Taking a trip to Europe, what do I NEED to see?

meeze

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Meeze
Well, I decided I'd take a trip to Europe for 2-3 months since I've never been. Right now I'm thinking of getting a Eurotrain pass thing and doing a loop in a semi-organized way starting in London and ending up...somewhere.

I'm wondering if any of you have some good recomendations on places to go throughout various countries. I know I'd like to spend bulk amounts or time in England, Spain, and Italy, and don't have much else really planned.

I pretty much thought of this earlier today, so I haven't done much research, but your input would be great.
 
Paris is a pretty cool trip to take if you can. Its a little boring to stay too long, but theres alot of really famous stuff there thats kinda cool to see, like the Louvre(sp) which has the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo(sp) and some others. Notre Dame, and all the other famous buildings there were pretty cool to see as well. Kinda one of those "Yup, I've been to the real thing" places.

Austria was kinda cool as well, especially Salzburg, which had beautiful hills/mountains around it, as well as a really cool fort kinda overlooking the city, and just a nice environment.

Theres an endless supply of enormous Churches in Europe...some have some cool stuff, but eventually they kinda lose the appeal, so I wouldn't go out of the way to see any.

In Spain...if you're there in July, and have a crazy side, the running of the bull in Pamplona, Spain would be a pretty crazy ass thing to do, and quite an experience. Did a quick google and its every morning from the 7th-14th of July.

Haven't been to England, but if they have some crazy football (soccer) games, it might be a blast to check one out. Can't imagine the tickets are too pricey.

Not sure what else....but there are some ideas.
 
I'm going to be back by jul 1st cause my grandma is turning 90 the first week of july.

i'm also wondering if there are any major events happening between now and june in europe that might be cool to check out. I'm not really on much of an agenda. I'm checking out what cities I'd like to visit right now, probably gonna leave next week or the week after.
 
Well if I was to go I'd make my trip swing by the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Of course I'm a huge sports car fan, I'd try to make my days there land on a cool racing day so I could see some sweet stuff you can't see anywhere else.
That's in germany of course.

Oh OH and while I'm thinking of a dream vacation I'd wanna take a tour of the BMW headquarters and drive in a new m5 or m6.

God I'm such a car geek.
 
Capri in Italy is pretty, go see there. Seriously, my favorite place to be in the world (on a beautiful sunny day it's just.. so nice)
 
Watch Hostile then go back-packing through Amsterdam at night.
 
Strid said:
Watch Hostile then go back-packing through Amsterdam at night.

Was planning on watching porn then buying hookers through Amsterdam at night.
 
If you hit Paris there's a bike tour thing you can do that's run by college students from some school in Texas I think it was. Fat Tire Bike Tours is the name I think.... Not sure how you sign up, my parents took care of all of that. I did a 2 day trip with them and the first day they take the group around Paris and you hit the sights there, ending the tour (around 5ish hours) on a huge boat ride in the river around the city which was pretty awesome. The second day we took a train out to the country and rode around some more sights out there to like... Napoleon's house or something, heh. This was like all like 2 years ago, so I'm sure the tour has changed since then =)

I went to England as well but it was just all castles and museums over and over again. Fun for the first 2-3 days but then it gets old. But I definately recommend the bike tour if you want to see some of the main sights in a few days.
 
UK: London
France: Paris
Spain: Seville, Barcelona, Madrid
Italy: Florence, Venice, Rome
Switzerland: Geneva, Zurich
Austria: Vienna
Hungary: Budapest
Romania: Bucharest
Bulgaria: Sofia
Greece: Athens
Ukraine: Kiev
Czech Rep: Prague
Sweden: Stockholm
Norway: Oslo
Denmark: Copenhagen
Germany: Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt
Netherlands: Amsterdam
Belgium: Brussels

These are some of the cities I'm thinkng I'd stop by. I know cities like Paris, Rome, Venice, Madrid, Amsterdam, etc I'm going to spend more time than others.

Any spots I'm missing from my list?

Anything I should do while in these cities?

Definitely looking for nightlife in cities where I'm more likely to chill at for a bit.
 
How do you resist the temptation of not just staying in amsterdam the whole time? ... or for the rest of your life?

Willpower +1.

Enjoy the trip Meeze. :)
 
meeze said:
UK: London
France: Paris
Spain: Seville, Barcelona, Madrid
Italy: Florence, Venice, Rome
Switzerland: Geneva, Zurich
Austria: Vienna
Hungary: Budapest
Romania: Bucharest
Bulgaria: Sofia
Greece: Athens
Ukraine: Kiev
Czech Rep: Prague
Sweden: Stockholm
Norway: Oslo
Denmark: Copenhagen
Germany: Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt
Netherlands: Amsterdam
Belgium: Brussels

These are some of the cities I'm thinkng I'd stop by. I know cities like Paris, Rome, Venice, Madrid, Amsterdam, etc I'm going to spend more time than others.

Any spots I'm missing from my list?

Anything I should do while in these cities?

Definitely looking for nightlife in cities where I'm more likely to chill at for a bit.

Meh, I'm not a big fan of London personally but I suppose its good to visit once. I think you should look at visiting Scotland or Ireland tho, Dublin and Edinburgh are good visits.
 
Mokk said:
How do you resist the temptation of not just staying in amsterdam the whole time? ... or for the rest of your life?

Willpower +1.

Enjoy the trip Meeze. :)

Well, even though I don't smoke or do other drugs, the hookers and booze may be enough to keep me there a while, I'm planning on that being near the end of my trip so that even if my train pass runs out, I'll be in a place I like.

Galaika said:
Meh, I'm not a big fan of London personally but I suppose its good to visit once. I think you should look at visiting Scotland or Ireland tho, Dublin and Edinburgh are good visits.

I'll add em both, I made that list just looking at the overall map of Europe, and the places that the rail runs.

I know Ireland I'll want some beer and potatoes, any points of interest you'd recommend. Probably do a day or two in each city my first go around, then possibly set up camp in one of the places (Amsterdam, or a nice beach location) for a few weeks to get a better feel for that area.
 
meeze said:
and doing a loop in a semi-organized way starting in London and ending up...somewhere.
First stop would have to be Paris, after that Amsterdam, check out Club Vandersexxx for sure, and then Bratislava, Berlin, and Rome. That should keep you busy. ;)

Other than that, it really depends on your interest. History, art, clubbing, etc.
 
I'm trying to build up to a party mode by the end of the trip ending somwhere near when I end up in amsterdam. I want to do the whole siteseeing stuff out of the way, while I build up my alcohol tolerance up again :)

By the end of month 2 of drinking, I should be ready to get down in Germany and Amsterdam. Then I'll sleep for a couple days, and have some Belgium waffles.
 
I hooped in Sweden for a summer. awesome awesome place, I thought Stockholm was amazing. That is the only place I can speak to.
 
Watch your stuff in Rome and London and such. Pickpocket people love tourists. And you should still go to Capri, I'd say :P really nice there, cool roman fort on top of one of the hills on the island. It's by Pompei/Naples.
 
When in the southern countries of Europe there is a peice of advice that can be passed on from my dad to me that I'll never forget, and neither should you.

If someone throws a baby at you, swat it to the ground.

Thats right, a not so common trick anymore, but and old favorite of gypsies used to be to throw and infant into the arms of a tourist and when they catch it, pick their pockets and steal anything there isn't an iron grip on. It's deffinately one of the most bold moves in theivery to date, and in reality, someone who uses to infant child [although it is sometimes just a doll] as a prop in their crimes doesn't need to be producing.

Take a stand and swat it to the ground.

On a more happy note, be sure to visit Ireland, I have been told Guiness tastes better the closer you get.
 
My buddy went alone to Europe for a couple months. He's like me, barfly, northern Californian (from SF). He went everywhere and said he liked Paris (handsdown) the best.

I don't know but Amsterdam just sounds lame to me. I rarely smoke weed anymore, I drink, but if I am going to get wasted and fuck hookers I can just walk to the end of my street. If I was to do that in Europe I would goto Poland and get some nasty ones. You can tell them Polock jokes and they won't understand, that would be classic. Some friends of mine went to Amsterdam and got ripped off , but they are street dumb. One got hit by a car, that cracked me up. Some good art museums there though.
 
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