While there were a lot of highlights from my Christmas trip to Prague, Budapest, Brussels (and Brugge!), I picked the best four, below.
1. Red rooftops of Prague
While the giant Christmas tree, Christmas markets and mulled wine were certainly nice, nothing made me love Prague more than its architecture. In particular, the beautiful red roofs. Whenever you got some height above them, the red of the tiles was all you could see! Mind you, I did also love some of the buildings below these tiles too...
2. Hungarian Parliament and sunsets in Budapest
I managed to take a photo that combined both of the things I loved most about Budapest. I honestly couldn't get enough of the parliament building – it was so, so lovely. Up close, from a distance, from all angles, it was so beautifully designed. And the cold, blue skies brought me some amazing sunsets in Budapest too, which set off the building nicely! Those colours!!
3. Brugge
I went to Brussels for three reasons: 1) to go to Brussels, 2) to go to Brugge and 3) to go home on the Eurostar, which is so easy! I went to Brugge on a cold New Years Day and I watched ice skaters on the ice rink in the town square while sipping on mulled wine, eating this potato and bacon thing, and then a waffle! I wandered around the towns canals, through all the pretty places which also fulfilled my #ihavethisthingforbikes dreams. There were bikes everywhere! Leaning against pretty walls, en masse at bike parking areas, with little trolleys for kids and so on... it was great!
4. Snow in Brussels
Being in snow anywhere is guaranteed to make me happy, but waking up to a soft blanket of it with white mist all around and it looking like Narnia was just DIVINE! It definitely made the cold in Brussels worthwhile!
So there you have it, my Christmas in Europe, covering three countries in nine days with three flights and a train. It was all so lovely, but the overall winner was Budapest, which stole my heart.