.
Fancy that second wife calling a palace a dump….what audacity.
restlessjo
Oh, no! Not pork scratchings….
Phil & Michaela
Pork scratchings rock!!
restlessjo
🤣💕