“Why the hell are you visiting central Europe in the dead of winter?!” is a question I get a lot these days.
Yes, most of the cool cultural stuff in Europe happens in the warmer months. Lots of festivals and so much to do when the temperature is above freezing. But that’s also why it’s cheaper to visit in the Winter. Airlines, hotels, and local businesses charge less when there isn’t a horde of tourists descending on the location. Plus, there are all the cool cultural stuff that most people don’t see.
There are also fewer crowds. We’ll be able to more fully appreciate the experience, rather than cursing the lines of people. If you’ve ever been to Disneyland, and odds are, you have, then you can understand this.
Gutenberg points out a typo.
I also believe that traveling in the off-season allows us to experience a more authentic Europe. Rather than pre-packaged tours, we can wander around, get lost, and interact with locals. We have booked some touristy things to do, like visiting the Lipizzaner stallions in Vienna, but we’re going to spend three days in Munich without planning much. We’ll be in Munich for the Silvester celebration (New Year’s Eve) and anything that happens will be totally spontaneous. Our hotel is a mere 250 meters from Marienplatz, and I don’t think we’ll be able to escape the event even if we wanted to.
I plan on walking through some of Germany’s famous Weihnachtsmärkte, including the ones the Cologne. In preparation for this, I asked Google for a map of the kölner Weihnactsmarkt, and it responded, “Here’s a list of all of them.”
“All of them? Hmm. This might be a busy day.”
I’ll be in Salzburg, Austria on December 25. Most of you know this town from The Sound of Music, but it’s also the birthplace of Mozart – and of course there’s a Mozart museum – and it’s also the location of the Stefan Zweig Center. (Feel free to google that.) Will these places be open on December 25? I’ll let you know.
There will also be opportunities to take stunning Winter photographs without a lot of people getting in the way. This point has started a conversation about whether we should take a dedicated and expensive camera, or just use the iPhone. The problem with cameras is that they are bulky and heavy, take up a lot of room in the suitcase, are prime targets of thieves, and require accessories like lenses and chargers. The iPhone is handy, small, and I’m going to take it anyway. While not as good for taking creative photographs, the iPhone camera comes with a lot of manual adjustments (I hate automatic exposures which can take all the excitement out of a photo), and I’ve been amazed at the quality of photos and videos taken with iPhones. If you have advice on this topic, please leave it in the comments.
I’m also going to buy a eSIM card so that I can have a local phone number. When we traveled to Europe in 2016, I tried to use Verizon’s services to navigate, but Google Maps said we were in Seville, Spain the entire time, though we were never in Spain. I intend to solve this with the local eSIM card. It’ll also be easier to make restaurant reservations.
I’ll be posting videos/photos (whether from the Pentax, the iPhone, or the GoPro) and stories here. Mark your calendar for December 15.
Memoirs of an Earthling 
I vote for not-camera. Cameras kind of get in the way of the experience., and traveling light really makes life so much easier. Google maps has probably gotten a lot better since 2016, but a SIM card would give you assurance. Kind of coplicated, though. Seems like only certain phones or certain dcarriers allow them.
Hi, Barbara.
I have a late-model iPhone, and one of the first things I did was to investigate whether it could take an eSIM, and the instructions seem very simple.
I believe the problem with Google Maps was that Verizon has its European hub in Seville, and Google Maps just assumed that was where I was.
Based on Germany in the early ’70’s: Dress warm. 🙂
Last year it was several degrees Celsius above zero at midnight in Vienna, both on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve! Hardly any snow all winter in the lowlands of Eastern Austria in the past years, and more than 10 years since last white Christmas in Vienna!
Have an interesting and inspiring trip!!
Thank you for the heads up, elkement!
I was looking at the report on this page: https://www.severe-weather.eu/long-range-2/winter-2023-2024-forecast-november-update-cold-el-nino-weather-united-states-canada-europe-fa/
And though long-term forecasts are notoriously unreliable, it backs up your own expectations.
Absolutely!! Just wanted to make sure you are not disappointed if it might be not super cold and snowing all time 🙂
I have sent a message to Plume.com asking them why and how they are blocking my access to your site, and insisting that I never asked that your site be blocked, that I am not a customer of theirs, and would they please knock it off.
I don’t expect a response, but I’ll let you know.
Elkement, when I try to read your blog, the system tells me that your page is blocked or that it’s not working. Is there a problem?
Thanks a lit for letting ne know, Andrea!! I have no idea – I can read it fine directly in a browser (using any of its three domains), also in an anon browser window, as well as via the WP Reader. Can you tell me how exactly you accessed it? Via which link, URL?
Do you get some sort of security warning and are you probably using Bitdedender? A friend used that virus scanner and once got a warning re blocked – it must have been my security write- ups … which are of course harmless in HTML form. I contacted Bitdedender support back then to white-list my site, but in the meantime I got another domain. So if that theory is correct then elkement.blog would be accessible while elkement.art is not.
Correction: elkement.blog forwards to elkement. art, so you would not see much…
I received an email notification that you had posted something new, and the email contained a link. When I click on the link, I get a message: “Access to this website is blocked.” Then there is a signature and an icon for Plume. I get the same message when I try to access elkement.blog directly.
Thanks! What is Plume? Is it some sort of router / wifi management software?
Keine Ahnung. Doing a google search is less than helpful. I also did a check on my computer for some sort of malware or blocking app. I get the same message when I try to access your blog with my phone and iPad.
I assume none of your other readers are having problems?
Thanks again! If all devices are affected it has to be some router / firewall thing. It seems that plume dot com is some sort of smart home / wifi management software, so that would explain it. I would try to contact their support as I once did with Bitdefender (which I have installed now, and it does not seem to flag my site again). I have never heard of Plume before, I guess not many of my readers use that? Maybe especially uncommon in Europe? Anyway – I will ask around on social media if anybody else is getting warnings … and then try to contact the support of these software companies to get my addresses white-listed. I have posted my security research in the same way as 1000s other researchers do on their blog, I really don’t get it.
Now that the issue is resolved – let me thank you again for taking the time to test things and even talk to your ISP!! And I learned that there is a platform called Plume – maybe that knowledge will be useful some day! BTW: Rather cold here in the moment 🙂
I’m so glad it worked out!
You know what they say: Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get.