Hi there folks,
My girlfriend and I are in the early stages of planning a roughly 5-week trip across Europe for the upcoming spring. We've done a decent chunk of research on Fodor's and elsewhere and seem to have come up with what a basic sort of roadmap for what we would like to do and see.
A little about us first; we're both in our early 20's (although we probably have more in common with a pair of 70 year olds), we're not much into the partying or club scene, would much rather have a quiet evening in a nice pub or cafe than spend the night out at a club. We're very much into exploring the culture, architecture, and natural beauty of a city and tend to shy away from the more typical "touristy" type attractions. Although we enjoy learning the history of our destinations, that's usually not the main focus of our trips. Museums and the like usually stay off our short-list; walking the streets and talking to the locals is usually what we find ourselves doing instead.
One of the reasons for this trip (although not the only) is that my girlfriend and I are planning to take our graduate studies overseas in a years time, we'd like to scout out some viable options before we make a commitment to a school in a place we've never been. This means not only do we have to plan for nice vacation cities, we're also planning on places that we may call home for a few years.
Obviously the caliber of the Universities will be a strong consideration when choosing where we'll eventually end up for school, but for the sake of this thread, I'd like to leave that out and focus on the cities and this trip itself.
Anyways, here's the (tentative) itinerary:
Flying out of either Vancouver or Calgary (either city can be easily accomplished)
Arrive in London (Should be sometime in late April)
~1 week in London area
Train to Paris (~2.5 hours)
~1 week in Paris
Train to Amsterdam (~3.5 hour)
~1 week in Amsterdam
Train to Berlin (~6 hours)
~1 week in Berlin
Train to Copenhagen (~7 hours)
~1 week in Copenhagen
Fly back home to Canada (Late May or early June)
Beyond this, there will probably 1 or 2 yet to be determined day trips from each city.
So now I ask for advice from you Fodorites, are there are any glaring errors or innefficienies with this plan? Are there other cities or places we must see or should consider along this general route? Should we stay longer in some cities, shorter in others? We're very flexible in regards to both time and money so please feel free suggest at will. We've both spent some time in Europe before but never tried to cover this amount of ground, really any amount of advice or suggestions you can offer will be very much appreciated.
I know I wrote a bit of novel here so I'd really like to thank anyone who takes the time to read through this thread and reply.
Thanks again,
-C
5 Weeks in Northwestern Europe
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It may be cheaper to fly from Amsterdam to Berlin, if cost is a consideration. Taking the train to Copenhagen may mean a change in Hamburg. It might be more interesting to get to Copenhagen via a ferry on the Baltic, if that is possible.
Couple of thoughts and queries as I've been looking further into this.
Would it be worth it to make a few day stop in Belgium on route to Amsterdam? Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp all seem to have a certain appeal, if we did decide to go this route which city would you devote your time to?
Stopping in Hamburg instead of Berlin would seem to be a more efficient choice on route to Copenhagen as it cuts off a few hours of train time. I have a feeling I know the answer to this but could Hamburg and a few extra hours not spent on a train be worth the sacrifice of Berlin?
I was also thinking of maybe adding Edinburgh to the start of this trip, would this be possible without too much backtracking and added travel time? Would it even be worth it or would our time be better spent on the list of cities I already have planned?
From what I've been reading, Stockholm seems to have a couple of good schools and is a beautiful, interesting city, looking as if it wouldn't be too difficult as a Canadian expat either. I figure this could be added to the end of the trip but is it worth the trouble? 6 hour train ride from Copenhagen, plus it may make finding flights home a little more difficult.
I realize I'm sort of talking to myself here but typing it all out seems to help me organize my thoughts, hopefully someone can chime in here too.
Thanks in advance
Ahh, maybe I'm not talking to myself. Thanks for the reply Michael.
When travelling in Europe my mind now goes straight to train travel when getting between two cities but I think you may be right here. These more spread out Northerly cities may make more sense by air. I'll have to look into that more.
OP "Would it be worth it to make a few day stop in Belgium on route to Amsterdam? Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp all seem to have a certain appeal, if we did decide to go this route which city would you devote your time to?"
Absolutely - Amsterdam could not fill 7 days for me, perhaps with some day trips to Delft, Leiden, Utrecht, etc. it could, but Brugge is even better than those options.
OP "Stopping in Hamburg instead of Berlin would seem to be a more efficient choice on route to Copenhagen as it cuts off a few hours of train time. I have a feeling I know the answer to this but could Hamburg and a few extra hours not spent on a train be worth the sacrifice of Berlin?"
Efficient, yes, and I like Hamburg, but as an alternative to Berlin when you are that close - I would not do it.
OP "I was also thinking of maybe adding Edinburgh to the start of this trip, would this be possible without too much backtracking and added travel time? Would it even be worth it or would our time be better spent on the list of cities I already have planned?"
That is a long way to go for a couple of days, then back to London. London certainly has enough to keep you occupied for a week, too. If you really feel it, perhaps you could fly from Edinburgh ( or Glasgow - its easy to get to the airport from Edinburgh) to Paris.
OP "From what I've been reading, Stockholm seems to have a couple of good schools and is a beautiful, interesting city, looking as if it wouldn't be too difficult as a Canadian expat either. I figure this could be added to the end of the trip but is it worth the trouble? 6 hour train ride from Copenhagen, plus it may make finding flights home a little more difficult."
I don't know about the schools I stayed here in the GWN. Why would Stockholm be harder to return from than CPH? SAS and Lufthansa are in the Star Alliance with Air Canada and the connections ot both CPH and ARN are easy through London and Frankfurt. How were you planning to get back from CPH that makes ARN more difficult?
OP "I realize I'm sort of talking to myself here but typing it all out seems to help me organize my thoughts, hopefully someone can chime in here too."
Kooooo loo-kookoo Koo-loo-kookoo!!!
"Thanks in advance"
No problem, eh.
I guess you know your subjects so not easy to advise on schools. A fair bit of my family are in life long education and find Berlin, Cambridge, Oxford as their cornerstones, though Pisa (a tiny university) has its merits.
Glasgow University, Mrs Bilbo has a piece of paper from there, looks fine to me and the architecture (and the social mores behind it) are interesting but... as Mrs Pond in Doctor Who said, when being accused of being aggressive, "what part of Scottish don't you understand"
I would not substitute Hamburg for Berlin. If you take the train from Berlin to Copenhagen you will GET a "ferry experience" since the train will be loaded onto the ferry at Puttgarden for the 45-minute crossing. That entire trip can take more than 6 hours. OTOH you can fly direct Berlin-Copenhagen using EasyJet. But if you are using a railpass it might make more sense to do it by rail.