Welcome
This is our final issue for 2023.
It’s almost hard to believe that I’ve been sending you this newsletter for 30 weeks in a row!
By the time some of you read this issue it will already be 2024!
After Christmas at home in England, we have traveled to Germany and will be celebrating New Years Eve in Berlin with my parents and three boys.
I will be doing a special feature month, on the places we have visited but after a short break next week.
I hope you had a fabulous NYE, no matter where you spent it. We will be at the Brandenburg Gate celebrations which I’m sure will be spectacular!
I know many of you loved Traveling Through History with me this year and it was my pleasure writing so many issues for you.
Next year will be bigger and better than ever!
I’ll see you on the other side, in 2024
Michelle
Savvy Travel Historian
Yearly Highlights - Issues 14 - 29 Rewind
September - Palaces
In September we visited two palaces in England, one in Scotland and one in Europe.
Kensington Palace
First up was Kensington Palace. Queen Victoria’s birthplace and home of minor royals until Diana, Princess of Wales moved in. Now the current Prince and Princess of Wales use it as their London base.
Re-read Issue 14 here:
Hampton Court Palace
Best known for its many royal occupants, Hampton Court Palace, first owned and built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, was occupied by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, which dates much of the Tudor sections we see today.
The Georgian façade, added to the back of the Palace completed the two distinct styles we see now.
Take a look back here.
Palace of Holyroodhouse
The seat of the royal family in Scotland, the Palace of Holyrood began its life as an abbey, the ruins of which are still connected to the palace today.
Take a look back here:
Palazzo Pitti – Florence
October – Abbeys
Rievaulx Abbey
One of the largest and most impressive monastery ruins in England, Rievaulx is a must visit when you are in Yorkshire!
Take a look back here:
Fountains Abbey
The grounds of Fountains Abbey provide a good day out with the family and can best be appreciated in the spring and summer.
One of the largest (in area) of all the monasteries in the UK.
Tintern Abbey
One of the largest preserved monasteries in Wales, Tintern Abbey is located in a picturesque setting next to the River Wye and its valley.
Whitby Abbey
The inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracular, Whitby Abbey, atop a windy sweep ‘haunting’ hill, which was bombed during WWII, offers one of the best views of a ruined monastery in England.
November – English Towns
Castle Combe
Often voted Britain's most picturesque village and used in many films and tv programs, Castle Combe transports you back to another time, with the village high street unchanged since the 1700s.
Iron Bridge
The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Iron Bridge is the place to visit to see the first iron bridge that spanned the River Severn at this spot.
Great Missenden
Made famous by the residency of Roald Dahl, if you are a fan, his museum is a must visit.
Chawton
Literary enthusiasts flock to Chawton to visit the home of its most famous resident, Jane Austen. Visit the house Jane and her mother and sister lived in for the last few years of her life and from where she wrote some of her famous novels.
December – Yearly wrap up
Downton Abbey Tour of the UK
Highclere Castle, Grey’s Court and Bampton Village, were all featured in our Downton Abbey tour of England in early December.
Revisit it here:
Christmas in Europe
There is nothing like a European Christmas, when it gets dark by 4pm and people make a big effort to decorate with lights and make everything look magical.
Christmas in the UK
In the final full edition of our issues this year, we looked at Christmas in the UK.
Michelle is a speaker, author, content marketer, historian and mother of 3 boys.
After 25 years in business and as the ‘Content Marketing Queen’ for the past 12 years, she has helped countless small businesses understand and develop their content strategies and focus on a customer first approach.
Savvy Travel Historian is her passion project, and her weekly newsletter is available on Substack, Paragraph and Mirror. The latter two allows you to collect each Issue as an NFT.
Michelle is co-host of the Business on the Bloc podcast, a weekly show which talks about the digital media revolution and how it applies to B2B marketing, sales and operations. The show is recorded live every Wednesday at 4pm EST/ 9pm UTC on LinkedIn, YouTube & Bolt+.
You can follow Michelle in these places:
*Savvy Travel Historian Instagram *