Epilogue: To Market, To Market

No, we are not putting C.A.R.I.B. III up for sale.

After we returned to Florida in October, one of our first orders of business was to renew our passports. Although three blank pages in each of our passports was probably technically sufficient for our 2024 French visa application, a comment had been made when we applied for our 2023 French visas that we might want to consider getting new passports to ensure that we had enough blank pages for our next visa application. We don't think it wise to test the limits of the French visa system, and having read the horror stories about the delays in U.S. passport application processing, we submitted our passport renewal applications just over a week after we were back in Florida. We paid for the expedited process, but were still amazed when we had our new passports in 3 weeks--much quicker than the 5-7 week estimate on the State Department website. 

We decided to celebrate by breaking in our new passports on a "theme" trip that we'd been considering for a while: Christmas Markets in Europe. So many cities and towns to choose from for our December 7-19 trip, but we finally decided upon:

Vienna--for a chance to meet up with our Austrian friend Kitty, who now lives in Bath, England, but would be visiting her Viennese hometown in December;

Munich--for a chance to see a German Xmas market, and an easy 4-hour train ride from Vienna;

Strasbourg--to see the self-styled "Christmas Capitol of France" that we'd heard good things about, and finally;

Paris--for a chance to see Paris from a very different perspective than what we're used to in boating season--and to see boating friends who are spending the winter in the city.

Four towns, and as it turned out, four very different travel and market experiences.

Vienna: Awesome to see Vienna again with Kitty; snow!; decked-out streets in the old center-city; a 343-step climb of the cathedral's south tower; evening crowds (and more crowds).

Munich: wet, then sunny; charming kiosks; a skating rink; Gluhwein uber alles!; crowds, but less than Vienna; building cranes everywhere.

Strasbourg: Marvelous--the complete package!; Alsatian architecture + Xmas decor = Magic; another cathedral tower to climb; crowds (and more crowds); heavy security; European parliament.

Paris: cold temps, warm hospitality; "homecoming"; Xmas market as carnival.

It was a terrific trip, if a bit cold for our tastes these days. Judging by the crowds, Christmas is definitely a second "high season" for European travel. The airfare was awesome--the hotel prices were not! And while we're glad that we did it, our curiosity has been satisfied and we've no need to repeat the experience.

It's hard to believe, but we're now at nearly the halfway point in our "Florida season," which means it's about time to start the visa application process. Yikes!