Planning our next adventure for May, 2014. DH wants to go to London, I want to go to Berlin. Trying to pick out where to go in addition. We've got 10 days and are planning to spend two of them in London....have been there previously and will be having a quick visit with some friends. Will probably spend four in Berlin. We've heard Bruges is pretty cool, not sure on Brussels.

Any thoughts or suggestions on what to do with the remaining four days? We're not opposed to flying to a different spot.

To narrow it down a bit, we'd probably consider Bruges/Brussels, Budapest, Florence, Krakow, Austria. I know it seems all over the proverbial board, but tried picking some places we haven't been on previous trips.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/opinions, they're much appreciated.

I would choose between Krakow and Budapest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...th/7610072416/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...th/4186910508/

I'd go somewhere outside London and/or somewhere outside Berlin. With ten days you don't really have time to go to three distant destinations.

<i>three distant destinations</i>

Plane flights shrink the distances.

I realize that, but you'll spend the better part of a day in the airports getting into and out of the third locale.

Now you could try a trip my spouse and I have thought of from time to time, which is taking a ferry from SE England to Rotterdam and the train to Bruges. Then train to Brussels and fly to Berlin.

dwdvagamundo - what ferry did you take from SE England to Rotterdam?

<i>which is taking a ferry from SE England to Rotterdam and the train to Bruges.</i>

Which takes longer than flying from Berlin to Krakow and assumes that one wants to spend a few hours on a ferry. Taking the train from London to Calais and then from Calais to Bruges would probably be faster.

Haven't taken one, but we've looked at it. Part of the attraction to us would be seeing the Port of Rotterdam. Looking at this online (i.e. rationally) shows the ferry leaves from Hull, which is not in the SE. One goes from Harwich to the Hook of Holland.

Michael--Part of the attraction is the ferry.

We did the ferry in 2010 and I wrote a trip report you may be interested in

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-adventure.cfm

Www.seat61.com also provides the logistics I included in my report

Thanks for the insight. I think we'll skip the train/ferry/port of Rotterdam. There are other places I think we'd rather see.

That said, not sure yet where we should go. Budapest and Krakow look great. Need to sit down and review some logistics.

Michael - your pictures are great. What did you like best about each spot?

Budapest is a larger city, has more to offer in terms of museums. But I may be biased because the main museum in Krakow was closed when we were there. On the other hand, Krakow has more of the old charm many people seek when going to Europe and has more excursions of high interest than Budapest (the salt mines and Auschwitz). If doing London and Berlin, I would choose Krakow as a change of pace.

I've only been to Florence and Krakow out of your list (well, I was in Salzburg once but I was just a girl and don't remember). Either would make a nice visit for four days. If you are at all interested in the Italian Renaissance, Florence wins hands down. However, I visited Krakow for the first time last month and found it utterly delightful.

Check skyscanner.com and see what the flight schedules look like.

Thanks all for your insight. Still not sure what to do, but we have plenty of time to sort it out.

I preferred Bruge to Brussels. However, I would put Florence, Krakow, and Budapest above them in that order. There are cheap nonstop flights Berlin-Krakow, not the other two.