Be careful, there's a "legionella" epidemic outbreak right now. News report 160 dead. Look up in the news. It's especially bad in the Lisbon area, but I think Portugal is a "no-go" right now, perhaps Spain too.
Perhaps now is not a good time to travel to Portugal.

News reports give around 90 people with the bug and 1 dead. These appear to be in the Lisbon area only and don't affect the rest of the country. Not to go to Spain is nonsensical.

I wouldn't worry about the legionella. It's 5 dead and 160 sick. This disease usually comes from a water cooling system of some kind, like air conditioning. I wouldn't worry about it--they've identified the source, so it's now easy to fix.

Anyways, I'm so jealous. I backpacked with a BF around Europe in, get this, 1970-71! For nine months. We carried backpacks, but that was because we did a lot of hitchhiking, as well as taking the odd train and later car. We started in the U.K., then Amsterdam and Paris and southern France, then headed as far south as possible during the depths of winter--we spent a month in the Costa del Sol in Spain, and Morocco, just trying to stay warm. Then we skirted around the Med. and up through northern Italy to Munich and picked up a car (a VW--cost $200, purchase) then did some skiing in Austria. We then hightailed it down to Greece until it warmed up in May, then back up through Italy, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Scotland.

If I was doing it now, I'd definitely do a rollaboard, not a backpack. And I'd spend some money on clothing--get the best lightweight cold-weather gear you can afford, plus make sure it cuts the wind and the rain. If you are wearing your warmest clothing while you are travelling, then you should be able to pack reasonably light.

I'd also advice skipping Zurich, especially in winter. And try to streamline the trip a little bit and slow down--you're going too fast! In nine months there were all kinds of places we just didn't get to see because we didn't have time!!

Any reason why you're not including Italy?

Zurich is also very very expensive and leaves many folks, especially in winter I would think, non-plussed.

You're hitting the cities but none of the quaint villages or towns that can really give you a feel of the country.

Skip Zürich. Fly from Vienna to London. Add a small town along the way.

Thanks for getting back to me about the sickness, i'll look into it and evaluate if I should adjust my plans. Thanks for sharing your advice, WWanderer. It is interesting to hear other peoples experiences. We are not going to Italy because we went there last summer! I have added dublin, and taken out Zurich from my travel plans. Also, I will be staying with a friend in salzburg and he will take me to munich and inssbruck.

I've been in Zurich a lot, in winter and I always liked it.

Now Dublin.... horrible city imo, but mileages vary, I understand that.

The area bordering the Limat, West, was run down for many years, but has become very interesting over the last decade.