17 Comments

I laughed at your description of getting dressed to go outside. We lived in Vienna for two years and wore lots of layers from November to March because of the frigid cold.

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Thanks Lorraine! Oh November to March is far too long to wear that many clothes!

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I'm Canadian, so if I visit Europe in the winter, it's to escape the below-zero cold, not to pretend being frozen to the bone is romantic or festive. I promise you, it's not. There's a high of 17C in Chania, Crete tomorrow: there's a January travel plan I would endorse.

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Crete sounds lovely! And yes I was once in Winnipeg for new year's - a bit chilly at -40

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Always enjoy your writing, Tom. Really hope you'll release a book of your travel diaries at some point, as honestly they never fail to bring a smile to me. (And yet, at the same time, capture such a wonderful sense of the place too).

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Ah George this is so kind thank you! That would be the dream!

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Prague is gorgeous, a fantastic winter city. I love winter travelling, especially to cities. There's a magic to them, even if it's brutal and nasty. Prague is so wonderfully cosy, one of the very best winter cities in Europe - Lviv is another one and even Vienna (where I live) has its winter charm.

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Completely agree Daniel! I haven't been to Vienna for ten years - really want to go back.

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You should try Sicily next time. Mind you, it's probably cold too... I saw a snippet from a French website saying it was -32 in the Jura mountains, ouch! Well, I'm in south-east Texas and it's freezing too. We dropped from 22C to -1 in one night. I'm wearing a fluffy hoodie and wooly socks. But who knows, we might be at 20 again by the end of the week. Gotta love January...

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-32! No thanks. Let's cross our fingers for a few warm fronts...

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Prague is usually very cold in December, but still, it's a beautiful city, right?

For next year, I would suggest coming to Croatia, our southern islands can be at around 13-15 degrees, but only if there's no bura, the strong northern wind.

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Absolutely beautiful! That's a great shout - was in Croatia in 2023 in spring, absolutely loved it and will definitely be back.

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Glad to hear that! :) I like visiting the islands in winter, and mostly get great weather for winter, as long as there's no strong wind. And for summer, I like visiting your country (the UK?) :)

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Oh definitely - I live in London and in the summer it's brilliant! A winter Croatia break has been added to my list :-)

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Glad to hear that! Just beware of the bura wind and aim for the southern coast for more sunshine :) You can have more sunshine up north too, but still...

I wrote about my winter and spring visits to our coast: https://journeyjots.substack.com/p/my-travel-choices-in-2024-part-1

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Oh thanks for sharing! I'll check this out :-)

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Great story, at the very least I've learned not to go to Prague in winter.

Speaking of cold holidays, you may like this https://giannisimone.substack.com/p/the-nightmare-after-xmas

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