Solvang In The Winter

In the Solvang Gazebo

A piece of Europe in California. That is Solvang in a sentence. This hidden small southern California town can be found in the Santa Ynez Valley. I can’t express my delight, just by walking down the streets in this small town, I felt the holiday spirit. We were told tales about it by my fiancé’s aunt and decided to stop on our way back from Disneyland. I’m so happy we made this pit stop.

One of the many windmills.

This small village has a Danish heritage that is kept alive by the scandinavian inspired architecture, bakeries and museums. The architecture features repurposed windmills and brown painted trim lines on the buildings. The Danish style buildings along with the Christmas decorations made me feel like I was in a Christmas Town. The crisp wind didn’t bother me one bit, as we peeped through bakery windows. I felt so happy just to be in such a cute town. 

This town has so many cute bakeries!

From the old world to the modern, this place has bit of everything. We found a hip little winery, Calilove. It offered refreshing wine and Nintendo?! Yes, you heard right, in fact that is why we walked in. Ivan heard the music from across the street and we noticed the sign on the window advertising Nintendo. It’s safe to say we were there at least an hour as he hogged the console. But I had a delicious rose to sip on.

Calilove was a cute, trendy winery.

We ended our trip with the bookstore but sadly the Hans Christian Andersen museum was closed by the time we walked in. However, we still explored the bookstore and found some interesting books. How did we end our taste of Europe? As you’d expect, dining at the Chinese restaurant around the corner. It was a perfect night. 

A cute phonebooth.

Thank you,

Perla