Roll Call - Christmas Markets 2008 - all lines, all dates

[pacmom]

Just thought of something that I do for all trips. Might be helpful for the markets, especially if there are portopotties. Take rolls of toilet tissue that have about 1/4 of the roll left. Placed in a plastic bag. they compress down to take in your purse or your wife's. They have come in handy more than once. Our church bazaar is history, the anniversary is tomorrow--will go out for a lovely lunch. Thanksgiving prep only needs the turkey--a fresh one to be picked up tomorrow. Then I can devote my time to putting a wardrobe together.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Pat

[ChefPeg]

 

Happy Thanksgiving to my USA friends!!

 

We leave on Saturday!!

 

Thank you all for the wonderful and helpful river boat tips!

 

Take care,

Peggy

[KeyOfSea]

 

Happy Thanksgiving to my USA friends!!

 

We leave on Saturday!!

 

Thank you all for the wonderful and helpful river boat tips!

 

Take care,

Peggy

 

Thanks!! I should get off early today, dinner at my aunt's tomorrow and leave early Friday morning!! I could NOT be more excited! :eek: :D

[fred111]

Temperatures have been in the lower 30's the last two days. We went to Ludwig's castles and Oberamergau today. Plenty of snow on the ground and temps got down to 27 in the mountains.

[KeyOfSea]

Temperatures have been in the lower 30's the last two days. We went to Ludwig's castles and Oberamergau today. Plenty of snow on the ground and temps got down to 27 in the mountains.

 

Thanks for the update!! I hope that you're having a great time! :D

[fred111]

We are having a great time. Going to Garmish tomorrow. Did a beer hall crawl last night. Local beer here is the best in the world.

[AZPam]

 

Happy Thanksgiving to my USA friends!!

 

Peggy

 

Thanks for the warm wishes and I would like to extend my own Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

Seems like the first wave of us will be leaving in the next few days. I would like to wish everyone a safe trip and a wonderful time. This has turned into a wonderful thread with some great tips and ideas. I've really enjoyed chatting with everyone. Please check back on your return and tell us all about it. I know I would like to hear about all the different lines and what they did for the Christmas Markets trips.

 

Take care and talk with you all soon!

Pam

[odblnt]

Besides wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving, I would like to add that those of us who aren't going this year (but do plan on going next year) are looking forward to some interesting reviews when you get back. No excuses about Christmas rush and too many things to do. :p

 

Have a good time, and hoist a German brew for me.

 

Pete

[steamboats]

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

 

Fred111,

 

You should have a wonderful day on the Zugspitze today. I´ve had a look on the webcam

 

http://www.zugspitze.de/livecams/index_en.php

 

and the view is great!

 

AZPam,

 

here´s another webcam for you showing a Christmas Market in Basel

 

http://www.basel.ch/de/basel_virtuell/webcam/barfuesserplatz?lang=de&ctool_page_id=663

 

And I´m sure you will see some snow there.

 

steamboats

[pacmom]

Two more days and a wake-up and we are off on our Christmas market adventure. Susan33, we will leave the Odessey as you embark--will try to leave a note for you. Pam, thank you again for starting this thread--it has been a wealth of info. There is a post on the Norovirus thread that has a list of all the great drinks available. I'm printing it to take with me. Must close--time to put that bird in the oven. There will be 12 of us with many thanks. Hope all have a happy Thanksgiving and safe journeys.

Pat

[KeyOfSea]

Just 24 hours from now, we'll be sitting on a plane getting ready to leave!! I'm about 1/2 packed :eek: but shouldn't need to stay up too late tonight.

 

Have a great trip, everyone!! I too look forward to hearing how each trip goes. :D

[steamboats]

Save travels for all who are leaving within the next few days!

 

Trish, see you on Nikolaus-Tag!

 

steamboats

[skyview851]

We leave on Tuesday & are looking forward to this trip. Thanks to everyone for their comments & helpful hints. AzPam, we will wave as we pass you on the river as we are doing the opposite itinerary from yours.

[Yaya&Papu]

Have a safe flight Pam. We will pass you along the Rhine as we are going up from Cologne to Basel. We are on the River Empress and we embark on Sunday for 7 nights. We are meeting friends from Albuquerque whom we met last year aboard the River Countess on the Danube. After disembarking in Basel, we will take the train to Bern for 1 night and then on to Munich for 2 more nights. Thanks also to Steamboats for her links and advice.:)

[catkoe1]

Everyone have a wonderful trip and Please, Pretty Please, post some of your hightlights on the cruise you were on...including ship itinerary and cruiseline. I have four couples on the River empress tulip and Windmills trip and would love to hear what you impression of the River empress is. Also, Viking. Enjoy, and please remember to leave some yummy drinks and beautiful ornaments left for us to enjoy. HAVE FUN!

[fred111]

For everyone leaving in the next few days, the weather is great, the food is unbelievable, and it is Europe during Christmas season. Can't get much better than that. We've been watching folks set up their stands for the Munich Christmas market for the last few days and my wife is waiting with baited breath for the market to open at 5:00 PM tonight. If the mayor talks too long he might get bowled over in the rush to shop.

 

I think the operative phrase for the next two weeks will be, "So many markets, so little time."

 

Good luck to all in their travels.

 

P.S. for Thanksgiving we had potato soup, pretzels, apple strudel and beer.

[steamboats]

fred111,

 

Munich has lots of Christmas Markets :D! Even the 4 weeks until Christmas are not enough time to visit each of them...

 

Marienplatz + side market at Rindermarkt

Schwabinger Weihnachtsmarkt (Münchner Freiheit) - my favorite

Tollwood (Theresienwiese)

 

Those are just the most famous and largest ones. But there are many more....

 

Alter Hof (brand new one, opened yesterday)

Wittelsbacher Platz (Medieval market)

Sendlinger Tor

Chinesischer Turm

Orleansplatz/Weißenburger Straße

Ramersdorf

....

 

There´s even one at the airport and a "Pink Christmas" gay market.

 

They pop up like mushrooms and get more each year!

 

For more information see here

 

http://www.muenchen.de/Rathaus/tourist_office/veranst/christkind/88127/index.html

 

Here you can watch Fred111 and his wife tonight :D

 

http://www.muenchen.de/Tourismus/Sehenswuerdigkeiten/Muenchen_in_Bildern/Webcam/132898/index.html

 

and here´s the Schwabinger Weihnachtsmarkt

 

http://www.cafecam.de/

 

(on that both to the right you get great Crèpes - French pancakes, yummy!)

 

steamboats

[Bill S]

Well, except for our rechargeable toothbrush and a few small odds and ends, we are all set to "set sail" tomorrow morning! We leave for the airport at 3:45AM for a 6AM flight to O'Hare. From there, on Lufthansa, we transit Frankfurt on the way to Prague. We hope to arrive in Prague at about 9:15AM, Sunday, Nov 30.

Thanks, Pam for the great thread and to everyone who has posted great information.

Finally, I wish everyone who is going on one of the wonderful cruises a safe journey, better than average weather, and calm rivers!

[kkbay]

We leave in a week from tomorrow. The bags are in the spare bedroom. We have started to assemble what needs to be packed. Before the serious packing begins, I am having a little Christmas party on Tuesday evening. My house is a mess and I need to get the Christmas decorations out and start decorating. The big packing will begin on Wednesday. Pam's list certainly will come in handy.

At the end of our trip, I plan to make a book on shutterfly.com. These books are a wonderful way to preserve great memories of our trips. When I get it up and running, I will post it on shutterfly for all to see. The pictures from the Christmas Markets should be beautiful.

The excitement of planning for a trip is wonderful. In fact, I think it's half the fun!

For those of you about to leave, have a safe and wonderful trip!:)

[susan33]

Pat (pacmom)--enjoy your trip on the Odessey. We were on the Odessey earlier this year and had a wonderful time. Your trip will be over and you will be on your way home by the time we arrive to board. We are from the west coast so we are always among the last passengers to arrive in Europe. Please leave some unique things for us to purchase. Again, have a wonderful trip.

 

Susan 33

[fred111]

The Munich Christmas markets are even better than we expected. Visited a couple last night and are now the proud owners of dozens of new ornaments and other such necessities. The city really goes all out.

 

We are leaving by train this morning for Budapest. Then onto the river cruise.

 

We will be back in Munich for a couple of days at the end of the cruise.

 

Steamboat - quick question. We found the Mail Boxes, etc. to ship things home. How do we get a customs stamp for tax rebates if we ship items? At the airport they usually want to see the item.

 

Thanks.

[steamboats]

fred111,

 

Actually I don´t have a clue!! As I am German I can´t get the VAT back. I only know you can do it at the airport but have to carry the stuff with you then. Here´s the airport website

 

http://www.munich-airport.de/en/consumer/aufenthalt_trans/geldRecht/tax_refund/index.jsp

 

And I noticed that the big department stores (Kaufhof and Karstadt) do offer Tax Free shopping. I only know that you have to go to the customer service counter.

 

But I don´t know whether you can sent anything by German postal service tax free. You might ask at the big post office opposite the main entrance of the central station (there´s no big sign but it´s the doors in the middle of the building, there can be long lines!).

 

steamboats

[ChefPeg]

Take care everyone!!

 

We leave for the airport in 2 hours but I had to stop by before we left.

 

I hope everyone had a nice a holiday, those who celebrated anyway.

 

I'll be back on 11th. I'm still not too excited yet, the holiday took a lot out of me. Plus, I hate long flights. We will arrive in Nuremberg tomorrow morning at 11am.

 

I will drop a note if we have a signal.

 

Thanks for all of the wonderful information and tips!!

 

Have a great week!!

 

Peggy and Tom

[KeyOfSea]

We made it to Vienna and we're too tired for words. All of our bags arrived with us!! I'll post more when we've have some rest (tomorrow). :D

[fred111]

Well, we left Munich (unfortunately - we love the city) and headed for Budapest. 7 1/2 hour train ride but very comfortable and interesting. The hotel in Budapest is very good. Right next to the Opera House.

 

We went to a really nice traditional Hungarian restaurant for dinner. Great wine and food and a Gypsy Band. I never heard of any of the music they were playing until they played the Chicken Dance. Really funny. Started laughing.

 

Budapest is a nice quiet city. We get on the river boat tomorrow. Glad we got to Europe a week early. Also glad we are spending a few more days in Munich after the cruise.