overnight train rides for younger folk can be really memorable events - especially if they are bent towards partying a bit - i've see lots of 20s types staying up most of the night just having a great time - they will meet others their age from all over doing the same.

I agree the itinerary is much improved, and expect that one night in Brugge would do you, whiich I would add to either Paris or Berlin.

Paris Amsterdam, Berlin with visiting friends in Switzerland would make a great 1 month trip.

1. Winter, seriously, anytime. You get to snow by going up in altitude.

2. I would go 4 places, and stay one week in each place. But that's just me.

3. You have to know where you're going to evaluate a rail pass, what sort, if any, would be good. For 4 cities in 4 weeks, I think buying point-to-point 2nd class tickets after you are in Europe is easiest.

4. Can you fit enough changes of warm clothes into a backpack? Yes of course you can. You only need a couple changes of 'inner' clothes, and wear the same 'outer' jacket, hat, gloves, etc. every day.

5. How much should we expect to pay? I think you need minimum of 50 euro per person per day. If you're talking train tickets, a few nice meal, Disney, etc. more like 75+ euro is reasonable. As already suggested read The Thorn Tree at www.lonelyplanet.com where many more backpacker-type travelers post.

Oh sorry, I hadn't read thru the entire thread before posting. I see you are already much further along in your trip planning and itinerary than in your OP. Sorry.

Hi lyra895,
You can definitely do the food part on 40 euros a day for the two of you. We did three months traveling around Europe staying in a mix of B&B, hotels and apartments. We averaged 35 US (52 euros) a day for food for the two of us. We had breakfast at our accommodations where available.

We stopped in a grocery store late morning to pick up lunch fixings and then ate in a park somewhere. It was a great way to save money and plus it gave us some down time from visiting the sights. We did the same for dinner occasionally. We ate out several nice dinners also but nothing super expensive.

You will have a fantastic time. In Lauterbrunnen we stayed in an apt but there is a hostel that looked nice on the main street (only street!) in town. It is connected to the laundromat. Switzerland food is definitely more expensive than the other countries we visited.

For our entire 97 day trip we spent just under 30,000 US dollars (including a lease car $3000, but not airfare from the US) so even with the exchange rate we did great I think. And, we had a trip of a lifetime. You will too.

Happy planning,
Michele

If you eat only in restaurants, proper sit down restaurants, then these are IME much more costly than equivalent ones in the U.S.

But supermarket fare, though a bit more, is not nearly so much more than in U.S.

And supermarkets have lots of prepared take out deli foods and salads these days - nice thing about basing is that you can buy a substantial amount of food and keep in your accommodation

And in places like Switzerland, Holland, British B&Bs etc the breakfast that comes along in the price often is often an un-limited buffet that will keep you satiated for many hours. Do not however IMO do what i think Rick Steves once suggested - fill your fanny pack with items from the breakfast buffet- definitely not nice nor fair IMO