i wasn't aware of the night trains. wonder what international flights out of munich look like if i amsterdam-berlin-munich.

i've heard the nightlife in berlin is unsurpassed in all of europe except maybe for barcelona.

Your latest plan looks pretty good -- but, I would skip Munich and add those days to Berlin and Amsterdam. If you love nightlife, you'll love both of those places. Munich is lovely, but something's gotta give... Perhaps then you could fly on a low-budget airline from Amsterdam to Berlin?

I love Bruges and think 3 days is good, especially if you love Belgian beer. I'd maybe swap Brussels for Antwerp or Ghent.

And, my packing rule of thumb is: pack for a week (carry on only) and do laundry. Make sure you can carry your bags easily...you will be grateful when/if you have to run to catch a train/bus or climb stairs.

Have fun. You'll be hooked on Europe soon, like the rest of us.

I actually found, from where we live in the states, it is easier and cheaper to fly out of Munich than Berlin.

Berlin does have great night life.

You can look up train options on bahn.de, it can be changed to english and has train times all over Europe. The schedule only goes 90 days out I believe.

I buy my tickets 90 days out on bahn.de for the biggest discounts. You can print them off and it's a very user friendly site.

We have flown into Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt - wherever the fare is best.

We are near SFO and flights to Munich are easier for us than to Berlin too.

my girlfriend and i are chronic overpackers (we brought 5 bags for a 1 week caribbean cruise last year) but i've discussed the need to remedy that for the trains/hostels/low budget hotels. i still want to check a bag to bring things over 3 oz. in liquid back (such as some belgian beer), but no more than that!

is the consensus that railpasses are the way to go or to just point-to-point?

When you're in Antwerp; don't miss the just-opened MAS museum; amazing building, and it's done wonders for the entire neigbourhood ('t Eilandje).
http://visit.antwerpen.be/bze.net?id=1470
Lots of cafés in the area as well. And if Strantwerpen, the 'beach in the city' is still open, have a drink there.

For the rail pass vs point to point decision, you basically just have to look up your routings and add up the cost for point to point and compare. I think that because you are younger, you can get the cheaper passes, which means that a pass will work out better more often than it would if you were older - but you'll still have to make the comparison.