In January, a friend and I firmly vowed to one another that we would do our own mini weekend getaway together. We had quite a lot of flexibility on when we could travel so the big question was: where? I’d had Norway on my travel list for a while and, despite having grown up partially in Copenhagen which is only a short distance away, I’d never managed to visit the country. I was initially deterred because of how much Scandinanvia usually costs as a tourist, but after looking at both hotels and flights for off-peak March, we were sold.
A taste of Bruges
A last minute drive to Germany for the weekend led us to Bruges. I love how easy it is for us to be able to jump into the car and drive to a completely different country with a completely culture, all in a matter of hours. We arrived in the city on Friday evening, as the sun was setting, to then grab a delicious dinner of fondue and red wine and squeeze in a wander of the streets by night. We got up fairly early on Saturday morning in order to make the most of the little time we had left in the city before having to leave it at 11:30am! We were greeted to morning sunlight casting warm hues across the picturesque buildings.
Visiting Malta
Our four day getaway to Malta was fairly unexpected as visiting the country had never been in my sights until recently. We happened to be flying to and from Munich airport because of a family wedding in Austria, so we decided to pick a place that the airport flew to, to tag on a little holiday onto our trip.
The rose city of Petra
Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut ‘rose city’ was the capital of the Nabatean Empire from around the 1st Century BC. During the Roman times it became a major trade centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria. Petra is half-built, half-carved into this vibrant red sandstone and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges.
Bikes, bridges & baked goods: Amsterdam
Amsterdam is one of the most popular cities in Europe and has been on my list of travel destinations for a while. With a short 50 minute flight from London Gatwick, it seemed like a perfect mini break to squeeze into a weekend.