On December 22nd, I departed Salzburg train station at 8:00 and arrived in Munich at 9:40. The station is under construction and a real mess! I finally made my way out and found it was really raining. I made my way to a taxi and took it to my hotel. My hotel room wasn't ready but they kept my bags for me and I headed out. I have been to Munich a couple of times and wanted to see a couple of things I haven't had a chance to do before. I planned to to go to the Nazi Documentation Center first since it was raining, but when I looked it up on my phone to double check the hours, I learned they had just closed for renovations. So rain or not, I was going to have to head out to Nymphemburg Palace. I took the tram out and then walked to the palace. I don't know why, but I didn't take many pictures on the inside. I also bought a ticket to the Royal Stables Museum which houses lots of coaches. I really found all the sleighs to be a sight to see, bu...
Often my trip planning begins with a wild hare. I will think to myself "I want to visit the Alhambra". Next thing you know I've booked a flight to Spain and then I'll build a trip around that. My Europe 2024 trip began with the wild hare of me thinking "I want to go to the Christmas markets on Lake Wolfgangsee" and then I build this whole trip around that. Lake Wolfgangsee is about 35 kilometers outside of Salzburg. There are 3 towns around Lake Wolfgangsee that have Christmas markets, but they are only held on certain days, so I had to plan to be there on one of those specific days. I took a bus (again, building my confidence with that mode of travel) out to St. Gilgen on the morning of December 22nd. It was very charming. It has a gondola you can take up in the mountains, but I decided to skip that since I'd checked that box a couple of times already. I just wandered for a bit and made my way down to the lake to purchase tickets for the...