Thinking back about my trip last year

Its been a year since my wife and I went on our 24 day Berlin, Dresden,Prague, Nuremberg, Garmisch Partenkirchen, Salzburg, Munich,Erfurt,Leipzig back to Berlin trip with side trips to Regensburg, Innsbruck and Bamberg. I've been thinking over the trip in terms of what I feel we did right, and what we could have improved on.
First off, the overall pace and itinerary. I feel the pace was pretty good. Looking back, one difference that might have worked well would have been to slice out Nuremberg, gone to Dresden on arrival day instead of the next day, skipped a day in Garmisch (so no Innsbruck), maybe cut a day from Prague, and in return freed up a few days in Vienna. Also, on our last day in Munich instead of more Munich sites, looking back I would have enjoyed a day at one of the nearby lakes like Tegernsee. Also, no day trip in Regensburg (we did this on the way to Garmisch from Nuremberg) to free up more time elsewhere would have worked.
Budget. I feel we did pretty well on this, we didn't eat out much, but neither of us are really into that too much and we really enjoyed our sausage stand meals and various Goulashes, both canned and cafeteria style in Prague. Don't really regret missing out too much food wise, and we did plenty of ice cream snacking and of course Leibnitz Schokolade Keks, which are basically like a smores without a marshmellow. In terms of sites, I don't feel we missed too much. In Salzburg looking back at it we should have taken the elevator up all the way to the fortress, instead of finding the walkways which get you up about 2/3s of the way anyway.
Time of year. September was really pretty good. We got into cold weather in Garmisch and Salzburg, a Munich rainout one day, and it was hot in Prague, but mostly weather was cool and that worked nicely with what we were doing.
Research. I did alot of pre-trip research, and believe it paid off. I had clear ideas about where we were staying, how to get to sites, not wasting too much time, proper use of public transportation etc. In Berlin I probably should have done more research but a good deal of the time was spent with my relative anyway.
Accomodations. I believe we did really well with this, and here is where the internet has really changed travel. We had all of our reservations made before the trip and every place we stayed worked out fine, outside of not sleeping at all the first night in Berlin (I have some jet lag challenges). Anyway, thats my thinking as of now about our trip. Currently in beginning stages of an Italy trip planning, not sure when we'll go of course.