2 1/2 month Europe Itinerary in spring

Just a quick thought for now. I wouldn't say Cologne is a little German city. We were glad we went there to see the cathedral but the rest of the city wasn't terribly interesting to us. It was massively bombed in WWII and rebuilt in a not so charming style. I could recommend staying in Koblenz at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine. You could day trip to Cologne and many other places.

The only non-negotiable I have is accessibility to good internet as I will have to work video conferences from my laptop once a week. I hear decent internet is not a problem in Europe. Maybe you can confirm this and give me tips on what extra things I'll need to secure for the best experience....

Do you have the legal right to work in Europe?

Do you have the legal right to work in Europe?

Surely any kind of telecommuting, whether it’s answering work emails, making work phone calls, and taking part in a work videoconference, are always legal activities when you are just tending to your current job intermittently during a vacation.

Do you have the legal right to work in Europe?

the OP is working from Europe not in Europe. What s/he is doing is similar to answering work related emails or participating in a work related conference call while on vacation in Europe, like we all do on occasion.

Thank you Jules. That's very helpful.

And I'm just participating in meetings from work while there, like the others have correctly pointed out. Part of me getting away for so long is allowable as long as I can show up for meetings.

I'm not attached to any of the cities above, so any guidance would be much appreciated. Or even if anyone has any must-do experiences. We like adventurous things- like a good pub where people are known to break out in song or a vineyard or bike tour worth checking out. Or a restaurant that is rustic and beautiful.

Also, my husband is a theologian and loves history & interesting monasteries.

I don't know anything about how much bandwidth is needed to participate in a video conference. I've generally had decent Wi-Fi in my mostly-budget-level hotels, but the speed has varied and I wouldn't be surprised if some of my places were inadequate for your needs. If you were staying in hotels, I'd suggest choosing business-class places and reading all the reviews, with an eye out for Wi-Fi complaints. It's also my practice to advise each hotel that a good Wi-Fi connection is important to me, and it's clear from some comments I received on arrival that some hotels do pay attention to that. Since you prefer Airbnb, which I have never used, I don't have any particular tips to give you. I suppose you could inquire as to the location of the router and the thickness of the walls.

If you're starting in April, you might add Seville or Cordoba to your list of possibilities.

I think Lisbon would be better positioned for day-trips, but perhaps the size of Porto appeals to you more.

Similarly, I'm not sure Aix-en-Provence is the most convenient base for day-trips. It did seem a pleasant place during my day-trip, though there was enough road (tram?) construction going on downtown to be annoying. That was in 2017, so it may all have been complete by now. Other options would be Avignon and Arles. Perhaps also Nimes, though I haven't been there.

Some of your cities are intensely touristy, based on my recent experience in some cases and this forum in others. Are you OK with that? Except for Lauterbrunnen and Cologne, where I've never been, I think every place on your list has very attractive architecture, which for me is a component of "charm". On the other hand, most are not small places, and that is going to be evident to you every single day since you want to stay in the city centers. If size is a concern, you might consider Girona instead of Barcelona and one of the smaller Dutch cities instead of Amsterdam.

Edited to add: Since you mentioned your husband's interest in things religious, maybe look into Erfurt in eastern Germany. It's a university town that survived the war basically intact. The historic center is very nice, and there are some Luther sights you could day-trip to. (Sorry to be vague, but I'm not religious myself.)

I'll second acraven's recommendation of Erfurt. There is a small spring festival on Domplatz in early April. Thuringia's Bach Weeks fall during much of April (if you like Bach). There are multiple Luther sites in/around the area. An interesting museum that is not in most guidebooks is the Topf and Söhne (Topf and Sons) museum, located in the former administrative building of the company that built the ovens for Auschwitz. Weimar and Leipzig are also quite nearby.

Acraven & Dave- thank you!! I love these tips and those smaller towns sound much more appealing. And great activity advice too!

I think Nimes or Montpellier would work well.

I have visited all the places you listed. All are worth visiting, but since you should try not to include too much travel time, I suggest not including Porto, Portugal, since you have no other places near that city. Barcelona is the closest and not at all close. Save that city for another trip, when you should include Lisbon and other places in Portugal as well as NW and/or central Spain.

Provence ( SE France) is wonderful, but Aix is not my favorite place in that area. Avignon, Arles, Nice, Monaco, Cannes, St. Paul de Venice as well as several places on the Rhone River that call for a river cruise.

For Italy, you included Florence and Tuscany as well as Amalfi Coast, but ignored Rome and Venice. Rome is a must see with the Vatican and Sistine Chapel as well as the ancient Roman sites.

We stayed in Interlakken, while in the Lauterbrunnen. Yes, we did the Yungfrau in the Summer and it snowed on the top.

Cologne has the wonderful cathedral and is worth perhaps a day, take it in on your way from Amsterdam to southern Germany.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a must see, but also suggest doing The Romantic Road and include Dinkelsbuhl, Donauwurth, Augsburg down to Fussen and Garmisch.

If you do Vienna, got to do Salzburg and Munich, also consider Budapest.

Did you forget Paris? You shouldn't, as well as London

Much of this has been said before, my take:

good internet as I will have to work video conferences from my laptop once a week. I hear decent internet is not a problem in Europe.

Internet can be intermittent. In a hotel it can have a few dead locations. Not a problem for normal intermittent use, videoconferencing eats bandwidth. With a large number of clients they sometimes restrict bandwidth for each user. It may not be enough.
And Cologne is a big city, that, apart from the Cathedral, suffered a lot of damage in WWII. Dozens of better smaller places to choose.

Porto is an outlier, this may take too much travel to get there and back.
Standard advice: print out a map of Europe, mark on locations, and join them up with the shortest route, then research best travel methods between each (train, car, fly). This may give you ideas for other places, or cause you to drop one or two.

Do you have the legal right to work in Europe?
Surely any kind of telecommuting, . . . ., are always legal activities

That may be true where Tom_MN lives, not necessarily in other countries. It is a bit of a grey area. Attending meetings is usually allowed (though even that requires a visa in some countries), actually earning money is not. You can attend a meeting to plan with a customer, you cannot write a report or work out a cost estimate in your hotel room. If you are being paid (consultancy), that meeting is definitely work.
"the OP is working from Europe not in Europe." - legally they are the same thing.
Conclusion: It is difficult to enforce, but don't make it blatant.

And, since you said "2½ months" and not 3, no need to warn you about the "90 days in any 180" limit for the Schengen Area.

Thanks Tom, Geo, & Chris, I appreciate the thoughts about Porto/Spain, and all the city suggestions. We’ll definitely see Venice & Rome. And Paris is our bookend destination. We have friends in Stockholm who visit us quite a bit and we’d love to see their home city. Especially since my husband is Swedish. So fitting 3-4 days there is a goal too. I have some great tips and methods suggested here. Thanks everyone!

One bit of warning.....some older, "charming" hotels in some areas--like parts of Italy--can have good wifi in one room and practically none in another. It depends on where the WiFi is located and how many stone walls the signal had to pass through.

For the days you have online conferences, you might want to stick to more modern hotels that cater more to business travelers...if available.

That has been my experience.

For your videoconferencing, find out with your work colleagues if participating via telephone/audio wifi would be OK as a fallback.

Most videoconferencing apps I've used allow people to call in by phone, so you could still stay up to date and provide input even if they will not be able to see your face during the meeting.

I've stayed in many 4-star places where bandwidth was pretty poor or intermittent! And I certainly wouldn't trust an Airbnb to be up to a business communication standard.

It is a bit of a grey area.

I don't think what the OP describes is a gray area: she's tending to her current job, and when working it is in the same manner as if she were telecommuting from her home and without local interaction. There's no talk about meeting with anyone face to face, or entering a local workplace.

We have friends in Stockholm who visit us quite a bit and we’d love to
see their home city. Especially since my husband is Swedish. So
fitting 3-4 days there is a goal too.

That is certainly not a problem. But it it's possible you should add a few days to Sweden outside Stockholm as well. If your husband is Swedish he probably knows what to see and where to go, but if you have any specific questions, I might be able to help.

Try to investigate the availability of office hotels, which offer short term (1 - 2 hours) rent.

I think there are many businesses, but I only know of Regus, which I have used for conference rooms.

Just a comment on bandwidth. When we have had poor internet in a location, we tether our phones. Make sure you get a European SIM with plenty of gigabytes and that allows tethering. We bought from EE in the UK and it was superb service.

If Spring includes April, it's a mistake not to plan either Semana Santa in Spain or Seville's April Fair. Late March also has the Fire Festival in Valencia. The weather will be much nicer and the festivals are worth visiting.

Barcelona is the least religious city in the least religious part of Spain. Don't waste too much of Semana Santa there. Visit Zaragosa or Valladolid instead. Most of Spain has celebrations all week. Zaragosa and Valladolid are the most famous in Spain that seem to be ignored by tourist crowds in favor of Seville.

South to North is the way I'd plan too. It gives you the best chance of having nice weather for your trip. You probably can't plan hikes in the Alps before July. The trails will still be snow covered at least into early June.

You can take a direct (3h) train from Paris to Aix-en-Provence and a direct train from Aix-en-Provence to Barcelona (5h) check www.bahn.com for schedules.
From Barcelona you can fly nonstop to Porto on Ryanair for less than $50 (check Skyscanner). From Porto you can fly nonstop to Naples for less than $100 but you need to change planes in Lisbon.
You can take a direct train from Naples to Florence (3h).
To take a train to Lauterbrunnen from Florence, you’ll need to transfer five times, but you can get there in eight hours if the trains are on time. If not, it’ll take longer.
To get from Lauterbrunnen to Jungraujoch requires a transfer (2h).
To get from Lauterbrunnen to Vienna you need to transfer three times and it will take 11h and there isn’t an overnight train, but you can fly nonstop from Zurich for $152.
To get from Vienna to Prague you can take a direct train (4h).
You can fly nonstop from Prague to Cologne for less than $100 or take a train to Rothenburg that requires four transfers taking 7h.
To get from Cologne to Amsterdam costs $101 and requires a connection.
To get from Rothenburg to Amsterdam requires a minimum of three transfers taking 8h.

Re: your internet question. I would suggest bringing a portable WIFI hotspot and set up a VPN before leaving the U.S.

My advice.....

Drop any itinerary.

Instead, each person alternates picking the next destination when you are ready to move on. This gives flexibility for weather and whims that may arise.

There's a risk to traveling without plans when you 1) need rock-solid Wi-Fi and 2) want to spend 1 or 2 weeks at each stop. Last-minute availability of rooms for that length of time cannot be counted on unless you're going somewhere at an unattractive time of year. I travel like that and can tell you that when you start looking for even 4 nights in one city, it gets a lot harder. You often need to find a place that has had a last-minute cancellation, and since few people reserve for more than a few days in the first place, the odds are not so good. There is likely to be something, but it might be quite expensive, or way outside the central part of town. And the Wi-Fi situation on top of that...