By I haven’t posted in a bit because I was out of the country, on a delightful tour of Christmas markets in Austria and Germany. The idea for a trip started back in early February with an unexpected email from my choir friend Ruth. We’d talked before about taking a trip, but nothing had come to fruition. In another life Ruth must have been a travel agent, because She had planned out the entire trip (hotels, airfare, etc.), which made saying yes to the invitation ridiculously easy. After confirming my dog sitter could take care of Mavis, I bought my ticket on Delta and waited with anticipation.
There were 4 of us in total attempting this adventure. I experienced a tad bit of anxiety as I have been solo traveling lately and was concerned about traveling en masse (… mostly I was concerned about sharing a bedroom with someone since I know I snore a little). There are perks to traveling alone – I decide the schedule, I decide how long I visit each museum or tourist spot or shop/Christmas market stall, I decide when I eat and where I eat. But traveling solo also means eating each meal by myself and negotiating each city alone.
Luckily I’m happy to report that the trip was a glorious success! Despite constant togetherness and different personalities (varying degrees of extroversion), we all got along famously and created some amazing memories.
The next week or so will be posts on each market, but in short the 8 day schedule was:
- Atlanta to Munich to Salzburg
- Salzburg to Regensburg
- Regensburg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber
- Rothenburg to Nuremberg
- Nuremberg to Munich
- Munich back to Atlanta
Traveling in a group of 4 is pretty fun in comparison to traveling alone or traveling with a massive tour group. The trip was non-stop (vs. a relaxing trip to the beach), so that was tiring but worth it. The neat thing was that each market has its own personality. I can’t really say I have a favorite because they are so different. If I had to do it over I would have brought one less outfit (bear in mind that I had packed pretty lightly and repeated clothes). I did bring an empty duffel bag that returned full of goodies. I would have benefited with another duffel because I really could have bought more Christmas decorations and gifts. The reality though is that buying more would have meant lugging it around the trains, which I would not have enjoyed. One option would have been to stay in one hotel and then take day trips, but then you lose the opportunity to stay overnight and experience each city more fully…so in short the trip was perfect in every which way.
While I think I was a good travel partner, others in the group may disagree. Only time will tell if I get invited to another girls’ trip.
Time to make some more coffee to keep awake and refocus on work and my upcoming choir performance.
