Albufeira, Portugal

Portugal was not really on my radar until last year when I saw someone's pictures from the Algarve region, Portugal's southern coast. It was rocky with tons of caves to explore. It looked beautiful and I wanted to go! 

For President's Day weekend, we found a direct flight from Karlsruhe to Faro, Portugal and decided it would be a great time to go! The weather would be warmer than Germany, but not yet too hot to be enjoyable. 

We booked an Airbnb in Albufeira, just about 40 minutes drive from Faro. It was very convenient to the center of town with lots of restaurants and shops, but far enough outside the center to still be peaceful. And it was a close walk to the beach.

One of the best things about our Airbnb is that it was nearby to a bakery with amazing pastel de nata. I should have brought a whole box of them home!

Walking along the beach and snapping photos from above was part of the fun of the trip!

The weekend coincided with the Carnival celebrations. We are not big partiers, so we did not seek out the Carnival events. But we did happen upon one of the parades after getting some gelato. Carnival is the pre-Lent celebration where they get dressed up in costume and have a lot of fun! I have seen a lot of my German friend posts about Fasching which is their equivalent to Carnival. It sounds like a wild and crazy experience!

Being the crazy cat lady that I am, my husband knew I would be interested to visit Albufeira's cat park. It was basically just a pier where a bunch of cats live. But it did give us some great views!

Like much of the rest of Europe, Portugal has a thriving wine making industry. We booked a wine and tapas tour where we were picked up from our Airbnb in a tuk tuk and driven through town to one of the local wineries. We saw carob trees and learned a bit about caring for vines in the fields. We saw inside the winery where all the tanks are and then tasted four wines while nibbling on meats and cheeses. It was a delightfully sunny day which made it even better!

Cyprus: Wine Tasting

On the third day in Cyprus, we booked a tour through Cyprus Taste Tours to learn more about the local wine scene. Our tour guide picked everyone up from their hotels and whisked us away to the mountain villages outside of Paphos where we visited a number of wineries and stopped for a meze lunch. 

Our group included two couples visiting from England and us. 

The first winery is a family-owned operation. I enjoyed their wines the most. They had a variety of sweet and dry wines--white, red and rose. We had very limited space in our luggage, but we picked up one bottle from this winery to take home. Thankfully we did not get anymore because we were one pound short of the bag weight limit upon returning home. 

Our second stop is a newer winery (20 years old). 

Our third stop was to a monastery with amazing views! We stopped into their chapel to enjoy the artistry.

For our meze lunch, we visited this restaurant. The food was delicious! They even surprised me with a birthday cake which was such a kind (and delicious) gesture!

These are the wines from our final stop. The winemaker said he prefers oaky wines and that flavor profile definitely came out in the tastings. I do not share the same preference, so this was my least favorite of all the wineries, but it was still neat to visit and learn a bit more about the unique grapes to Cyprus.

Innsbruck, Austria

The next leg of our December getaway was to Innsbruck, Austria. Each time I visit Austria I fall more in love. 

Innsbruck has a myriad of markets scattered around the town. We visited in the evening and, because it was midweek, it was not super crowded. We enjoyed the sparkling lights and holiday spirit. 

One of the market streets is dedicated to fairy tales which was one of my favorite parts! 

Gluhwein, of course! The vendors had a variety of mugs from different years. I liked this mug, but it was from 2019 so we didn't keep it. 

Innsbruck is home to Swarovski crystal, so a Swarovski crystal tree is the centerpiece of this market. 

I love, love, love folk art so when I saw there was a folk art museum in Innsbruck I added it to our itinerary. I am just so impressed with how people took everyday objects and made them beautiful. 

The folk art museum is connected to the Hofkirche, so we visited that, too. Just a little tip (because we were confused), to visit both you'll need the combo ticket. The regular ticket only allows you into the Hofkirche. You cannot buy a ticket just to the folk art museum. 

The hands down best part of visiting Innsbruck was our hotel! We stayed at DasMEI which was located just outside of Innsbruck in a town called Mutters. This is the view from our room!!! I was ready to move in and never leave. The breakfast buffet was delicious. Parking was free and the tram stop was just up the road for an easy trip into Innsbruck. 

Our room overlooked the nearby town called Natters. This is the church we could see from our balcony.

Strolling around European towns and seeing the variety of churches never gets old. This is the church in Mutters.

Christmas Markets of Northern Italy

After a break from travel due to Charles' work schedule, we resumed our vacation schedule with a trip to Christmas markets in the South Tyrol region. Most people think of Germany for their Christmas market visits, but with Northern Italy's German roots, they have some markets, too! 

We visited mostly to check out Bolzano (Bozen for the German spelling) which is Italy's oldest and largest Christmas market. But we also went to Merano, Brixen and Sterzing. 

I love searching for hotels. For our Northern Italy vacation, I chose Napura Art & Design Hotel. It was situated between Bolzano and Merano and surrounded by apple orchards. The included breakfast, free parking and beautiful rooms were a delight. Plus, they were dog friendly so Suzie was able to tag along! Charles made use of the sauna on one of the nights. I really should have, but spent my downtime working on schoolwork. (I'm so ready to be done with this program because having schoolwork while traveling is a little stressful!)

Before visiting any markets, we drove to Lana to walk along one of their trails. The path has sculptures to admire along the way, but we veered off the sculpture trail a bit so we missed quite a few of the pieces. The area had a dog park that Suzie enjoyed for a little while. The views of the mountains from all around us was fantastic! I kept imagining what it looks like in the spring and fall. I bet it's even more gorgeous!

Now onto the main reason for the visit... Christmas markets! Our first market visit was in Merano. The area lined the river which gave us some amazing picture opportunities! It was a beautiful, sunny day. We enjoyed some gluhwein (also known as vin brule); this was my favorite mug of regular weisse gluhwein. We had a a few snacks, browsed the booths and purchased a couple souvenirs. 

The next day it was time for the main event--Bolzano! Remember, this is Italy's oldest and largest Christmas market so we were expecting something pretty cool. They had some cute photo opportunities around the market including this one. The figures are from a company called Thun. I had never heard of them before, but their figures are proudly displayed and the ornament we chose was a Thun angel. 

Sadly, our expectations of the market were bigger than the market itself. My guess is that pre-COVID it was larger. It had maybe 30-40 booths and felt small. It probably did not help that it was chilly and gloomy. Charles had some gluhwein and I had some hot chocolate. We shared a chocolate covered pretzel. Otherwise, it was disappointing. We went inside the church shown behind me in this picture and we could have visited a number of museums in town, but I just wasn't feeling it. 

After the letdown of the Bolzano market, we stayed close to the hotel for dinner. The German-Italian spot called Restaurant Oberspeiser was down the road and ended up being very quaint and cozy. The food was tasty, too! We chose the knodel platter for two which consisted of 8 different knodel. Yum! 

Our third market in Italy was Brixen. It was a sunny, beautiful day! Knowing this market was going to be smaller than Bolzano, we went into it with lowered expectations. But this market was very cute! They had musicians playing from the stage in the center of the market and the view of the church steeple was charming. We tried Bombardino which is Italian's version of eggnog. It was very sweet, but I would not order it again. 

The market was filled with groups of school kids at the time we visited. They crowded around some of the booths which made it a little difficult to shop. I think they were also playing a scavenger hunt game. A group came up to ask us questions, but after learning we did not speak Italian they scuttled away to the next person. 

I did not see a lot of street art during our visit, but spotted this along our walk from the parking garage to the market. 

Our final Italian Christmas market was in Sterzing. This was a small market where I purchased some Alpaca socks. The booth owner promised me they are warm and they did not disappoint! We also enjoyed a hot apple drink with Amaretto.

Polenta is popular in this part of Italy, so I tried polenta with goulash at Sterzing's market. The meat could have been a bit more tender, but it was warm and filling. 

The area was beautiful and we loved seeing the snow capped mountains from pretty much every vantage point, but I would not necessarily recommend visiting the area JUST for Christmas markets. The markets were charming and had some good eats. They are a lovely bonus, but not a main attraction.

Airbnb in Provence

Visiting Provence during lavender season has been on my wish list after seeing the amazing pictures of the area. When researching where to stay in the region, it was hard to choose! The area is pretty expansive with a lot of cute small towns, but as soon as I saw the listing for this Airbnb I was sold. 

The pod is located on a farm in Rians, France. There did not seem to be much to the town (but to be honest we did not explore it that much). But immediately upon arrival to the farm, the air was scented with lavender. It was just what I imagined and hoped for! 

We visited a little late in the season for lavender. Most blogs and travel websites say to visit a couple weeks earlier. So I was preparing myself to see zero lavender blooms. I was beyond happy to see our Airbnb location still had several rows that had not been harvested. Our host (who was very welcoming) encouraged us to walk around. Our first evening we walked amongst the flowers and the buzzing bees to snap some pictures. 

This is the view of the lavender from the patio of the pod. We sat here every night enjoying the peaceful location. Can I just move here?

Rose is popular in Provence. Normally I am not a huge fan of rose, but when in Rome (eh...Provence)! The town had a small grocery store where we purchased wine, cheese, bread and some other snacks. We had laid back dinners at the Airbnb and did not stress about finding a restaurant. Can I just say that we'll miss European grocery stores when we move back to the States? Wine is sooooo much cheaper in Europe. 

Our Airbnb host also delivered breakfast in the morning so we feasted on croissants, jam, coffee, juice and seasonal fruit while enjoying the lavender scented morning.