Alternate ideas for Europe trip

Krakow to Naples and everything in-between with no focus or time period. I couldn't get my head around that for a second.

While in Brugge, take the train up to Ostend. Only takes about 15 min. and you have this huge, glorious beach. You will find old WW2 emplacements along the dunes here and a boardwalk that stretches for miles. The chocolate is a bit cheaper than in Brugge. People will be flying kites and having fun on the beach.

Galway - go pub-crawling. Go in, stay for a few minutes - if you like the ambiance and the music, stay for a drink. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Prague - day trip to Terezin. It's nothing like the other concentration camps.

Naples - the Archaeology Museum is a wow.

Sunset is pretty late, but Paris, Prague, and Ghent are wonderful after dark. Stay up late. Sleep when you're dead.

Brugge is at its photogenic best very early in the morning! The canals are especially pretty on windless mornings before the boats start churning up the water on the larger of them, and the streets are almost empty. It was my favorite time for walkabouts with the camera.

Thanks for the excellent suggestions, all which have made me more excited about the trip!

Will you be renting a car for any of the trip? A wonderful part of one of my trips was renting a car after a few days in Prague, driving to Krakow (via the bone church) spending a few days there (our hotel had parking... but do not need the car in Krakow) after that we drove to Cesky Krumlov. It was a beautiful drive and very easy. Spend a day or two in this fairytale village, and return the car in Prague. From Krakow we also did do the drive to Auschwitz/Birkenau , but you can take a tour there. We stopped in a number of little villages in CR on our road trip and it was fun to see places that are not your usual tourist towns... did however, have one of our worst meals ever in a little family owned roadside restaurant:) but the experience was worth it.

I just returned from a trip to Vienna and Krakow and was amazed at how much I enjoyed Krakow. The people were so friendly (they seemed to genuinely like Americans), enough English was spoken to get by easily, there were many wonderful historical sites to visit and your money will go a long way. The food was delicious. I spent about three days in the city itself and enjoyed every second. I also visited Auschwitz and did the trip on my own--reserved a tour at the camp, bought a bus (mini) ticket to the camp, visited the camp and returned on the same mini-bus at the end of the day. Easy to do on your own; you don't need an organized tour to get you there. Krakow was one of my favorite cities in all of Europe!

We visited Bruges from Ghent last summer. We also did a daytrip to the battlefields in and around Iper (Ypres). Just an amazing day.

I think you mean alternative ideas NOT alternate ideas.