My mother and I are traveling through Europe from April 27 to May 11. We're flying into Paris and flying out of London. We want to spend three days in France and three in England, and definitely a couple of days in Germany. We're planning to try to slip into either Austria or Switzerland for a day or two--we figure we can create a loop from France to Austria or Switzerland to Germany to England.

We cannot decide between Austria and Switzerland. First, which one do people here recommend and why? Neither of us are drinkers or partiers--we're mainly scenery, castle, and museum people. Does the Eurail pass include the TGV trains? Does our loop sound feasible or ridiculous? Would the best way to get from Germany (haven't hammered out the exact cities we'll be in, sorry) to England by plane, as we assume? Since we only have two weeks, should we just stick to France, Germany, and England, or is there some other conveniently close country that would be better than either Austria or Switzerland?

If anyone has any suggestions or answers they would be appreciated!!! Thank you!

Diana,
I never want to discourage anyone from going to Germany as much as I enjoy it but you may want to study a map. It is a pretty good train ride from Paris to the border of Germany, much less to get to points of interest. Paris to Munich is 516 miles or 7-8 hour driving. However, you can fly within Europe pretty cheaply (see RyanAir.com).

You might want to fly to Munich then take a train, rent car or bus to the Ludwig castles and to Salzburg. Then you could fly back to London.

With only 13-14 days on the ground you might just want to concentrate on London and Paris this trip and plan to do Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the next trip. You don't want to spend all you time in between places.

Aisleseat is right - you'll be sitting on trains rather than getting to be out and about seeing things if you go all the way to Switzerland and Austria for only a few moments.

I suggest you make your Germany trip be to Cologne which has fast access from Paris (under four hours). You can interrupt the journey in Brussels, look at the inner city with the famous Grand' Place, have a sumptuous lunch and carry on to Cologne, Brussels is on the fast Thalys line.

Once you've seen Cologne (the majestic cathedral is right across from the train station), go to nearby Bonn and take a Rhein day cruise, or leave that for the next day. If you find you have time to spare, check out nearby Bruges (3:15 hrs), and there are lots of other picturesque and interesting places to go to in Belgium.

You can go to England via boat from Oostende, just 13 minutes from Bruges, or from Dunkerque, 2-3 hours from Bruges, no need to circle back to Paris.

Staying in those northern areas will be a much more profitable way of using your time than riding endless trains south and southeast to the far-flung Austria and Switzerland for the quickest of glimpses at maybe one or two sites near train stations...

But only you can decide how best to spend your time. Can you get a good map of Europe and compare distances to those at home you're familair with? You'll be surprised how far things can be - even with trains that go 200 miles per hour!

Bon voyage

WK

Is there any chance it's not too late to consider eliminating London and flying home from Frankfurt? That would make your other wishlist targets possible. Say Paris, Lucerne (or Lausanne if Chillon is on your castle list), Salzburg, and on to Bavaria. Just a thought. J.

Thank you all so much for the suggestions! We are definitely keeping England--my mom doesn't know if she'll be able to travel to Europe again, and that's one of her must-see places. I'll speak with her about possibly cutting Germany out of the trip and sticking to a more feasible route. Thanks again!

Belgium and or Holland are more "sensible" destinations to combine with Paris and England than are Austria, Switzerland or even Germany. WK's advice is good. Other easy places to combine with Paris/London are Amsterdam and surrounding towns. Easy train ride from Paris and good flight connections to London.

If you do want to go to the other further destinations check out www.whichbudget.com It's a site with airline connections on many Intra-European cheap airlines. Also check Easyjet and Ryanair. But with only two weeks and Paris and London to see, I'd stick to closer places.

If this is your mom's once in a lifetime European visit, then I don't think you should eliminate any of her big wishes. Keep Germany on the itinerary. There will be some long train rides, but in Europe they are not a penance. Just off the top of my head, think Paris to Lausanne (4 hours), then a long day to Salzburg, then into Germany for your base there. (Or maybe Paris to Zurich, Zurich to Salzburg, etc.) If you use a couple of the rail websites like sbb.ch and http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/ena, you might be able to put together a rough draft. I know good folks here like swandav will do their best to help you fulfill your mom's wishes. J.