Day 23,24 Cold Play

In planning for this trip many people warned us that we were quite mad to consider a winter trip to Europe. Everyone knows that it is cold in the Northern Hemisphere in January  so the only sane time to go is in their summer – our winter. As consistent contrarian thinkers in many areas of life we would politely beg to differ and suggest a Cold Play is actually rather special, for the following reasons.

In much of Europe the winters are often not that cold (not like Canada or Siberia). There was a very cold snap before Christmas but generally the Gulf Stream keeps much of Europe above freezing for most of the winter. We have been especially blessed on this trip and rarely had all our cold weather gear on.

This part of the world has central heating – something unknown to a Sydney sider. This means that although it’s cold outside, inside it is much, much warmer than most peoples’ houses in Sydney in the winter.  So yes, you have to have a good coat, and maybe a beanie and even gloves below -5 but it really is not that much of a hassle. (Thermals are also a real help but we have hardly worn ours on this trip)

People told us that many museums and tourist attractions are closed during the winter in Europe. We did not find this at all. What we did find was that the queues are miniscule, to non-existent compared to the summer for anything we wanted to do . The simple fact is that most tourists like to travel in the summer, so guess what, things are a lot quieter in the winter.

Accommodation especially is much cheaper in the winter, sometimes 30%-50% cheaper.  Trains are not as crowded either!

Sure there are less daylight hours as the sun does not really raise its head until after 8.30am and goes down again at about 5pm. That means you tend to sleep in…what a tragedy on holidays!! In the evening there is actually no law against going outside in the dark and most places have very good street lighting. One real bonus is that there are Christmas lights everywhere and they seem to stay up for a long time after Christmas.

Travel for us is best when it’s least like home. Don’t get us wrong we love home, but a walk in the snow is extra special because it is so different!

So come in the summer if you must. Autumn and spring, we are told, are also great, but our vote remains for Cold Play - winter in Europe.

We are so pleased you have been reading our blog and sharing our adventure. Thanks for all the comments and emails. We are about to head home tomorrow and we are looking forward to seeing you soon. Stay tuned for our next adventure or better still  – save your pennies and frequent flyer points, and have your own adventure, write a blog and share the fun with us.

Carpe diem!

 Au Revior