Winter trip to Europe

Early days trip planing , Sydney to Europe in Dec 24 / Jan 25 . Planing on time in England and also Arctic circle ( Tromso or Finland or ?? Iceland ) . Family catch up in England but other aim is to experience what Europe has to offer in winter , maybe in Germany .

I spent my first 11 years living near Croydon and suffer from the affliction of being a Crystal Palace fan and want to catch up with a couple of games .

. Thinking of flying to Tromso first ( via ? ) , over to London , then train to Europe . Work across to ? Munich ( or another Central Europe hub ) and then back to SYD .

Qatar / emirates seem to be the popular choice la though have seen positive comments re Finnair .

Any suggestions for best way to Norway / Finland and which hub back to Sydney ?

Outside contacting palace / picking up tickets through supporter fb pages are there reliable sources for EPL tickets ?

For those who have been to Europe what were the “ Winter experiences “ that you found worthwhile . Not that interested in going to the big Christmas markets along with the crowds from insight or Trafalgar , but more smaller “ authentic “ markets ( doesn’t that word get overused now days ) but I’d prefer to go to Selhurst park than London stadium .

This is our first big trip post retirement , though will be going again , but probably not in winter ( i do remember Dec / Jan in England )

Cheers Cliff

 

We did Europe in Dec 22/Jan23 including London. We also did Munich and Prague on that same trip. We've also flown Finnair to Europe a few years prior but that was in July - no complaints but its a step down from the likes of Emirates, Qatar etc.

Would love to go to Tromso to hopefully see the Northern Lights (gotta be very lucky with the weather tho) but yes, Finnair would be a good way to go to hub out of Helsinki. Also do Lapland if you're planning to to Tromso. The only drawback is you will have to fly via Helsinki back to Oz.

Maybe do:

1. Helsinki and Lapland first
2. then fly to London. War museum was my fav and just walking the streets around Chelsea, Kensington etc. Wanted to do English countryside but opted at last minute not to eg Cotswolds...regret. We were in London on NYE and to be perfectly honest it was a schemozzle and I was taken aback by the fact that there were more foreigners in Central London than there were Brits. The 'British' feel was all but gone.
3. go to anywhere else in Europe you want to visit. I wasn't taken by Munich or Prague (tourists galore in Prague).
4. fly to Tromso with a budget airline, and when youre done fly back to Helsinki with a budget airline to catch your homebound flight. Finnair also stop in Singapore so I'd recommend breaking up your journey and 'thawing out' in Singapore on way home.

 

Salzburg during Christmas / winter is wonderful and very pretty, similarly Vienna as well. Both worth considering.

We were in Tromso just in early Jan. Perhaps something to consider is checking which cities have direct flights into Tromso. This will save you time in transit (London works well of course). We spent 5 wonderful days in Tromso then flew direct via Transavia to Amsterdam, and flew back to Australia from there with Emirates.

Would recommend at least 4 nights in Tromso and minivan tours over two separate nights to see the lights (in case you miss it the first night). Plenty of other wonderful day tours to keep you occupied - reindeers, whale watching, snowmobiling, husky sledding. Definitely costly but once in a lifetime memory.. highly recommended!

 

@See Change you deserve it after so many years of service to the community and your industry too. I hope you have a great trip and many happy memories. I prob can't think about a trip on this scale until my boy is older.

 

No , the weather was a big reason why we left ….
don’t mind the cold for a short period but you have to dress for it .

One of our families songs was the song of the weather by a comedy duo Flanders and Swan . It sums up my attitude to English weather . Check it out on you tube - classic British Comedy . Put the lyrics at the end

Have relatives in England . One was just out and we took them out on our boat at Bobbin Head . They have just retired to Cornwall and have a cottage in the Cotswold and have invited us to stay .

We will be going back in Summer , possibly a few times and SWMBO is a big fan of escape to the country ( and Outlander - and her Dad came from Scotland )

Son is working in London .

Song of the weather

January brings the snow
Makes your feet and fingers glow
February's ice and sleet
Freeze the toes right off your feet

Welcome March with wintry wind
Would thou wert not so unkind
April brings the sweet Spring showers
On and on for hours and hours

Farmers fear unkindly May
Frost by night and hail by day
June just rains and never stops
Thirty days and spoils the crops

In July the sun is hot
Is it shining? No, it's not
August cold and dank and wet
Brings more rain than any yet

Bleak September's mist and mud
Is enough to chill the blood
Then October adds a gale
Wind and slush and rain and hail

Dark November brings the fog
Should not do it to a dog
Freezing wet December then

Bloody January again
January brings the snowp
Makes your feet and fingers glow

 

thanks for the thoughts . Gradually working things out .

We may split the return leg , but looking at options .

Into Tromso we’re thinking of train to Burgen and then the Hirtigruten ferry to Tromso . Heard nothing but positive comments about them .

Going north to Finnish Lapland you can catch the “ Santa Claus express “ from Helsinki .

If we went into Sweden there’s even one place where your airport transfer is by Husky …

Still looking at different options . Quite a few snow / ice hotels designed to watch the lights while you lay in bed …
one thing to be aware of is that they now can predict to a degree how good the northern lights will be , and they’re predicting a boomer season 24/25 .


Cheers

cliff

 

interesting to here about the European Cities . Something to think about .

Tromso looks like a good base of operations . I’m also interested in staying somewhere for 3-4 days in the country side . There’s a couple of places out from Tromso but also quite a few in Swedish and Finnish Lapland . The Finn’s have Santa but the Swedish have the original snow hotel ..

Need to get it sorted out as the unique accomodation tends to book out early and the sooner we lock the flights in , the better .

cheers

cliff