hannah_b

Portraits of the past

Before my Mother died she had started researching into her family history, mostly on her father’s side. She told me once that she wished she had asked her parents a lot more questions growing up, and now that they were gone she had no one to ask. She didn’t get very far before she passed away and about a year and a half ago I decided to finish what she started.

I had seen a free trial for Ancestry.co.uk and I thought why not give it a try? I had no idea what I was doing but hoped I would learn as I went along. I wanted to start with my Mother’s Father and his family as I hoped the name would be the easiest to trace. Luckily I managed to find my Grandfather Frank Walmsley fairly quickly through the records and I got very excited when I then found his father. I didn’t even know his name prior to researching and that is what started my family history journey.

My Great Grandfather William Walmsley was one of 12 children! My Mum always had this black and white photograph of a family and she never knew who they all were. I now know that it is a photo of William with his parents and siblings. Here is a copy of the family photo.

The Parents seated are William WALMSLEY and Ann WALMSLEY (Nee COTTRELL). These are my Great Great Grandparents.
Back Row Left-Right: Hilton, William (my Great Grandfather), Frank, George, Joseph
Front Row Left-Right: Eliza, William(Snr), Grace (small girl standing), Thomas, Ann (Snr), Ann, James.
Grace and George were twins.

I looked through many census records and found that when William was 13 in 1901 he was listed as an Ironworks errand boy. I know from my research that his father William Senior was an Iron Turner, and so this is not unusual for Sons to follow in their father’s footsteps. I suspect that they would have worked at Cammel Laird’s. In 1911 I found he was in Belfast working as a boiler maker. I then discovered that he had in fact helped build the boilers for the Titanic and this was possibly the reason for his move there! It was in Belfast that he met and married my Great Grandmother Mary Hamilton Fraser in 1915. But more about her and her family in a later post!

The last census record I have of him is in 1939 and he was living at 920 Borough Road, Birkenhead, Cheshire and his occupation was listed as ‘Riveter Boiler Shop Heavy Worker’ so I suspect he is back working at Cammel Laird’s. Borough Road coincidentally is right around the corner from where I had been brought up. And through my research I found many generations of Walmsley’s that all stayed in the same area of Wirral.

I had found out about my Great Grandfather William, so then I wanted to know more about his father (My 2nd Great Grandfather) William George. He was born in 1856 and the first census record I have for him is from 1861 and he was living in Bidston New Road, which is again very very local to me. I next found him in 1871 working as an Iron Turner along with his father who was, you guessed it, an Iron Turner & engine fitter! I now know that I come from a long line of Iron Workers apparently! He spent most of his life in Birkenhead, apart from a short stint in Hull in 1881, but he did move around a bit. I suspect the constant house moves were to accommodate his growing family of 12 children! He lived in Homer Street, Barton Street, Rodney Street and Oxton Road. Here are some photos of Oxton Road and Rodney Street. I loved seeing these photos as it gave me an idea of what the area would have looked like during the time him and his family lived there.

Oxton Road c.1900
Rodney Street c.1900
Oxton Road c.1900

William George died in 1915 and is buried in Flaybrick Cemetery. The cemetery has been out of use for decades and unfortunately has fallen into a state of disrepair. But through my research I discovered a volunteer group called Friends of Flaybrick who are working to bring the cemetery back to life. I contacted them and they were able to find out the exact date of Williams burial. I discovered that his funeral service was held by a Reverend Leigh-Mallory who I later found out was the father of the famous Mount Everest explorer George Mallory! It appears that my family were regular visitors to his church.

William George Walmsley’s burial record c.1915

After finding out all of this wonderful information I then got to the sadder moments in my family’s history. Because not all of the past is a happy memory. William George and his Wife Ann Cottrell had 12 children together. But 2 of their children had died in childhood. They had a daughter named Annie Walmsley in February 1895 and she later died in August of that year. William and Ann called their next child Ann in memory of their lost Annie. This was quite common during this time and you find many families with several children with the same name after infant deaths, as if they are trying to recapture the child they lost. I am still trying to gain access to the death record for her. They also had a son named Ernest Walmsley in August 1889, he died in May 1898 at the age of 9 from long term tuberculosis. They had a daughter named Grace in 1903 and at the age of 21, in 1925, she died of pneumonia and heart failure. Through my research I have discovered that a lot of my ancestors died young and most before the age of 60.

Through the volunteers at Friends of Flaybrick I was able to be shown the exact resting place of my family. William and Ann and their 3 children and one grandson are all buried in the same plot in Flaybrick Cemetery. One of the volunteers met me there one Saturday morning and took me to their grave, which thankfully has a headstone. After months and months of research, I really felt that I knew them on a personal level. When I saw their grave for the first time I was overwhelmed with emotion. I knew no one had visited for many many decades, and they had lain there all but forgotten, but now I had found them and I felt that a part of me was now complete.

I still have yet to find the details for the burials of my other ancestors, but my journey is still ongoing. One cause of frustration during my research was the lack of birth certificates before the 1850’s and this made tracing my family even harder. After looking into my Great Great Grandfather William George, I then wanted to explore his parents, most importantly his father – Hilton Roscoe Walmsley. I tracked down Hilton in the parish birth records in Bolton-le-Moors in Lancashire in 1824. This was a surprise as I was expecting him to have been born in my local area. Unfortunately, only his mother Charlotte Roscoe is listed in the parish record as a spinster and his birth is recorded as Hilton Roscoe. During this time, being an unmarried mother would have been a huge taboo and she likely would have been ostracised by society. I have no idea at this point who Hilton’s father is. In later census records he has the name Walmsley so were did this come from? I can find no birth or marriage information for Charlotte at all. Interestingly, on Hilton’s marriage record it lists his father as a James Walmsley, occupation Bloc Cutter, and he has also picked up the name Walmsley. Could this be a step father? Perhaps it is his biological father who only recognised him in later life? This is one story I will never have the full answers to!

Next in my research I looked closer at my Great Great Grandmother Ann Walmsley (Nee Cottrell). She had a brother called William Cottrell who lived in Oxton. William had 6 children but I am only going to talk about 2 of them – Reginald Annesley Cottrell & Jack Trelford Cottrell. Reginald and Jack are my 1st cousins 3x removed (this just means we are separated by 3 generations). Reginald and Jack both served in the Cheshire Regiment and died during World War 1 and they are both commemorated on the war memorial at Hamilton Square. Reginald was killed in action on 18th August 1915 at the age of 29 during the Gallipoli campaign and is buried in Turkey. He left behind his pregnant wife Frances, and 6 children. Jack died on 16th July 1918 in Belgium when he was only 19 and is buried in Abeele Aerodrome Military Cemetery in Belgium. I plan to visit both of the war graves in the very near future. It has been amazing learning about my cousins and the sacrifices they both made so that I could have a future. I am immensely proud to call Reginald and Jack my family, however distant they may be.

War Memorial – Hamilton Square – 2020
Reginald Annesley Cottrell – 1886-1915
Jack Trelford Cottrell – 1898-1918

That’s it for this post! I hope you enjoyed the brief look into my family history. Stay tuned for a possible part 2. The delve into my family history is still very much ongoing and I am forever surprised with the information I find. I highly recommend that everyone give it a try – it is very addictive! I hope that my Mum would be amazed and proud at the journey I have continued in her honour, and my hope is to keep passing these stories on to the next generation – so their stories will always continue.

Hannah

South Africa Safari – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my South Africa Safari adventure!

I mentioned briefly in my previous post about morning prep but didn’t go into too much detail then. Morning prep starts at 6am, so me and my roommate used to get up at 5.30am. Let me tell you even though it is hot in the day, it is freeeeezing at that time of the morning! So sometimes I had to put jogging pants on and then change halfway through the day when it got super hot. Most of the time during morning prep I was on apple chipping duty! There was at least 2 boxes full to the brim with apples that you had to put through a machine which cut them all into little square pieces. It usually took about an hour. You could also sometimes be put on the fruit slicing section which was used for the stringing for the birds in the aviaries. Stringing is basically branches with nails in and then the fruit gets put on the nails. The birds love these! They used to get a mixture of apples and bananas and also watermelon.

During another of my days off me and 2 of the other volunteers went out to Jeffrey’s Bay. We had planned to sit on the beach for most of the day but it was surprisingly windy and very cold! So instead we opted for a wander around the shops. There is a really great factory outlet store there called Billabong and they had some of the nicest clothes. I ended up buying a lovely halter top there which only cost me 200 rand! That worked out at £9.70! What a bargain! During the evening we went to a lovely restaurant called Kitchen Windows for dinner and I had a burger and Crème Brule. I highly recommend dining there if visiting Jeffrey’s Bay. It was right on the sea front and the view was fantastic! Another great eating place along the sea front is a little restaurant called Tasty Tables. They have a great menu and do the most amazing bacon, egg and cheese toasties! They also do sweet chilli cheese fries which are amazing! I don’t like potatoes in any form but i would happily eat those again!

One of my favourite things about staying at African Dawn was the nights we spent around the fire. I was introduced to this fun game called ‘Werewolf’. We all sit around the fire and we have a certain amount of cards enough for each player. There is a King which represents the Werewolf, Queen for the witch, Jack for Cupid, Ace for the little girl and numbered cards represent farmers. We go around and each pick a card from the pack. The aim of the games is for the 2 Werewolves to kill off all the villagers. Once everyone has picked a card, the narrator (someone chosen from the group) asks everyone to close their eyes and then asks the 2 werewolves to ‘wake up’. Between them the 2 players who are werewolves choose silently who they want to kill from the group. Once chosen they close their eyes and the narrator asks everyone to wake up and tells the group who has been killed. Other players try to guess who the werewolves are and have a vote. If guessed incorrectly the game continues. The catch is that during each round the player who is the witch can choose to save someone and so no one may be killed. The player who is the little girl is allowed to peek to see who the werewolves are but don’t get caught as you may be chosen to die! This game was so much fun and I hope to play it again sometime. There were several times when I was one of the werewolves and didn’t get caught, I was very good at convincing the group before the vote that it wasn’t me! If you are in a group I highly suggest playing this game, it is very addictive.

At the sanctuary there was always the task at lunchtime to feed the Grysbok, Angus. Me and my roommate did this a few times because he was just adorable!

Angus was in a large enclosure that was also home to flocks of geese. And let me tell you these geese were terrifying! When you went to feed Angus you also had to feed and distract the geese so they wouldn’t follow the person going to feed Angus as they always wanted to steal his food. The first time we went to feed Angus I was the one distracting the geese with food. I ran out of food and so tried to go to were Angus was and one of the geese started chasing me and even bit me on the leg! I had a bruise from his bite but I do bruise easily anyway. My roommate just stood there laughing her head off and said she wished she had it on video! I laugh about it now but at the time I was terrified of the geese and refused to be the distractor from then on!

17th May 2018 was SAFARI DAY! I had been excited about the Safari Trip since I got to South Africa and it was the best experience of my life. Our taxi driver Clint picked us up from the sanctuary at 8am and took us to the Safari meeting point for 9am. That was were we met our tour guide for the day, his name was Scott and he was friendly and very chatty. Our first stop in the mini bus was to Addo Elephant National Park. It is the third largest park after Kruger National Park and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and was founded in 1931. There are currently more than 600 elephants here! We spent the whole morning here and saw elephants as well as Kudu, Impala, Ostrich, Giraffes and Warthogs.

At 1pm we got to have a rest stop at the Souvenir shop and the headed to Schotia Safari Game Reserve. You can do Safari tours and you can also stay overnight in their luxury lodges. If I get to visit again I will definitely try out their lodge accommodation. When we arrived we got taken to a private dining room and we were served a lovely lunch. We had roast chicken with mashed potato, roasted vegetables and gravy with ice cream for dessert. We could also have any beverage we wanted so I chose a glass of white wine. It was all included in the price! At 3pm we headed off in the jeep for another tour! I got to sit on the outside seat which meant I had a much better view! We saw some amazing animals up close including, Antelope, Impala, Kudu, Bushbok, Grysbok, Springbok, Elephants, Rhinos, Zebra, Giraffe and Lions! At one point on the tour we drove around the corner and there was the biggest elephant I have ever seen right in front of us on the road! Scott told us all to be very silent and not to move while he reversed us away from him. Scott then told us he is known to be aggressive sometimes and has rammed into the safari jeeps before. He is the oldest elephant in the park and is known as ‘Grandad’.

We stopped again at 5pm at a little lodge were we had tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and fresh bread and scones with jam, all fresh from the oven. Some of the best bread and scones I have ever tasted! After refreshments, we set off again just as it was starting to get dark on the lookout for Lions! They tend to only show themselves at dusk when it starts to get darker and so we had to keep a close eye in case we missed them. Lions are one of my favourite animals and this was the animal I hoped to see on the Safari. As we started driving we came across 2 male lions sleeping and a female. I was less than 5 metres away from them and it was amazing! Being able to see such a majestic animal up close just took my breath away. It was hard to get pictures as we weren’t allowed to use the flash on our cameras in case we startled them. The lioness we saw was staring directly at me as I went to take a picture and Scott told me to look away from her as staring back at them is an invitation for a confrontation. This was terrifying! But I still managed to get the picture without looking! Absolutely beautiful animals!

At 7pm we stopped at another lodge for tea. It was in the shape of a half circle with a large fire in the middle with an open top roof so we could see the stars. We had cheese potato bake, rice, vegetables, beef stew and mushrooms in a cream sauce. It was all served to us by the tour guides in a buffet style and we could go up and get more food as many times as we wanted. There was also a free bar and you could have any drink you wanted. This was were I also tried ‘Biltong’ for the first time. You can get Biltong in England from Asda Supermarket. It is air dried beef seasoned with spices and is my new favourite snack! For dessert we had Malva cake which has an apricot jam and has a sort of caramelised and spongy texture. We were served this with whipped cream and custard. I know cream and custard sounds like a weird combination together but it totally worked with Malva cake!

After dinner we went back out in the jeeps on the lookout for more animals with a searchlight. We stopped in the middle of a track and waited for a herd of elephants to appear. They walked right past the jeep and were so close I could have put my hand out and touched them! For such a big animal they are surprisingly silent! After the elephants had passed, Scott told us all to hop out of the jeep. We all stood looking up at the stars while Scott gave us a tour of the night sky! I have never seen such a clear black sky before and it was wonderful. He pointed out various planets and stars and we got to see Orion’s belt, Sirius the dog star and the Milky way! It truly was an eye opening experience. Scott dropped us off at the sanctuary just after 11pm. For a 15 hour day it was definitely worth every penny!

23rd May 2018 was another fun day off! Me and one of the other volunteers had decided to visit an Elephant Sanctuary. It was a 2 hour taxi journey to Plettenburg Bay which cost us 600 rand each return (about £30.00). When we arrived at the elephant sanctuary it only cost us 595 rand each (about £29.00) to walk with the elephants. The elephants were very well looked after while we were there and looked very happy. The elephant I got paired with was a lovely lady called Merula. She was the oldest elephant at the sanctuary at 24 years old and was very close with her handler named Patrick. The handlers did a small informational talk for us with their elephants before we got to go and meet them. I got to hold Merula’s trunk, feed her, feel behind her ears and the bottoms of her feet! Her skin was really rough to touch.

At the end of the talk I was able to walk her back to the main camp. Even though you are in front and are supposed to be walking them, they in fact walk you! I had to put my hand out behind me and Merula put her trunk in my hand to allow me to walk her. Merula was one sassy elephant! Patrick was behind Merula the whole time I was walking and she kept trying to steer me in a different direction. Patrick kept laughing and telling her to be nice to me and not be so sassy! It was great fun! Merula had so much strength and she easily could have knocked me over. You don’t realise how strong these elephants are until you have this sort of experience with them. Merula was a sweetheart and it was wonderful seeing the bond she had with Patrick. The elephants at the sanctuary have been rescued from poachers in the wild and so are unable to be released back into the wild because of injury. The handlers main mission is to give them a happy life. One of the elephants had its snout on the end of its trunk missing because it got caught in a poachers trap and so could never live in the wild again. It’s so very sad but it is wonderful to see them thriving at the sanctuary.

After visiting the elephant sanctuary we spent the afternoon at Monkeyland. It cost us 230 rand (about £11.00) and we had a 1 hour guided tour around the forest. I don’t think I have seen so many monkey’s in one place! Like the elephant sanctuary, these monkeys have been rescued from poachers and from the illegal pet trade and are so used to humans that they cannot be released into the wild as they would be unable to survive. The monkeys were not afraid of us walking around near them and they came very close to you. One of the friendliest monkeys was a Spider Monkey called Liam who spent all of his life as a domestic pet. He came up to one lady on the tour and hugged her legs. He was so cute! On leaving Monkeyland, I was talking with one of the staff who said that they are always looking for volunteers to help and so I might return to do this one day.

On my last day off me and one of the other volunteers went into Jeffrey’s Bay for a horse riding trail. I had never been horse riding before and had always wanted to try it. It cost us 450 rand (about £21.00) for a 2 hour trail. I had a lovely white dappled horse named Dakota who was the eldest horse and she always went with the newbies like me! We took a trek along the beach and it was amazing and Dakota looked after me very well. I would definitely love to do horse riding again. The only thing I will say is that I was so sore the next day! My butt hurt so much that it was a chore having to sit down! But it was still totally worth it!

29th May 2018 was my departure day from African Dawn. And what an experience! I loved my 4 weeks in South Africa and can’t wait to go back again! I met so many wonderful people there and hope to see them again one day. Some of the experiences I had in South Africa I may never have again and so I cherish them every day. It has become one of my favourite places and I can’t wait to explore it even more. I also have a new found love of animals after helping care for so many and seeing the amazing conservation work that is happening through all of the parks and sanctuary’s. If you have the opportunity to visit South Africa don’t turn it down! You will not regret it and it will be the trip of a lifetime!

Stay tuned for the next post!

Hannah

South Africa Safari

In 2017 i had decided that i wanted to travel to South Africa. I started researching with my sister and found some great offers with Gap 360. There was a great place in Port Elizabeth in South Africa for 4 weeks volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary. My sister encouraged me to go and i thought it over for days. I had never travelled abroad on my own before and it was such a long way! And a month seemed like such a long time i wasn’t sure if i would be able to do it. But then i decided life was too short and if i didn’t go i would regret it. So i called up Gap 360 and they arranged everything for me and got me some great flights and i was able to pay monthly for the holiday. Everyone was really shocked when i said i had booked it and my sister later told me that no one actually believed i would ever do it. Even more reason for me to go!

For the next few months i went from being really excited to super nervous. I was more worried about making sure i got to all of my connecting flights! Being on my own i wouldn’t have anyone to confer with to make sure but i needn’t have worried! I borrowed my sisters hiking backpack and got myself a little backpack for the plane. I was flying out from Manchester on 30 April 2018 and wouldn’t arrive until 1st May. My dad and sister took me to the airport and waited for me to check in. I said my goodbyes and off i went for the start of my adventure. My first flight was at around 7pm and was to France. From there i had a night flight to Johannesburg were i had to pick up my luggage and get it checked in again. Johannesburg is a massive airport and i was so very lost when i got there. Beware of the ‘helpers!’ A young gentleman offered to help me find the check in desk and also helped me find the phone shop to pick up my South African sim card. He was very helpful and i couldn’t have found where to go without his help but he then asked me for £20 which i didn’t have so i gave him some South African money and the only £10 of english money that i had. I was very naive to think he was going to help me for free! So if travelling to Johannesburg please be aware that these helpers will ask for english money at the end. From Johannesburg i then had my last flight to Port Elizabeth and then an hour transfer to the sanctuary. I finally arrived at around 4pm the following day and i was exhausted from all of the travelling!

The sanctuary i had chosen for my volunteering was African Dawn Wildlife Sanctuary in Thornhill. When i arrived i was shown to the small office where i was introduced and got my information pack. Everyone was so very lovely and welcoming after my long journey. The owner, Percy, then drove me down to my little hut where i would be staying for the next 4 weeks and i spent that afternoon unpacking. The accommodation was situated at the bottom of a small hill and was absolutely lovely.

All of us volunteers had set meal times and we all ate together in the main building at the top of the hill. Walking up and down that hill every day was definitely a killer! I met some amazing people from all over the world and it was so wonderful to share my experience with them. I didn’t have a room mate when i first arrived but she did arrive the next day and was with me for 2 weeks and then my last 2 weeks i would have the hut to myself.

Up by the kitchen each week would be our rota for the early food prep shifts which we could check every day and it also marked down which days you would be off that week. We each had 2 days off each week to go off and explore. The managers used to organise our taxis for us if we wanted to go out on a day trip. Our usual day started at 7.30am but if you were on food prep you had to be up the top of the hill for 6am! I am not a morning person so it was a killer getting up at 5.30am! First order of the day was to feed the animals at the sanctuary. We don’t eat breakfast till they are fed first. On my first day i was in the main bird aviary for the breakfast shift. It was one of the largest enclosures and housed all sorts of birds as well as mini tortoises which blended into the floor so you had to be super careful were you were walking.

Breakfast was always at 8.30am and was either toast or cereal with a tea or a coffee. At the end of breakfast one of the managers would come over and give us the jobs list for the day which we had to assign ourselves. We would always be in pairs, and the new volunteers were always paired with a more experienced volunteer that had been there longer. On the first day i got to do serval duty! I was super excited to be able to get up close to the servals. We had to go into each enclosure and top up their water and we also had to poop scoop! Not the best job but i did not care at all! The servals were so relaxed even with us being in there and were so friendly. I always liked doing the serval enclosures because they got so used to seeing you that they would come over and want petting.

The worst job was chicken dishes! This was a job that was done in the morning and the afternoon and you had to clean all of the animals food dishes. You have to fill a large tub with cold water from a hose pipe and wash all of the dishes. It used to give me terrible back ache from leaning over the tub for so long. It took over an hour most days. On my second day of doing chicken dishes i got the reward of being able to give lots of cuddles to 2 baby meerkats that were in the vet clinic named Chandler and Joey! It was totally worth doing those chicken dishes! Chandler and Joey were adorable! But i will say that as cute as they are, they absolutely stink! I had to have a shower afterwards! David Attenborough never tells you that in his documentaries!

On my very first day off me and my roommate had decided to go SKYDIVING! I had already done a skydive back at home but i was well up to do another one. My roommate had never done one before and i promised her it was amazing! Our taxi driver Clint picked us up at 10am and took us to the local town of Jeffrey’s Bay which is a seaside surfers town. All of the shops were closing that day at 1pm and some weren’t even open. We had a look around some of the shops and then walked 20 minutes to the Spar shop. Clint picked us up at 12.30pm to take us to our skydive for 1pm. I chose to do the 10,000 feet skydive and paid extra for the 360 degree video and photos. Even with paying extra for the video and photos i still only paid around £110! A skydive in England costs £275 and doesn’t include videos or photos!

My instructor was a young man named Alexis who used to work at Tilstock in England where i did my first skydive! Talk about a small world! As i had done a skydive before i didn’t need any instruction and so i was kitted up straight away and boarded onto the mini plane. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the correct height.

My first skydive that i did i was the first person from that group to jump from the plane. This time however i was going last! Seeing my roommate jumping out of that plane looked terrifying! But i knew how amazing it was and didn’t have any time to think before it was my turn to jump. It was just as amazing as the first time and there are simply no words to describe how it feels! I highly recommend that everyone try it, the thrill and excitement is next to none. The feeling of flying through the air with the wind on your face is like no other feeling in the world. I had the most amazing view of the sea on one side and desert and grasslands on the other.

Once our shoot had opened Alexis let me steer us and do lots of spins in the air! It was fantastic! We floated around for about 15 minutes until Alexis took over ready for our landing. My roommate was already down there waiting for me and she watched me land.

Now that i have my second skydive under my belt i can’t wait to do it again! If you like roller coasters then skydiving is definitely for you! Don’t be put off by the price tag because it is worth every penny. But i would recommend skydiving in South Africa if you get the chance to save a bit of cash. And the view is much better than anywhere else.

With our skydive done, Clint came to pick us up and dropped us off back at Jeffrey’s Bay where we went to a lovely bar for some much needed drinks! We had some double vodkas in a bar overlooking the sea called the Jolly Dolphin and afterwards we headed to Je Vista for cocktails! They had the most amazing cocktail flavours and at such cheap prices too. The owner was super friendly and gave us free shots whenever we went in. They even have champagne on tap!

Well this post has now gotten pretty long and i still have so much more to tell you about my trip! So there will be a part 2 coming up in the next few days. There is a safari adventure, elephant sanctuary and a monkey nature reserve to come! Keep on the lookout for part 2 and leave a comment.

Hannah x

My Italian Adventure!

In November 2017 me and my Aunt went on a 6 night trip to travel to 3 places in Italy. We would start off in Rome, continue to Florence, and finish in Venice. Despite it being November, the weather was fairly mild and I only needed an autumn coat. We had an early morning flight and so once we landed at the airport we headed straight to the hotel to drop off our bags and start sightseeing!

Our first stop was Vatican City. Somewhere I had always wanted to visit and I have to say it was wonderful. We went into the Vatican Museums and saw the Sistine Chapel which just blew me away. They have benches all along the walls so that you can just sit and marvel at the ceiling. Unfortunately no photographs are allowed inside the Sistine Chapel so it is somewhere you will have to visit in person! The best part of Vatican City was the local post! How can I be excited over post? Well I really did not realise before I went that Vatican City is a community in itself and separate from the rest of Rome. I found this absolutely fascinating and I just adored their yellow post boxes!

I decided to send a postcard home with an image of the Sistine Chapel so my family could enjoy seeing it as much as I had! We spent the whole day at Vatican City and I don’t think I have walked so much in my life! We had a lovely meal at a little local restaurant down a side street and it is still one of the best pastas I have ever tasted!

Day 2 of our Rome adventure took us to the Colosseum on a guided tour. We had pre booked all of our guided tours in advance as we knew they could get really busy on the day. So if you are sightseeing around Italy I suggest booking any tours or museum entrance tickets in advance. You can also fast track into the museums with a pre booked ticket.

The Colosseum is one of the main reasons that people want to visit Rome. And rightly so, who doesn’t want to see a Colosseum that could hold between 50,000-80,000 spectators during its prime?! The tour lasted about 2 hours and was very informative and interesting. The guide that we had was from Spain and she was lovely and super knowledgeable. I asked her how she became a tour guide and apparently there is courses and exams that you have to do which had taken her 3 years! The amount of time and effort that goes into becoming a tour guide is amazing and definitely not something I realised you had to do. One of the most amazing facts she told us was how during the Roman era the Colosseum was regularly used for entertainment shows involving ships! They used to fill the stage with water and have ship battle shows. And the amazing thing is they still have no idea how they where able to fill the wooden floor with water or how they emptied it all out later. Especially considering the gladiator cells were located beneath the floor. Absolutely fascinating and something I had never been aware of!

After our morning at the Colosseum we then took a walking tour around Rome and visited the Roman Forum. Interestingly, the Roman Forum was a place were local people met up to discuss the issues of the day. That is why we now have ‘Forum’ boards were we can all chat about various topics online. We also saw the site of Caesar’s cremation, it was surrounded by a chain barrier but still close enough to see in detail.

Day 3 and we are off on our way by train to Florence! One of the most picturesque places and full of culture! We stayed in the FH Grand Hotel Mediterraneo which had a lovely little balcony overlooking the trees. The room was lovely and very comfortable for our 2 night stay. They even served prosecco at breakfast and you could help yourself to it from the breakfast buffet! I did have a glass or 2 both mornings!

On our first day we decided to head to the Ponte Vecchio which is a medieval stone arch bridge that goes across the Arno River. There are many shops along the Ponte Vecchio and they were originally occupied by butchers, tanners and farmers. Now the bridge houses many expensive jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. Cartier is on of the more famous jewellers along the bridge. Interestingly in 1565, Cosimo I de’ Medici had an architect build what is now known as the Vasari Corridor. The Vasari corridor is an enclosed passageway above the bridge which connects the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti (home to the Medici family). By 1593 the smell from the butchers was getting too strong and so the Medici’s prohibited any butchers from selling there and instead made a decree which only allowed jewellers and goldsmiths to trade. Which explains why there are mostly jewellers still there now!

After a long day of exploring we had a lovely meal in the hotel and had a good nights rest ready for another long day! On the second day we went to visit the Palazzo Pitti. The Palazzo is the largest museum complex in Florence. The Palazzo was huge! We spent a full day there exploring the many portraits, porcelain, costumes and carriages. We also visited the Royal Apartments which consisted of around 14 rooms. Considering they were Royal, some of the rooms were a lot more intimate than you would expect. They were still grandly decorated, and most royal palaces are decorated for show, but these rooms I feel were suited more for day to day use than for showing off their grand status.

After our trip to the Palazzo we then headed to the Florence Cathedral as we wanted to visit the famous Dome! The Dome itself is 4.6 metres high and 9.2 metres long! Usually in the height of summer the queue to ascend to the Dome is pretty long but as we travelled in November there wasn’t any wait and we started the ascent straight away. We didn’t realise until after we got to the top but there were 463 steps! We were both absolutely shattered! Most of the steps where up winding staircases, and twisted so much going up that I pulled a muscle in my hip! When you get near to the top you can go through an entrance way and you can see the inside of the ceiling which was just magnificent!

Once we reached the top it was quite windy and was pitch black but the view was amazing! We spent about a half an hour up there just marvelling at the view. And after walking 463 steps to the top we were in no hurry to go back down again!

Once again we enjoyed a lovely meal in the hotel and headed to bed, ready for part 3 of our adventure! In the morning, we packed our bags ready to go, our train to Venice wasn’t until about midday so we decided to see one last treasure before we left. We could not leave Florence without seeing the famous Statue of David! The statue was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral but instead was placed in the public square outside the Palazzo Vecchio. In the square there now stands a replica of the statue and unfortunately some tourists mistake this for the real statue. However, the statue was moved to the Galleria dell”Academia in 1873. The Galleria is situated down a small side street and if you’re not looking for it you can easily miss it! Michelangelo was only 26 when he started and it took him more than 2 years to complete!

I have never seen a statue more life like than this one! You could even see his veins popping out from his arms! The detail was just extraordinary! In 1991 the foot of the statue was damaged by a deranged man with a hammer and you can still see the damage on it today. This is one of the reasons why it is now encased in protective glass. If visiting Florence, then this is definitely a must see! Our last stop on our tour was Venice! Somewhere I had always wanted to go and it did not disappoint! It was beautiful!

We stayed in a place called Mestre which is not too far away from the centre of Venice. We had to get a bus from outside the hotel to Venice, and then once at Venice we got a boat to the areas that we wanted to see. Once you arrive off the boat then everything is pretty much in walking distance. Our first stop was a little Café called Caffe Lavena on St mark’s Square outside the Doge’s Palace. It was the most upmarket place I had ever been into! All of the waiters wore tuxedos and everything was silver service. It was very expensive but we decided to treat ourselves. We ordered a hot chocolate and a tea and it came on a lovely silver tray. We also got served a jug of water and biscuits which we weren’t expecting so it was a lovely touch! The service was next to none and I would definitely visit there again.

One of the highlights of our trip to Venice was the Murano Glass museum! We went across by boat and when we arrived we got to experience a Glass Blowing demonstration which was fascinating! It is such a beautiful art and seeing them at work is breath taking. There was a little shop there which included every sort of Murano glass you could imagine! There were ornaments, jewellery, watches, lamp shades, chandeliers and more! I could not resist by myself a lovely Murano glass watch with flowers inlaid into the clock face with a blue strap. It is definitely one of my best buys!

If you love shopping then Venice is definitely the place for you! Every street is filled with all sorts of shops, and some at reasonable prices. You also have the more up market shops like Cartier and Tiffany’s just to name a few. We also saw a lot of fancy dress and masque shops where you could buy all manner of clothes for a masked ball! The one and a half days we spent there was just about right as I do prefer more historical activities over shopping but still very enjoyable. That evening we had a lovely meal overlooking the Rialto Bridge where we enjoyed pasta and prosecco!

Before our flight home the next day we just had to have a Gondola ride! How can you visit Venice and not go on a Gondola?! Being able to experience an authentic Italian Gondola ride was truly amazing! We were able to see all of the little local side streets that are only accessible by Gondola. We had a lovely gentleman Gondolier who told us some interesting facts about living in Venice. Despite all of the buildings having basements, most Venetians prefer to live on the upper floors due to the amount of flooding that occurs every year. He even pointed out some of the water marks from past floods and they were pretty high up on the walls!

After the Gondola ride it was sadly time to leave for the airport and make our way home! Travelling Italy was an amazing experience from start to finish. Learning about the history, culture, cuisine and fashion was an absolute delight and I would not hesitate to go back again. It has fast become one of my favourite places! It was very sad saying goodbye to Italy but rest assured I will be back!

And that was the end of my Italian adventure! I hope you enjoyed sharing my experience with me. Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Hannah

Hello!

My name is Hannah and welcome to The H Word, were I will discuss all things Literature, Travel and History!

I decided to create this blog to talk about my travel experiences, the current literature I am reading as well as having a bit of history thrown in too. So I am going to start off with a little bit about me. I can positively say that I led a pretty boring life to be perfectly honest, I had a few nice holidays with family and friends but I wouldn’t say my life was filled with any sort of adventure. In 2015 my Mum passed away from Gallbladder cancer at the age of 58 and it was like I had my eyes opened. I didn’t want to die ever having any regrets in my life. I would always um and ah over decisions and wouldn’t really say I was spontaneous. And then I decided to hell with it! You only get one life and I am going to do anything and everything!

In 2017 I decided spontaneously to book a month long trip to South Africa for May 2018 to volunteer at a Wildlife Sanctuary called African Dawn. I had never travelled anywhere on my own before and certainly not such a long distance! When I mentioned to my family I had booked the trip they were all very surprised and claimed they never believed I would ever do something so adventurous! And I’m sure my Mum would have been surprised too! So over the next few months I saved and planned for my one month sole trip to South Africa.

Shortly after booking my trip my Auntie asked if I wanted to go on a 6 night travel experience around Italy in November 2017! Normally I would have took days to decide whether I had the money for it. But once again I couldn’t say no and so I said ‘to hell with it!’ Rome, Florence and Venice – Booked! Next, one of my good friends asked me to go on a London weekend (we usually try and go once a year) and once again I was up for it!

And so since 2017 whenever I am asked to go on a holiday or weekend trip I always say yes because you only live once right? My next blog entry will start with my trip to Italy where my travel bug really started. Stay tuned.

Hannah

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