An absolutely unbelievable weekend, one we’ll never forget.
I can’t wait for the football season to start up again!
Our Birthday!
We had a fun birthday weekend celebrating together. We grabbed lunch and spent the day hanging out together on Saturday. Delicious picky bits at Revs in the sunshine, mini golf, cocktails, and the cinema.
On our birthday, on the Sunday we had a delicious brunch together, exchanged our presents, spent time with family and had a birthday meal with cake to round off the weekend.
Oh… and we may have got a matching tattoo on our birthday as well ๐
We enjoyed a bottomless brunch in the sunshine ๐ followed by some fun and games at a local bar, including interactive darts & karaoke.
A lovely family holiday to Norfolk.
We stayed in a lovely air bnb cottage in Norfolk. We went along with my mother in law, brother in law, my husbands Auntie, Cousin, and Grandad. We had a lovely time chilling out, cooking together, exploring nearby towns and Norwich City, walks (weather permitting), and we even hired a boat, which was a highlight!
& I saw some bats, which was epic.
Going to see Take That live!
I will always love seeing Take That live! No one does it better. I can’t believe that this was the 7th time I’ve seen them love!!
Another fun month! And we are almost halfway through the year!!! Madness.
We started back doing our Parkruns this month! Happy with my time of 34.01 – here’s to getting back to it again ๐
Me and my twin sister Sarah organised our bestfriends baby shower. It went really well and everyone had a great time! Lots of delicious food, fun games, presents and laughs ๐ถ
Pancake day! One of the best days in Feb ๐ฅ I managed to have two pancake meals, haha.
We celebrated Valentines Day this year with our traditional meal to a local Turkish restaurant. It was delicious as always.
As you may have see from my previous holiblog post, we went to Northern Italy for the Feb half term. It was brilliant. We did Verona, Lake Garda, Milan & Venice (again!)
We had a brilliant time, there was so much to see and it was beautiful. We were also mostly, pretty lucky with the weather.
This Feb Half Term, we embarked on our latest Italian adventure, this time in Northern Italy. This trip was sort of inspired by our 2020 Italy trip that never was (thanks, Covid!)
We changed the plans a little from the original idea, as we only had a week half term instead of the Summer Hols, but we knew we wanted to travel around more of Northern Italy. I found some cheap flights to and from Verona, and we went from there.
Let’s see what we got up to!
Day 1 – Travelling to Italy
Sat 17th – Today was mainly spent travelling to Italy. It was pretty uneventful (and actually an ok flight, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t very fond of flying)
We arrived in Verona at 7 pm and after a short bus ride and a check-in at our hotel we went in search of food.
The little Pizzeria (Rio’s) that we found nearest to our hotel did not disappoint. It was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had in Italy.
Day 2 – Verona
Sun 18th – Today, we spent the day in Verona, exploring the town.
We did lots of walking.
We had a short tour of the Verona Arena, which was really cool!
It’s the best preserved Arena in Italy!
The Arena was probably my favourite ‘sight’ of the trip.
In the early evening, we travelled to Lake Garda, the next destination of our trip.
Day 3 – Lake Garda
Mon 19th – Today, was we visited Salo in Lake Garda.
It is home to the longest promenade in Italy.
& it is very beautiful.
They also do a bangin’ sandwich. This was an insanely good lunch. That bread ๐คค
We had a lovely time walking up and down the promenade as well as looking through the city streets.
We rounded off the day with a delicious dinner, Caprese, Rosemary Foccacia, Risotto, and Tiramsu – so good.
Day 4 – Lake Garda
Tues 20th – We started off Day 4 with another yummy breakfast at our lovely B&B before we headed off to get our bus tickets for the day.
We didn’t realise a market was on, and it was quite extensive. There were some amazing food stalls, including fruit, veg, soooo much cheese and meats.
We decided to pick up some bits and create our own lunch. We chose a delicious fresh tomato, a fresh ball of Mozzarella, a fresh Foccacia, and some amazing strawberries. Delicious.
These made a yummy picnic.
In the afternoon, we headed off to explore another part of Lake Garda – Sirmione.
They are known for their delicious gelato, so we had some in the sunshine when we arrived!
We then had a walk through the castle and town on our way to the ruins of a Roman villa. There was a museum and the ruins itself so that was really interesting to see.
The ruins were so vast.
Once again, the weather was amazing.
We went back to freshen up before having a delicious dinner and a chilled evening in our room.
Day 5 – Milan
Wed 21st – Today we travelled to Milan! We were sad to leave our lovely accommodation in Garda.
Milan Centrale Station is massive! It gives Grand Central Station NYC Vibes for sure.
We spent the day doing LOTS of walking around Milan, seeing the city on foot, there is some cool architecture and graffiti. We picked up some more delicious ice cream, and we went to the Leonardo Di Vinic museum to round off the day.
We had these incredible crepes for dessert from those amazing Gelatoria that we discovered first in Verona.
Day 6 – Milan/Verona
Thurs 22nd – Today, we travelled back to our starting point, Verona, for our final leg of the trip!
Once we made it back Verona (after a 40 min delay at Milan) we freshened up and spent some time just chilling/reading in our hotel room.
It rained in the evening, so we just ventured out nearby to get some food. We didn’t stay out for long before heading back and watching a film in bed.
Day 7 – Verona
Fri 23rd – Today was the only day it rained pretty much all day. We had been so lucky with the weather so far. Typically, we had our Verona Walking Tour.
We didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits and we both thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the city. It was so interesting and Verona is such a beautiful place.
Booking a tour is well worth it!
We grabbed a spot of lunch from a place near the end of the tour, as recommended by our tour guide. The fresh pasta was delicious, and the tiramisu was insannnne.
We were very glad to have such a lovely shower in our hotel room because we were freeeeeezing ๐ฅถ after walking back in the rain.
And of course, we had another delicious dinner to round off the day!
Day 8 – Verona
Sat 24th – Today was our last full day ๐ฅฒ
The weather was beautiful, which was great for our final day. We headed over to a cafe that we heard was really nice. We had yet another delicious coffee and pastry.
We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon looking around the castles museum – it was really interesting with our audio guide, and at the top, you get soke beautiful views of Verona.
After all that exploring and walking around, we enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the hotel.
In the evening…
WE WENT TO VENICE!!! My favourite ๐
It was beautiful as always โค๏ธ
We had a delicious pasta dinner when we arrived…
… before heading to our favourite gelatoria!! ๐จ Su So is incredible. We had to squeeze some in for dessert.
It was buzzing in Venice as it was the Venice Carnival that weekend.
Venice is truly unique.
I love sitting by the Grand Canal. It’s so peaceful.
๐
Day 9 – Home time
Sun 25th – Today, it was time to go home!
We enjoyed a nice walk into the city centre of Verona to find a nice cafe for breakfast again. We really enjoyed doing this the day before.
We had a final delicious coffee, pastry (and Lasagne for Tim ๐คฃ)
We then had a walk around a bit more, including the arena before heading back to make our way to the airport.
We had such a brilliant trip and it was great to see so many new parts of our favourite country.
First stop, airport breakfast. Are you even going away if you don’t have one?!?
We flew quite early on our first day (half a good idea as you get a whole day, half a bad idea as we were knackered and needed a nap before dinner)
Once we had landed we got the tram from the airport to the town centre, which was cool.
We then found our accommodation, left our bags and headed out to look around and book a tour. We had been hoping to book the tour that day as we had prebooked some others, unfortunately there were no slots available so we booked it for the second day.
We had a little bit more of a look around. The architecture and city centre are amazing, its such a beautiful place.
We found this awesome place for some lunch. How cool is it!! Bats are my favourite animal so I fell in love with this place immediately. It was really quirky and unique inside too, I love finding independent places like this.
Once we had enjoyed our food we wandered back to our accommodation as we could now check in. Hubby listened to the football whilst I had a nap as I was knackered thanks to the end of term/early start. It was much needed.
We got up and ready for the evening and went to a delicious Italian (our favourite) which we had spotted earlier.
We just had a chilled evening as we were both travel tired and wanted to be ready and raring for the next few days.
A brilliant start to the trip!
D A Y โข T W O
For our second day, we headed back down to the Royal Mile for our first tour of the day.
Our first tour was called ‘The Real Mary Kings Close’. It is an hour long guided tour where you learn all about the history of the different closes and the people who lived there. Our guide was brilliant in character and really funny, which made the experience that bit more fun too.
After the tour, we hung around the Royal Mile for a bit, had some lunch and a drink before our second tour.
Our second tour was a history of the old town. It was so interesting and really cool learning about the different buildings all around the Royal Mile and their significance in the growth and development of Edinburgh.
We were shown the ‘only official’ Harry Potter merchandise shop on our tour, so at the end of it, we queued up (yep, it’s so popular you have to queue) and we went in. It was so cool, the decor is insane! And there’s so much cool merchandise.
We rounded off the evening with ‘The Best Fish & Chips in Edinburgh’ which tbf were pretty delicious. I even tried a battered Mars bar, which was really yummy.
D A Y โข T H R E E
We enjoyed a yummy breakfast at our ‘hub’ Accommodation before walking the length of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace.
I always loved the Queen, so it was cool to see Holyrood Palace and its grounds. We didn’t have time to go in, which was a shame, but it was a lovely day, so we went for a walk through the garden and admired it from the outside.
We also had a look around the Scottish Parliment building, which was interesting, too. You had to go through proper airport style security to get in, which was a bit mad (but understandable).
We then walked all the way back up the Royal Mile to Haymarket station where we met my Uncle.
He lives in a different part of Scotland, so we arranged to meet up with him for a day while we were close by. We took the bus together and went to Edinburgh Zoo.
It was an unprecedented hot day in Edinburgh, and everyone had obviously decided to do the same as us and visit the zoo… the queue was mad, but we got in eventually, and we had a lovely day.
It is such a lovely zoo and a really good variety of animals, some which they don’t have in our local zoo.
We especially enjoyed seeing the different types of penguins (the King penguins are amazing!) and the Gentoo penguins, as well as the Sun Bears, Sloths, and most incredible of all, the Giant Panda!!
That is an animal I never thought I would actually see, and it was so cute.
We rounded off a brilliant day with a delicious Italian before we headed back to our respective homes. It was one of my favourite days of the holiday and it was great to catch up.
D A Y โข F O U R
For our penultimate day, we had an earlier start. Again, we enjoyed a hotel breakfast before heading back to the Royal Mile for our Harry Potter tour!!! Exciting โก๏ธ
Here is a little rundown of some of the cool things that we saw…
Harry Potter Walking Tour โก๏ธ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ
1. Outside The Elephant House Cafe where JK often wrote โ๏ธ๐ผ 2. Sorted into our houses at the start of the tour ๐ 3. Tom Riddles grave ๐ชฆ 4. Hogwarts inspo for the exterior, houses & alot of interiors eg Great Hall ๐ฐ 5. Victoria Street, the inspiration for Diagon Alley ๐ช 6. Outside the shop that is believed to have inspired Flourish & Blotts Bookshop ๐ 7. Bank of Scotland, inspo for Gringotts 8. The Balmoral Hotel where JK finished writing the last ever Harry Potter book โก๏ธ๐ 9. On the Royal Mile, the main body of this monument inspired parts of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets ๐ 10. JK Rowling’s Handprints on Edinburghs very own ‘Walk of Fame’ ๐๐ผโจ๏ธ
Once we had some lunch, we headed to the National Museum of Scotland. They had a Doctor Who exhibition that we wanted to look around.
It was really good, we enjoyed looking around the exhibits.
We even went inside a Dalek!
We had a brief look around some of the animal areas of the museum before we headed back for a chill before dinner.
We went back to our favourite Italian ‘Pomo’ one last time for some delicious food.
I had been eyeing up the frozen Raspberry Daiquiri all week, so I decided to have one ok our last night… it was amazing.
We then headed back to the lovely bar we visited earlier in the week – The Hanging Bat ๐ฆ we got a cocktail each to round of the evening.
D A Y โข F I V E
Our final day!
We went out for breakfast at a little cafe before heading to the Royal Mile one last time.
We went to the Writers Musuem, where they have rooms all about three famous Socttish writers; Robert Louie Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott.
We then walked down to the new town and had a look around, had a drink,and even got to get right up close to ‘The Balmoral’ (as mentioned in the HP tour on Day 4) which was really cool.
Finally, we headed to the castle to have a closer look before we left. We didn’t get around to going in, but to be honest, there is so much to do that we could definitely visit again.
The views of Edinburgh from up by the Castle were amazing, too.
We rounded off the trip with one last lunch stop at The Hanging Bat ๐ฆ
We’re going to miss this place!
We then grabbed our things and headed off to the airport.
All in all we had a brilliant trip- Edinburgh is beautiful and we got so lucky with the weather. There is SO much to do and it would definitely be great to go back.
So this weekend saw our first trip of 2023 – and we visited Wales ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
Friday 24th February 2023
๐Merthyr Tydfil ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
We stayed in a lovely AirBnb…
We drove up on Friday night in order to give ourselves maximum time on Wales. A quick stop at a services on the way and we made it in time for bed, ready to start the adventure the next day.
Saturday 25th February 2023
๐Barry Island ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
I was super excited about this day!!! We got to visit somewhere that I have wanted to visit but never thought I would… Barry Island.
Now this may seem like a strange choice but if you’ve watched the TV show ‘Gavin and Stacey’ then you’ll get it.
I was literally having my Gavin and Stacey moment and it was awesome. Seeing the seafront where so many iconic scenes took place, Nessa’s slots, Marcos cafe, Gwen & Stacey’s house, Bryns house and Doris house… it was friggin’ epic!!!
Honestly one ot the funnest days ever. So amazing.
We spent most of the day enjoying the seaside sights and then we headed home via a shop to make dinner at the air bnb.
We played games and of course watched some Gavin and Stacey to round off the day.
Sunday 27th February 2023
๐Cardiff ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
As the capital and as it was on the way home we decided to spend our last day exploring the city.
We started off by getting some yummy lunch!
After that me and my sister had a look around the Primark (Standard!) Haha
We then looked around the Castle. We didn’t pay to go inside but you can walk right through the middle and see it all from the outside which was really cool.
Our second stop was the National Museum of Wales.
This was really cool, in particular the animal section and dinosaurs. My Nephews really enjoyed it too.
The architecture of the building and the town hall next door was amazing too.
We enjoyed the extra ‘100 year’s of the BBC’ exhibition that was happening at the time too. It was really interesting to see the evolution of television over the last century.
There were some really cool parts to the exhibit like props from Cardiff filmed BBC shows such as Dr Who. There was also a cool set up of a 1970’s lounge complete with retro furniture and TV set… and finally there were some awesome retro children’s toys that were on programmes over have all been on the BBC – very nostalgic.
We headed off once we had, had a refreshment at the cafe (I tried a Welsh Cake – the regular ones were delicious but a scone is better!!)
& of course once we had been to the gift shop…
They were very happy with their Wooly Mammoth and Pteradactyl!
The journey home was pretty straightforward and it didn’t seem quite as long as in the way! We made another, quicker stop at a service station together on our way home and finally got back around 10/10.30 which wasn’t too bad.
We had such a great weekend and we managed to cram lots in, in order to make the most of our time there. I’m looking forward to more trips throughout the year.
Have you been to Wales before? What was your favourite sight?
So this weekend me and my husband went to the Stranger Things Experience.
I bought us tickets for Tim’s birthday in July and we have really been looking forward to it since.
We decided to dress up for the experience.
I dressed as Eddie Munson…
And Tim dressed as Dustin Henderson…
The experience was really cool and really well done. It genuinely felt like we took a little trip to Hawkins, Indiana and snuck around the lab.
The actors and everyone involved were really good and very authentic – some of them were a little too good at staying in character.
Once we had finished the experience we were free to go around the merch/eating/drinks area. The themeing was really cool and very well done. They had recreated lots of iconic Stranger Things ‘Sets’ and rooms to make your experience really immersive.
There was the Surfer Boys Pizza Van, Family Video, Scoops Ahoy and they even recreated the iconic living room of the Byers house, fairy lights and all.
As well as these there were smaller themed areas and sets that were themed around Hawkins high and the Roller Rink from Season 4.
I had to do a little Eddie Munson Redemption Photo…. 86′ baby!
There was some cool merch on offer too (although not as much as I thought there would be) and a Hellfire Club themed Merch area which was amazing.
Hellfire Club Merch AreaTim at the Surfer Boy pizza van Family VideoScoops Ahoy!Dustin at the AV Club doorSurfer Boy pizza vanMeeting Vecna!‘We’re not in Hawkins anymore’
There were lots of cool photo opportunities with sets and props as well as retro photobooths.
Photo bioth snaps
It’s a brilliant experience for any Stranger Things fans and I would definitely recommend it.
The only negative I can think of is that maybe the actual experience could have been a little longer. It’s a 45 minute experience but I think an hour would make it more worth the money.
And prehaps a little more specific merch for some of the main characters like Dustin, Steve and Eddie.
I did pick up some cool bits though, Inc some Hellfire bits and a cool poster for our picture wall.
Eddie & Dustin’s Day Out
My fave!
Like I said, I would definitely recommend it, it was a really fun afternoon out.
Italy is our favourite country to visit and out of all of the places in Italy that we have been, Venice is my favourite.
If I could recommend one place for people to go – it would be Venice. It’s beautiful and so unique.
Shall we take a look at what we got up to!?
Day One
22.07.22
Being up for over 24 hours wasn’t the most fun ๐ but it was worth it to really make the most of the first of our four/five day trip.
We arrived in Venice at about 10/10.30am and I was honestly in a bit of shock, my eyes genuinely couldn’t believe that I was actually there again.
Last time we visited Venice was for our first wedding anniversary!! in 2016.
And of course, a lot has happened since, including a two year long global pandemic (who the hell would have ever guessed that would be around the corner) so consequently we hadn’t been on a plane since 2019 when we visited Rome (another MUST SEE city for its Italian awesomeness, food and history.)
My brain couldn’t comprehend that we were actually there, in the beautiful city of Venice – Honestly, at the real height of the pandemic I really did have those thoughts of ‘What if this is it? What if we can never leave this country again? Was our last holiday our LAST holiday for the foreseeable future?’
It really was a crazy time wasn’t it!!?
So to actually be back on Italian soil, in my most favourite country was so special and I am so very grateful that we got to visit it again.
We wandered around before checking into our lovely hotel (we always stay at the same one) and freshened up. We basically did lots of exploring and wandering around (to find pizza).
On our second day in Venice we did a walking food tour. We have done one of these before so, being seasoned visitors to Venice, this time my Husband created his own walking food tour (with the assistance of Trip Advisor).
It was really fun and nice to try out some different spots. We visited the most amazing Gelato shop. The flavours were insane. Our particular favourites included the ‘Opera’ which was hazelnut and chocolate, the Strawberry Cheesecake and the Pistachio and Amaretto Cherry.
We visited our favourite place for dinner ‘Al Bari’ which is situated just behind our hotel. I have SO missed the food here. It was amazing.
Absolutely INSANE ๐
Day Three
24.07.22
Having wandered around many times over the last few days we discovered that Venice has a Natural History Museum which we hadn’t visited before.
With the addition of a English Speaking Audio Guide we really enjoyed all of the different exhibits. It was cool to find something we hadn’t done before.
We decided to get some food from some of the little eateries that we had passed on our walk, on day one, on the opposite side of the canal to our hotel. There were lots of yummy things to try and it was cool to have a bit more of a look that side of the canal.
In the evening we played some games and went on a nice little stroll around the canals, it was fun to just wander and see what we would find around the corner. I then did my usual early evening routine of sitting outside the hotel, right on the Grand Canal and reading my book as the sun set. Heaven.
Day Four
25.07.22
Our final full day saw us take a lite adventure down the canal to one of the furthest points, St Marks Square! (Via Rialto) so that we could enjoy the amazing view from the bridge properly.
It was cool to go to St Marks again, we enjoyed a nice stroll around the whole square, in the hot sunshine.
The weather has been amazing.
Day Five
26.07.22
This was our final ‘day’. We had our flight to catch at around 2pm so we only really had until midday to spend in Venice.
We decided to head to Academia Bridge as we hadn’t been for a while, maybe even missing it out on our previous trip a few years back.
As we wandered around we discovered a little ferry that will take you across the canal, which is cool. So we have managed a ‘Gondola’ ride every time we have been now ๐คฃ I mean, it was a less fancy one and was definitely less than 5 minutes but, we’ll count it haha.
We had a great time in Venice, and as I said it is my most favourite place to be. A great start to the summer of 2022 โ๏ธ
Have you been to Venice? Where is your favourite holiday destination?
I thought I would start up the holiblog series again, for this summer.
Here is how I have spent the later part of July, since the summer holidays began.
It’s been a fun start.
H a pp y โข H o li da ys โข
Saturday 17th July 2021
Out for a sunny walk, near our flat. We discovered a new part of the park.
Sunday 18th July 2021
Big Kids
๐
Moooooo
Fun at Alton Water enjoying the sunshine, mini golf, walking and ice cream.
Monday 19th July 2021
Breakfast with my friend Gemma & her boys.
Tues 20th July 2021
๐
Snacks!
The cinema really started to fill up
The boys first visit to our flat in over a year and a half ๐
Wed 21st July 2021
Summer Reading Challenge
Sharing stories
Reading
๐
The start of my Summer Reading Challenge Volunteering. Signing up these guys and meeting for lunch at the bakery.
Hot Dog Party ๐๐ญ
Sat 25th July 2021
Coffee and a book
Sushi ๐
A chilled out Saturday. A bit of me time.
Mon 26th July 2021
Walking on the Heath
Lunch ๐ฝ
Meeting up with Dan, a long walk followed by lunch.
Tues 27th July 2021
Wolves Wood
Walkinga
I made a friend ๐ธ
A walk in the woods together, followed by Arts & Crafts with Evie and lunch at Sainsburys with Charlotte.Painting at Pennikity Pots with my friend Steph and her boys.
Wed 28th July 2021
Summer Reading challenge week 2
The Waterfront
Dinner at the Bistro with Louise, Kerry & Rach.
Sat 31st July 2021
The boys first sleepover in over a year and a half . Dinner and lots of games.
What have you been up to so far, this summer? โ๏ธ
Roseanne Byford 