Rail tour, Christmas Markets, luggage, anything else, help. :)

are you touring around by yourselves or are you joining an organized rail tour?

The last day for Christmas markets is either 23rd or 24th December. hope you have enough days before Christmas for your visits.

Snow - possibly. Make sure you have shoes which will cope.

"We want to go to a midnight service on Christmas Eve." - where will you actually be on the night of the 24th?
If you are staying a a hotel over Christmas, they should offer meals on the days when restaurants are closed, unless they are a "hotel Garni" (bed and breakfast only hotel).

A lot of the markets will have their last night on the 22nd due to Christmas Eve being on a Sunday this year. This lets them pack up their stuff and get home to shop before all the stores close for 3 days.

There will be midnight services in almost any city so you need to tell us where you will be.

Rail tour is preplanned by a company, but we are on our own during the tour. We have passes to some sites that are guided.
We get to Bonn on the 22nd and we're hoping Beethoven Haus will be open that day. It was the only way to fit everything in with the days we had available.
How is Lufthansa Airline? Anything we need to know about it?

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. This is very helpful.

At the Christmas markets they sell Gluewein (mulled wine) and you can either buy the mug or put a deposit down and then get the deposit back when you return the mug. My husband and I decided to buy at least one mug from each market which was fun and now we have great keepsakes, but it added weight to our bags. Be sure to either bring an extra bag or pack light and leave with some spare room in your bags for all the goodies you will buy.

Do some research before hand on the Christmas markets available in each city. We found most of the larger towns had 3 or 4 markets and the Cities had several. You won't have time to get to them all so research ahead of time so you know which ones will interest you the most.

http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/

We traveled all over Germany and it was really cold and snowy a few times. I wore boots most of the time and was glad I had them. Have fun! We had such a great time I really want to do it again one of these years:)

"Do some research before hand on the Christmas markets available in each city. We found most of the larger towns had 3 or 4 markets and the Cities had several. You won't have time to get to them all so research ahead of time so you know which ones will interest you the most.
http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/"

Wow, this is great! Thanks!!!

Two years ago we traveled independently to visit the Christmas markets in Nurnberg, Munich, and Salzburg and really enjoyed our visits. We flew into Munich, trained to Nurnberg and spent three nights there. The Nazi sites are quite thought provoking and very well presented. Then we trained back to Munich for three nights. We visited The Deutches Museum one day and enjoyed the Christmas markets in the late afternoon and nights. We trained to Salzburg from Munich for a day visit and found the markets to be different but thoroughly enjoyed the variety. A word of caution if you decide to train to Salzburg for the day - be sure to take along your passport. Despite it being within the EU, we were asked for our passports when boarding at night to return to Munich. Christmas markets are full of great food, gluhwein and gingerbread! A great way to get into the "Christmas spirit."Oh, Nurnberg would be an easy day trip from Munich - only one hour by train from Munich's main train station.

When I went to the Christmas markets I took a pair (top and bottom) of Cuddleduds. They are meant to be worn under your regular clothing, are silk and thin and help keep you warm while walking around outside. They take up almost no room in your luggage and were perfect. We had very little snow the year we went but it was very cold.

Wow. This is all wonderful information. Thank you all!