If anyone is thinking of planning a trip to Europe I say DO IT! We had the best time on our 10 week trip. We did rush around alot and probably saw too much in each day but it was well worth it. We had planned to see as much as possible in our short time over there. I think we did the best thing possible since it was our first trip and we don't know when we will be able (to afford) to go again.
We visited 16 countries in our 10 weeks away and saw heaps of different cities. It was amazing to see how different the countries were from each other. The places we visited were (in order) Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen, Karlstad, Stockholm, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich (Rothenburg and Neushwanstein from there), Venice, Florence (and Pisa & Siena), Rome (and Pompei), Vatican City, Interlaken (and Montreux, Bern, Basel), Bacharach, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, London (and drove around England and Scotland).
We had a Eurail pass while on the mainland and I think that was the best way to go...especially for us when we wanted to cover so much ground. We could jump on almost any train and go wherever we wanted. We only had to pay a few supplements and book a few trains - either for a couchette or high speed trains. Everything else was 'free'.
To help me plan our trip away I used this web site to check out everyones ideas and another site that came in very handy was
www.eurotrip.com. Check it out if you're planning a trip away, it really comes in handy. Especially when you ask a question and get stacks of replies. It's mainly about European trips but there is also info on other places too.
We took the Western Europe book by Lonely Planet which came in very handy. Of course it gets very heavy when you have to carry the whole book everywhere though. We actually photocopied some of the pages we wanted and threw them out as we finished with them. It worked really well and we didn't care if we lost or wrecked the pages. We also had the Europe on a Shoestring book at home but didn't think it was quite as good as the Western Europe one so we just copied the Prague and Scandinavian parts that we needed.
Anyway, check out some (or all) of my Europe pages. I haven't put many photos here because they are all on my city pages. I'm sure you'll enjoy them. I occassionally update my European pages as I think of something else that might be handy for someone but basically those pages are finished for now...
Sherie