where to go?
 

I'm interested in soliciting some creative suggestions for where to take my next trip. here are the parameters...
there would be 3 adults travelling. (my DH, my mom, and myself). Mom is over 65, but very healthy and can handle most places...stairs, cobblestones not a big problem.
We would probably be going in August, due to some scheduling issues between the 3 of us.
We want to spend some Euro's that we have, in cash. So no UK locations.
Trip would be about 10 days, so only 2 or 3 locations. My husband has driven in Italy, Greece and England, so a rental car is an option.
We don't want to go back to Greece or Italy or Paris right now. Mom's last trip was Vienna and Salzburg, so lets eliminate those.
Our interests are in art, architecture (castles especially) and history. The older the better...ancient Roman and Greek sites, or even better neolithic.
so where would you go?

Northwest Spain; northwest France. Or both.


Best wishes,

Rex

Trier has some awesome Roman ruins, and you could work out a nice river/castle tour of the Rhine: Cologne, Mainz, Heidelberg, etc.

Also try the Saxony region of Germany for residue of the Holy Roman Empire.

Sounds like Barcelona. Avoid Amsterdam as one has to walk up stairs and back down just to go to the toilet.

You could take the train from Barcelona to Carcassonne to see the castle in the south of France. Less then 40 Euros.

Sounded to me like the Basque Country- both sides of the Border

We enjoyed the castles and neolithic sites in the Dordogne and environs recently.

China cat, can't wait to see what other replies you get as I'm also looking for somewhere to go in August, with similiar criteria.

Wally - two questions for you since you suggested Barcelona. I posted a question a while back about going to Spain in August and basically got told I was out of my mind to consider Spain in August, due to the heat. Have you been to Barcelona in August? Is is tolerable? What about other areas of Spain (Madrid, Seville)? As a point of reference, I was just in Sicily this July and didn't find that heat to be unbearable.

Second question. I've also considered taking the train to Carcassonne from Barcelona. Do you know if the train stops in Besalu? That looks like an interesting place to visit between Barcelona Carcassonne.

thanks for all the suggestions so far. The Dordogne is definitely a possibility, as we've always wanted to see the caves.

but I have to admit I'm intrigued by Barcelona. I've never been to Spain, and don't know a lot about it. Are there wellknown archaeological sites nearby? and I share Isabel's concern, might it be too hot for August?

any other ideas? I'm interested in something unusual. Croatia? Malta? someplace I haven't thought of yet?