First of all, thanks so much for all of the helpful ideas for locations to consider for my next Christmas Markets trip! I’ve spent several evenings going through that info, watching YouTube’s of those locations, looking up train connections & times, etc. Here’s the result of some initial itineraries, ready for feedback. I am very flexible - feel free to share any comments!. I have always wanted to see Dresden, and Aachen, Bamberg & Erfurt & Bremen are very appealing. St. Wolfgang is dear to my heart, although it will probably be both sweet & a little bittersweet to return to it.
A couple of criteria:
- I really don’t like day trips unless they are 30 or less minutes by train.
- I intentionally like 1-night stays. ( I do it often in Italy.) I will be traveling solo & am going for the evening ambiance in each city, plus seeing a few sites during the day. I will do a small amount of shopping, looking for handmade items.
The number in front of the city is the number of nights I will stay. The number after the city is hours by train to the next city.
Option 1
Fly into Munich.
1- Munich (2+bus+boat)
2-St. Wolfgang, Austria (Boat+bus)
1-Salzburg (3). I’ve been here 3x. This is mainly for transportation connections.
1-Nuremburg (1)
1-Wurzburg (1)
1-Bamberg (1)
1-Erfurt (2)
3-Dresden (6)
3-Cologne (1)
1-Aachen (1.5)
2-Dusselfdorf & fly home
Option 2 All trains in this option have no connections needed, except Aachen to Dusseldorf.
Fly into Munich
1-Munich (1)
2-Nuremburg (.5)
1-Bamberg (1)
1-Erfurt (2)
3-Dresden (1)
1-Leipzig (4). See where Bach played. : )
2-Bremen (1)
1-Münster (2j
2-Cologne (1)
1-Aachen (1.5)
2-Dusselfdorf & fly home
There’s so many wonderful places that were just so hard to eliminate! Some were dropped because of transportation time, or they were multiple train connections.
THANK YOU!