European Winter Vacation 2025: Three Countries, Five Cities, One Really Wonderful Time

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First of all, I hope all of you have had a very enjoyable summer!

Now, those of you who know me well know that I just completed an 18 day trip to Galicia, Spain earlier this month – a rare summer trip for me (I usually like to avoid the big summer crowds). That said, it was a truly magical trip through the region that my mother was born in (and the tourists were pretty light). With me was my ladyfriend Serena, who I’ve been happily dating now for over a year and a half. Photographs from that trip are forthcoming…

Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain

Now, those of you who know me well might have forgotten that Serena and I also embarked on a three-week European winter vacation this past January. A three country, five city journey that took me to several popular European cities that I’ve never visited. Our most ambitious trip yet.

Moreover, those of you who know me well have followed my many travels with my daughter Miranda since 2018, when my wife Madelyn passed away. She’s been the best travel partner this very proud dad could ever ask for. Alas, she has now crossed over to the “real world” where 6-8 weeks of time off a year isn’t a reality any more. In short, she now has a “real job” and her own apartment to maintain. Not that her previous job wasn’t “real”, just that they allowed her to take off up to a month of unpaid time – and being that she was still living at home, it was all good.

Palace of Versailles, Paris

Lastly, those of you who know me well know that my daughter and I completed an epic 29-day, 6-country European winter vacation in December of 2023. Paris, Brussels, Prague, Vienna, Milan & Barcelona (where we celebrated New Year’s Eve in the Plaça Espanya). I pretty much just finished posting a series of photographs from that trip a few months back (it ain’t easy going through a few thousand photographs and still trying to run your business, you know?).

All the trips we’ve taken since her mother passed will be some of the greatest memories of my life – and hers. And I’m unreservedly grateful for those moments in time (and surely, her mother was smiling down on us from the Good Place). After all that we’ve been through, traveling without her by my side has taken some real getting used to. Fortunately, I’ve been rewarded with a “very promising” new travel partner to experience the rest of the world with. Serena.

Mercado de Otavalo, Ecuador

We took our first trip together to Ecuador (where she was born and raised) back in April of 2024. Now there’s no better way to get to know the person you’re dating than spending 24 hours a day with them over several days in another country – especially for two people who have their own unique travel styles. It was a successful feeling-out process for sure and turned out to be a very memorable trip.

This past January, we decided to go big and return to chilly Europe for 22 days. And with this post, I’d like to invite you to follow our journey (and get to know a few wonderful European cities in the process) as I begin to share a series of photographs from that trip. This is merely an introduction (as I’m still working on the photo edits) but they will follow soon enough. So where did we go? Let me tell you…

BERLIN

We landed in Berlin from Miami on the morning of December 29th. I’d never been to Berlin (or Germany for that matter) but it had been on my radar for many years. It was even on my original 2023 European trip until I was forced to scratch it for logistical reasons. Street art, art museums, live music (jazz!) – and a wild New Year’s Eve we’ll never forget…

ROME

Our second stop was Rome, another city on my travel list (heck, it’s a city on everyone’s travel list, no?). The Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, chicken parmigiana (just kidding). Oh, my!

NAPLES

Our next stop was the birthplace of pizza (you call that a slice?!), a city where the real God takes a backseat to some fellow named Diego Maradona. That’s right, Naples. It was a city so electric (bonkers, really!), it literally took my breath away…

BATH

I wouldn’t think Bath, a historic city in Somerset, England, would be on too many travel bucket lists but it really should be. An absolutely charming city (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) that’s a mere two hour drive west of London…

LONDON

How long have I yearned (yeah, I yearn) to visit London? A long time. Was it cold in London in January? Oh, yeah. Did it matter? No. This is one of the world’s greatest cities. Nuff said.

So now you know. My first two posts from our European winter vacation will highlight some of the cool places to see in Berlin.
They’ll be posted soon so SUBSCRIBE HERE to not miss them!