Wanderlust with Danii

When I travel I love finding out fun facts about places so I thought I would make some posts about them.

So I thought why not start with some fun facts about my hometown of Melbourne Australia.

1. Between 1901 and 1927 Melbourne was Australia's capital city.

2. Australia's first traffic lights were installed in Melbourne in 1912 at the corner of Collins and Swanston street.

3. Melbourne was originally named Batmania. The name derives from one of the city's founding fathers John Batman.

4. Melbourne has been named Worlds most liveable city 7 times.

5. Melbourne Food and Wine festival is the biggest in the world. More than 350,000 people attend yearly. With over 200 different events over 11 days.

6. Luna Park in St Kilda is the worlds oldest privately owned amusement park. 

Luna Park in St Kilda

7. Victoria became the first place in the world to enforce seatbelts legislation in 1970.

8. Until 1966 it was illegal for pubs in Melbourne to be open after 6pm

9. Melbourne has the largest tram system outside of Europe and the fourth largest in the world overall.

10. Its known for its unpredictable weather. Its' often possible to experience four seasons in one day.

11. The clocks at the flinders street station used to be changed manually. Before the digital age they used be changed 900 times a day.

12. Melbourne laneways used to be dumping streets but have changed a lot over the years and now are the best parts of the city.

13. Cooks Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens was shipped from England.

Captain Cooks Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens

14.  In 1956 Melbourne became the first city outside North America or Europe to hold the Olympics.

15. There are more foxes in Melbourne then anywhere in the world. 

16. The Royal exhibition building together with the Melbourne museum and surrounding gardens are apart of the UNESCO world heritage sites.

17. Queen Victoria Market is built over the old Melbourne cemetery.

18. The worlds first feature film was made in Melbourne. The 1906 bushranger film the story of the Kelly gang was shot around Melbourne 

19. Fitzroy chocolate makers, MacRobertson’s Steam Confectionery Works invented the Cherry Ripe in 1924, Crunchie in 1929 and the Freddo Frog in 1930 before the company was sold to Cadbury in 1967.

20. The NGV Great Hall is home to the largest stained glass ceiling in the world. Measuring at 51 meters long and 12 meters wide.

NGV Stained glass ceiling (Photo taken by Me)

If you have any other fun facts about Melbourne please leave them in the comments below.

xx

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When I went to the UK the Roman Baths was one place I knew I needed to go. I love everything about History and these beautiful baths didn't disappoint. We did a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. It was worth it, we had such a great day. 

The beautiful baths

Once we got into the baths we were given a free audio guide that we able to go through different parts and hear about different sections of the Baths. It was so amazing seeing all the ruins and the history there was even a part at the end  where we could taste some of the famous warm water from the spa water fountain, which contains about 43 minerals. It tasted interesting.

The beautiful Mosaic floor.

I didn't realize there was so much in the Roman baths to see. I thought it was just you walk in and see the baths and that's it, but you could spend all day in there learning all the history and looking at all the ruins and sculptures etc. Its truly beautiful.

The Roman baths and the temple in the 4th century AD

The original Roman baths were built around 60-70 BC. Which makes them over 2000 years old. But It was a significant place of worship to the Romans because when they first came across the bubbling hot springs the only logical explanation was that this was the work of the gods. They ended throwing valuable items into the water in order to please the gods.

Underground Sauna

Throughout the museum you can expect to see some of these rescued items including coins and jewellery.

Some of the rescued items

 The Roman Baths opened to the public in 1897 that was also when the terrace was completed. The terrace looks out on to the main swimming bath. Along the terrace you can see statues of Roman governors and Roman emperors. The statues include Julius Caesar and Constantine the great.

The Baths and the statues

Next you will see the Hot spring which bubbles up to Kings bath which was built in the 12th Century AD. Beneath Kings Bath there is a reservoir built by Roman engineers. 

The Hot Spring

In the 18th century, doctors started to prescribe the thermal water as a remedy for health problems. It was accessed through a pump room, which today is used as a restaurant next to the Roman baths.

The Romans merged the celtic goddess Sulis with their own Roman goddess of healing Minerva and built a temple to the newly created Sulis Minerva. You can see the golden head of Sulis Minerva in the deep underground section of the Baths. This is one of the major finds in all of Roman Britain. It was once part of the statue in the temple. 

The Golden head of Sulis Minerva

This was a replica of the statue head that you could touch.

There is so much more to see in the Roman Baths. It was incredible to see it. I learnt so much that day. 

The Baths are green from the algae built up over the years.

The whole walk through took about one hour and a half to two hours. It was worth it.

Have you ever visited the Roman Baths? Did you taste the Warm springs water?  What did you think? 

That's all for todays post I hope you enjoyed it. 

Until next time 

xoxo Danii

(PS We went in May 2019)

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I have decided to finally do a haul on what I brought in Disneyland Paris when I went back in May 2019. 

I didn't buy clothes or anything but I brought a lot of souvenirs. So let's get into the haul. 

First, we have the thing that I brought as soon as I got into the park, Pink Disney ears. These are so beautiful I love these so much. A few hours later I found the gold ones so I had to buy them as well because they were so cute.

Next is some keyrings. I brought a 'D' one for me and an 'F' one for my dad Frank. 

I love collecting postcards so this was a must. 

Oxford is such a beautiful place with so much History. With so many movies and TV shows filmed is this beautiful place it's a must see for any history buff.

Here are some fun facts about Oxford UK

1. Oxford is one of the most attractive places for tourists in the UK.

2, Oxford was the capital of England during the Civil War (1642 - 1646)

3. The University of Oxford is the world second oldest University.

4. The Ashmolean Museum is the oldest museum in the world, It was built in 1683.

5. Oxford has the first ever Coffee house in England which was The Grand Cafe.

Beautiful Oxford (Picture from publicdomainpictures)

6. 27 Bristish Prime ministers were educated at Oxford University.

7. Rowan Atkinson who plays Mr Bean attended Oxford university.

8. The Oxford Motto is "Fortis est veritas" which means "The Truth is strong"

9. The People of Oxford are known as Oxonian.  

10. Radcliffe Camera doesn't have a camera. It stores History books and it's connected by a tunnel to Bodleian Library. 

Radcliffe Camera

11. Blackwells Bookshop is the largest book shop in the entire world.

12. Empress Matilda managed to escape the oxford castle in 1141. How she escaped still remains a mystery.

13. The Bodleian Library is the second largest Library in England

14. Since 1478 Books have been printed in Oxford.

15. The city covers a total area of 45.5 square kilometers.

16. The Name Oxford comes from the word Oxanforda, which means Cattle crossing

17. Christ church didnt alter their clocks to match the introduction of GMT so they have been operating 5 minutes behind the rest of the country since the 1850s.

18. Oxford was used as a filming location for Harry Potter, Emma Watson also attended school here.

19. Oxford's Botanic Gardens is the oldest in the world. It was founded in 1621.

20. Oxford has more published authors per square Mile than anywhere else in the world. Famous Authors that came out of Oxford include CS Lewis, Lewis Carroll, JRR Tolkein and also Mark Haddon.

So there you have it. Did any of these funfacts surprise you? Can you think of any others, leave them in the comments below

Until next time

xx

(All pictures taken by me unless stated otherwise)

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