Let it glow, let it glow, let it glow!

Christmas Market season begins.

Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-Minute Vacation for Dec. 3rd. I share these snippets of our travels in the hope that my photos and stories will allow you to go on a vicarious vacation and “get away from it all,” if only for a moment. I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.

In case you missed it, here’s the previous 5-Minute Vacation in Naples and the Amalfi coast.

Let it glow, let it glow, let it glow! Christmas in Copenhagen 2019.

With the opening of our local Christmas Market last week, the Season has officially begun. Whether you celebrate ~ or don’t celebrate ~ Christmas, I hope my photos will be a little appetizer to help us embrace joy, generosity, peace, and togetherness. Enjoy!

Enjoying the Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France 2021.

Christmas Market in Mainz, Germany 2022.

The bridge to Cathedral Island decorated for Christmas, Wrocław 2018.

A really big whirligig in Brussels, Belgium. 2022.

A Christmas Market in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest, Hungary 2019.

A mulled wine shack at Riga’s Christmas Market. Latvia, 2017.

Enjoying mulled wine at Vilnius’ Christmas Market. Lithuania, 2019.

Window shopping for our favorite Christmas treat, Aachener printen, in Aachen, Germany, 2022.

We spied two elves returning to Santa’s Budapest workshop after their lunch break. 2109.

Sometimes Christmas feels as frenetic as this Santa Claus carnival ride (at least for me). Wrocław, Christmas 2018.

***

I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT lately. Sometimes its answers are flat-out wrong (no, ChatGPT, Romania is not larger than Poland); sometimes the answers are useful (define “readymade” in the context of 20th-century art), and sometimes they’re just silly (write a sonnet in the style of Shakespeare about a dog’s love for his bone). Of course, I shouldn’t blame ChatGPT for that last one because I provided that prompt.

In thinking about a travel word for this postcard, I decided to ask it, “What are ten words that describe the Christmas spirit?” Its answer, in order: Joyful, Warmth, Generosity, Festive, Magical, Hopeful, Peaceful, Nostalgic, Spiritual, Community.¹

Not a bad answer but I do wonder about the order. Your thoughts? Did ChatGPT miss a word?

I hope you enjoy the Season. Until next time ~

Tschüss!

PS ~ If you are new to my photography, you can see more at scottgilbertson.com.

1. Full disclosure: exactly none of the rest of this postcard was created with ChatGPT.