Overlooking
 

I'm going to be in Prague, maybe Vienna, maybe Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, and possibly some other places in these areas...does anyone have any advice as far as commonly overlooked 'must see's'? For instance, if I were in Koln, Germany, and I didn't visit the house that Beethoven grew up in, I would be upset with myself afterwards. Can anybody think of a list or even one or two places/scenes that could be easily overlooked?

Yes, I do understand. Whenever I'm in Köln, I too feel sorry not being able to visit the house Beethoven grew up in. Anyway.

I think you are going to miss a lot - it can't be helped if you are visiting that many places in a short period. Even with more time, there's so much to see. I'd focus instead on making a top two or three for each city, and accept the inevitable.

I did see Beethoven's house and it was mildly interesting, and Bonn was enjoyable, but I'd put it down as a low-key attraction. I'd prioritize Aachen over Bonn. (Although I notice you didn't ask about Cologne anyway, except to use it as an example!)

I generally think the Rough guide has a lot of that information, you might want to visit your local book store.

I just realized that I wrote incorrectly, and that Beethoven's childhood home was in Bonn, not Koln. Either way, I like the idea of picking the main places that I know I'd like to visit (in or around the cities), and sticking with these (unless I some become aware of other destinations during my travels)...

I don't think the Mucha Museum in Prague is totally overlooked but if someone were on a tight schedule they might leave it off the list, although I found it very interesting and an easy walk from the center of the old town. If I remember correctly (which often isn't the case) the Imperial Hotel is right around the corner--incredible, immaculate art deco interior. We walked through to see the public areas and also had a coffee in the bar.

Well worldview at this point you are not even sure where you will be visiting. After you get that somewhat narrowed down you can ask for suggestions here, Google the places that you plan to visit, go to your Public Library and check out some travel books or go to a book store and look through their travel books and buy any that you would like to have for further research.

Given your specific example, you might want to check out places associated with Chopin in Warsaw:

http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/w...inswarsaw.html

http://www.chopin.pl/zabytki/muzeum/muzeum-en.html

if in prague make the day trip to cesky krumlov
scores will tell you that you need more than a day but we did it by train and were ecstatic to have wiped the grime of prague for a day

in vienna head for the woodlands..the low lying hills just on the verge of the city
kahlenburg grinzig leopold
theyre really nice spots that we are really glad we saw
easy to get there from the city by train and then bus 38A
we got off at Heligenstadt to catch this bus which comes every ten minutes
nice walk between the villages