Das Is Alles -- That Is All

I always write a summary post at the end of the trip, so I shall keep that tradition alive.

It was the first trip for Carol and I to Hungary, and the first one that counts to Germany.  We'd flown through both Munich and Frankfurt before, but had never stepped foot out of the airport, much less had a meal off-airport (the two conditions that must happen for a country to be considered visited).

Overall impressions:

• We really enjoyed the combination of Christmas markets and sight-seeing.  If you haven't been, save the markets for dark (it gets dark early there in December, of course).
• Nine days was enough, you do reach a point where the markets are overdone.
• Also great was hitting some small towns -- St Wolfgang, Mondsee (on The Sound of Music tour), and Regensburg.  It's going take me a little time to get over the mistakes in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so I will set that aside for now.
• Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg were the highlights of the trip for me (I don't speak for Carol or Torie, which you probably instinctively knew!). 
• It was great having Torie along -- she had been to all four cities back in January of this year on a J-term trip, so she could give us some advice on each, including both sights and food.  She enjoyed the markets as well.
• We did come home with a bunch of Christmas food.
• It's not fair to compare central European food with Spanish food, so I won't.
• It's not fair to compare central European wine with Spanish wine, so I won't.
• I did like the trading off of eating "street food" from the food stalls at the markets with sitting down at restaurants to eat.  I would not have wanted every meal from a market stall, but doing it twice every two or three days was pretty good.
• Don't get me wrong, I liked the food at the restaurants, and German/Austrian food is better than its' reputation, but there is a certain repetitive nature to the food.  
• I know I said this early in the trip, but if I had to do it again, I would have done one more day in Budapest and one less in Munich. 
• Beyond that, however, it was a great way to get introduced to the Christmas markets and those cities we had not been to (we were in Vienna in 2011, and were enthralled then too).
• The St Wolfgang (there is no period in St for this town, btw) market was pretty amazing.
• Ranking the cities, Salzburg was my favorite city, with Budapest second, Vienna third, and Munich in fourth.  
• One observation that struck me about the markets is that they are as much a social gathering place for locals to eat and drink as it is for tourists to shop and wander.  I wish American cities had a draw like this.
• You don't see many lights on individual houses, etc, but the city buildings often have beautiful displays.
• They do the non-religious parts of Christmas very well in Central Europe.

Final note -- I probably have not seen The Sound of Music since my youth (maybe once or twice as an adult).  Loved it then (thanks mom!).  The tour in Salzburg was great fun, even if we aren't tour bus people.  I regretted that we had not carved out time to watch it before going to Salzburg.  

However, I watched the movie on the flight back, and it was more fun to see it AFTER taking the tour rather than before.  It was thrilling to see the scenes at locations we had been to just a few days earlier.  The movie is funnier than I remember, the songs are fabulous, and the story, even though embellished, is beautiful.

Oh, and it's true -- the hills ARE alive with the sound of music.

So, have yourself a merry little Christmas, now.