Glasgow, Scotland

To celebrate fifteen years of marriage, we booked a trip to Scotland! When I was a little kid, my family visited Scotland and I fell in love with the green landscape and bagpipers on the street corner. Ever since I have been dreaming of my return. 

Most of our trip was spent with our Rick Steves tour group (more on that later), but the first day was spent in Glasgow on our own. We flew into Glasgow airport, took the airport shuttle bus downtown and explored the city. I wish we could have spent more time in Glasgow, but that just means we will have to return in the future to see more. 

Our first excursion was meant to be a spooky tour of Glasgow the first night we arrived. However, with 100% chance of rain (and a lot of rain at that), we opted to skip out. It sounded like it was going to be a really interesting tour, so I am a little bummed that the weather was so poor. Next time... 

On our first full day, we headed to the Tenement House. It's a small museum for a slice of life in Glasgow's recent past. We visited something similar in Bulgaria so I was curious to see this place. It did not take very long to go through it all, but it was fun to look at all the old everyday items that were showcased throughout the museum. They also had a fantastic gift shop! 

Glasgow is known for its plethora of street art. Next time I visit, I hope to take a street art walking tour to see more of it. However, just walking around we saw quite a few pieces. This one is said to depict their patron saint, Saint Mungo. 

When in the UK, you almost have to do two things: ride on a double decker bus and drink tea. Well, we crossed off both of those in one go with an afternoon tea experience ON a vintage double decker bus! It was a rainy day, so this was a convenient way to see the city while sipping on delicious tea and enjoying little sandwiches and desserts.

After our ride around Glasgow, we walked over to the Glasgow Cathedral to see it. We have visited many churches and cathedrals around Europe. This one had the most number of people working (or volunteering?) inside. 

One really great thing about visiting Scotland is that it's an English speaking country. I love visiting other places in Europe, but there was something so convenient about not having to translate restaurant menus. For our final dinner in Glasgow, we opted to visit Stack & Still for pancakes. They offer both sweet and savory options. We ordered one savory and one sweet and shared. 

Copenhagen, Denmark

Our cruise ended in Copenhagen, Denmark. We opted to stay one night to squeeze in a bit of the city before heading home from our epic vacation. However, one day in Copenhagen is not sufficient!

I am a fan of Scandinavian design, so a top priority for me was the Design Museum. It was filled with fascinating displays and artwork. 

Aside from the Design Museum, we had planned to do a bike food tour. However, the weather forecast called for strong winds and rain. That sounded miserable, so we bailed on the tour. Instead, we visited the National Museum of Denmark where we started our visit off with lunch in their restaurant. They specialize in the famous open-faced sandwiches. My roast beef sandwich was way better than I was expecting and quite satisfying. If I remember correctly, Charles has the salmon. 

The museum was extensive and had a lot of interesting displays. It made for a good rainy day activity.

Our hotel, Coco Hotel, was lovely! They are part of a food collective and gave a fantastic recommendation for pizza from one of their partner restaurants. They even had arancini which made my quarter Sicilian heart happy. We ordered take away and cozied up in our hotel room and relaxed after a long vacation with lots of sightseeing. It was a bummer not to see more of Copenhagen, but it just means we will have to return one day. 

Faro, Portugal

We flew into Faro, but did not spend as much time there as we did in Albufeira. There was a lot we could have done with more time in the city, but alas, we had just one day to explore. 

I did not see as much street art as I thought I would in either Albufeira or Faro, but I spied this mural near where we parked. 

The Faro harbor was a nice place for a stroll. There was a little market set up across the street with about ten vendors. We laughed about if we could hear the ocean if we put our ear to this giant shell (hint: we did not).

We walked by this statue of a woman with a shell head later in the day and it was almost fully submerged in the water due to high tide.

We had originally booked a dolphin watching tour out of Faro, but due to rough seas it was cancelled. (We also had a cancelled boat cave tour from Albufeira the day before for the same reason). We booked a bird watching tour in the natural park instead. We know almost nothing about birds and ended up on a tour with some bird enthusiasts. While we did not get as excited as they did about all the birds we saw, it was still a relaxing and peaceful tour on the solar boat through the channels of the park. In the picture below I am looking at flamingos in flight (that made me happy).

After our bird watching tour, Charles found a pizza place for lunch. We drank some Portuguese wine and ate an amazingly delicious pizza. It was probably one of the best pizzas I have had in a while.

We totally lost track of time during lunch and missed our walking tour that we booked through Airbnb. We felt HORRIBLE! We are not usually "those" people. But what can you do??? To walk off the bottle of wine we enjoyed at lunch (we're light weights), we walked around town on our own to enjoy the colorful buildings, tile work and views of the ocean.

Cyprus: Segways and Ruins

Paphos has so many historical spots to check out! We opted for a Segway tour to be introduced to them. This was our first experience with Segways, so we were a little hesitant. But it ended up being super fun and easy!

After the tour, we circled back to the harbor area to visit the Kato Papohs Archaeological Park. This park has a wealth of ruins to help you imagine life in ancient times. The views of the ocean are really spectacular, too! We managed to see the whole park just before the rain and hail came pouring down.

You have to have ice cream on any beach vacation, am I right? 

We also visited the Tombs of the Kings. I was not as impressed with this park, but it was still an interesting place to visit to learn more about the history of the area. It gave great photo opportunities.

And after visiting all the ruins, we headed down to the Paphos city center which had some great street art! Most of it we saw while driving through, but I managed to snag this photo after we visited the Paphos market.

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.