The Ghost of Christmas Present! (In Austria. Coming home soon.)

So much to write about. We're running behind on the blog, but we're getting there. I just wanted to speak in present tense for a bit to share our experiences as our trip comes to a close...

Our last week on this continent. We're in Salzburg, Austria, and I can only interpret the weather here as nature's way of easing us into what we have in store back home, in Minnesota. We hear it's been rather chilly there, especially Thanksgiving night. We were in Venice, where on Friday it rained more or less constantly. You want to know what's worse than a cold winter? A cold fall rain. The tide in the bordering Adriatic Sea goes in and out, as tide does, and in November, the rainiest season in Italy, many of the streets are covered in a few inches of water from the canals flooding just a bit. At times, even my waterproof shoes, which have braved the most threatening puddles from Berlin to Rome, couldn't withstand the overflowing canals. Whole streets unpassable for anyone who wanted to maintain some semblance of sock-dryness.

But that's another blog. Thanksgiving has passed, my parents have come and gone, Rome was created, and then fell. Much to blog about, but we can't wait. It is officially the Holiday Season, and, being freshly snowed upon by Alpen flurries, I am sitting, six floors up, watching white-covered trains pull into and out of Salzburg Hauptbahnhof.

Our hotel is right above a hundred-year-old brauhaus - admittedly young, by European standards - so Karina and I headed down there right-quick. Stieglbrau. Karina had a Goldbrau, I had their Dunkelweisse. Both delicious. As we sat there, the snow started falling. Our first snowfall of the year. While we've seen it here and there, in patches, and coating an Alpen field, we had yet to seen it fall.

We hoped it would still be snowing when we headed out to the Christmas Markets. Hours later, after we visited the markets as I write this, it's still falling, accumulating, making everything look beautiful. A couple mugs of gluhwein - a spiced, warm, red wine - held by mittened hands as we peruse the Christmas ornaments made from glass, carved wood, and fabric. On a whim, I had a baked potato, which, proudly, I ordered by using, soley, my German language knowledge:

"Eine kartoffel," I said, leaving out "bitte," accidentally.

"Mit?"

"Uh...alles," I said, requesting it be loaded with cheese, some kind of herbed sauce, and sour cream. It was delicious, and I regret nothing, even though I spoiled my dinner, burned the roof of my mouth, and neglected to keep my hand sufficiently warm while operating the plastic spoon.

Now, looking down from six flights up onto Austrian train tracks with frequent traffic, listening to the xmas music on my iPod (Sinatra, Crosby, Krall, Guaraldi, Springsteen, McCartney, Lennon, Sufjan, Low), I can't help but recognize how lucky I am, that we could do this thing we've been blogging about, and, mostly, and more importantly, that we have a home to come back to, close to our friends and family.