Category: Europe
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Winter Delights at Warwick Castle
This holiday season was accompanied by a slew of train strikes in three consecutive countries that we were traveling through. We were able to dodge these with a Matrix-like series of pivots until it caught up to us at last in Birmingham, England. Luckily, this was the best possible point that this could have happened…
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What to Expect When Visiting Mont Saint Michel From Paris
Most visitors recommend taking an overnight trip to the famous tidal island of Mont Saint Michel, and rightfully so. Unwilling to leave our base in the city, however, we decided to take this day tour from Paris. Being on the far side of Normandy, it’s important to note that this trip requires five hours of…
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The Pleasures of Winter in Brussels
While many winter markets are slowly rebranding themselves as “Holiday Markets”, or “Winter Markets”, Brussels is ahead of the game by referring to it’s market as “Plaisir d’Hiver”- Winter Pleasures. Originally, I had made the mistake of thinking that the one collection of market stalls I’d stumbled across was the entire market. I was very…
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Celebrations In Salzburg
Moving along in our Austria itinerary, Salzburg was high on my wish list both for its Sound of Music filming locations and it’s beautiful Christmas Markets. 1. Salzburger Christkindlmarkt The main Christmas Market in Salzburg is located in front of Salzburg Cathedral at the foot of the Hohensalzburg Fortress. With around 100 market stands and…
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Christmas Market Survival Guide
When I thought of Christmas markets in Europe, I had always pictured something similar to a crafts fare. After market hopping for a few weeks, I’ve realized that the crafts goods are usually more along the lines of holiday decorations than Christmas presents, though it can vary dramatically from market to market. Traveling with a…
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Christmas Market Hopping in Vienna
Okay, full disclosure; we didn’t quite make it to ‘The Big One’ in Vienna. Our travel schedule just so happened to work out so that we had to leave the city a mere four days prior to the start of the world famous celebration at Rathausplatz. Rather than be disappointed by this scheduling, we took…
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Things No One Warned Us About Before Visiting Greece
You can’t flush the toilet paper! This is not an incredibly uncommon request from countries with older plumbing, but we were caught off guard that Greece was one of them! There are usually signs above the toilets asking you to throw your papers in the bin, but only by asking was I able to clarify…
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One-Day Roadtrip Itinerary Of Santorini
For those who want to get out of the way of the crowds of the bigger towns, I highly recommend renting a car on Santorini. Wary of the high prices in Oia proper, we had selected an Airbnb that was fairly rural. In lieu of walking ages to the nearest bus stop, we decided to…
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Oia: Village of Sunsets
If Mykonos was crowded, Santorini was definitely more so. One of the top destinations for cruise guests and honeymooners alike, I was genuinely shocked by how crowded it was- even in the shoulder season. To be fair, our first impression of the town was at sunset- if there was ever a time for people to…
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If You Can Only Visit One Greek Island, Visit Mykonos
The popular island of Mykonos is a tourism haven with its picturesque pedestrian-only walkways of Mykonos Town and the wide sandy beaches bookended by mountains. One of the most popular islands in Greece, at least for Americans, the variety of activities and the ease of the public transportation system makes it my pick for the…