30-40 days in Europe, DIY

My initial advice is not to go in the summer with the heat and crowds. Can you travel in the spring or fall?

I can only suggest that you get several guidebooks from your library, and do a LOT of online research over the next year to narrow down your choices of places to visit. Assuming those 40 days do not count the one week each way for your transatlantic cruises, that only gives you 5 days in each country. And that does not include the travel time required to get from place to place, which by train could be 1/2 to 1 full day. So read, read, read, and watch videos (either Rick's or on You Tube) to decide which places YOU are most interested in, and then proceed with developing an itinerary.

And I agree that summer is not a great time to be doing this.

OP here…I think fall is an option, so good advice there. And yes, the time over and back is apart from the 30-40 days.

Ronald,
I concur with Pat. If possible, go from late April to mid-June for the weather and for fewer crowds. Of course, I am aware that it depends on the transatlantic sailings that are available. Whenever you do go, please opt for the 40 days in Europe (and longer if possible). You have listed 8 countries. At 40 days, that gives you five days per country, not counting the time traveling between them. Figure it could take a day to check out of lodgings, get to the train station, train time, get to new lodgings and check in, and you will have probably a few hours in the late afternoon or evening at your new location. Now you are down to 4 full days per country on average.

I suggest you take the time to figure out what you want to do and/or see in each country and prioritize your plans based on that. You may find that you will trim your list of countries to visit, or trim what you see and do within them. In your time frame I would expect you to mostly stay in one city per country (in general). Also, try to see what options you will have for train travel. If going from major cities and towns (e.g. Paris to Amsterdam) your options would be quick and many. In other cases, a lot of the day will be spent on the train. It just depends on your route.

Over 50 years ago hubby and I visited the same 8 countries (plus Vatican City and a toe put into Scotland) over 4 months. We picked up our VW there and drove it all over for 3 months, then shipped it back to the states. That took a month, so our last month in Europe was carless. With that trip in mind, I have a lot of understanding of your plans to see as much as possible in your time frame. We were much younger and fitter, could get about quickly, and had the time available, so we got to know many countries. We also did it on the cheap, sometimes sleeping in our VW bug, or in a farmer's field in the super cheap sleeping bags we bought in Marseille. We used Frommer's "Europe on Five and Ten Dollars a Day". We even had one room for $3.00 for the night! We stretched about $3000.00 over 4 months for everything (food, lodgings, gas, entrance fees, tolls) and had a ball, but today, with 40 days, I personally would opt for no more than 4 countries, maybe 5. As I said above, take a look at what you want to get from each country and see if it is possible in your time frame.

I wish you all the best for a fabulous trip! And who knows, maybe it won't be the only one!

Congratulations on your retirement! Are you counting the days yet? And what a wonderful trip! I've often wondered how I would structure long-term travel like this, as I've only ever been away for 2-week stints. I think you may need to plan for one day each week of complete downtime, as in staying in the neighborhood of your hotel/apartment, not doing too much sightseeing. Let your bodies recover. And train travel days don't count as downtime.

I'm looking forward to how your trip planning evolves!

Ronald,
I see fall is an option. Great. One hint is to try to time it before daylight savings ends, if you can. Days will be getting shorter, so with DST it won't be as dark as 6:00 p.m. as in Standard time. This, of course, only really matters about the open hours of various sights to see.
(I do realize the days aren't longer, but open/closing hours will reflect the daylight.)
And for September, that is the most expensive month for hotels in Paris, so try to avoid it then.

OP again…for us it’s more about seeing the various cities vs. trying to see all the sights in them if that makes sense. We are fine seeing the top 2 or 3 things in each city and then just walking around taking everything in.

Glad to see you are planning to do autumn rather than summer. As you check the cruise sites you may be able to find a relatively low cost repositioning cruise traveling from the Med back to the US.

Some thoughts...
If you can, plan your travels to flow from West to East and North to South as you cross Europe, avoid backtracking as it often burns travel days
Spend a couple of days in Southampton and the south coast of England before heading to London
In France, see Normandy and Mont St Michel
In every city, take full advantage of busses and metros to cut down on your daily steps
Pack light, layer, do laundry

Have a great trip

OP again…for us it’s more about seing the various cities vs. trying to see all the sights in them if that makes sense. We are fine seeing the top 2 or 3 things in each city and then just walking around taking everything in.

You should look for towns that are compact and WALKABLE and of course attractive/interesting.

London is not walkable. In London and other big cities you will sometimes walk harsh distances just to get to the Tube/subway and to access the platforms. So you can wander a neighborhood or two, but look into bus tours to see the sights.

Walkable city ideas: Many options... Bruges, Delft, Nuremberg, Salzburg, and Zug come to mind.

Seven countries in a month? That’s a lot of travel in what you might discover is a short time. Dig up RS guides to get you focused on what interests you and where you might want to linger. With some study you can make the trip about what appeals to you rather than the contingent here telling you what to do. Then the knowledgeable travelers here can suggest how to fine tune your plans.

I think you should give serious thought to whether or not Belgium is a priority. I have been to every one of the countries you listed and Italy alone deserves a minimum of 10 days to even see the "Big 3" cities. You may want to consider the difficulty involved in navigating all those steps in Venice.

Welcome to the forum! It is wonderful that you are planning ahead for your trip. This is a good time to go to the library and get some books on the various countries you would like to visit. At this stage of the game, keep an open mind and just gather information. Then you can start making a list of places you want to visit, 30-40 days seems like a lot, but even if you spend 2-3 nights in each location, it is a maximum of about 15 stops, ideally less. I highly recommend the DK Eyewitness books for the lovely pictures (photos and illustrations) and see what appeals. What makes you take this trip? Are you interested in castles, museums, mountains, history, food? Please feel free to ask more questions as your planning advances.