I bought a nifty little common German phrases book from AAA for $5, to brush up on my very minimalist German (from my high school days xx years ago!)--and I'm starting to focus on Germany travel books to get ideas for free time. I feel the excitement building! I spoke with a couple who live in Munich and they said it is 50/50 there will be snow on the ground at Christmas--and that the Christmas markets are sights to behold. (Also sounds like the train to Salzburg is pretty easy, so we are likely to be doing that at some point during our Munich stay--we are adding on two days at the end via ABD, so we'll get to know that city pretty well). I saw other comments about the Germany trip that suggested it was more adult than child oriented, which was surprising--we wanted to do this trip while our youngest was still "young enough" to be thrilled with the fairy tale aspects (she's 9). It'll be a great trip, I am sure--for the young and old at heart!