Considering 2 months Europe 2016-how to split the time or should I?

Week 1 - London
Week 2 - Holland
Week 3 - Belgium
Week 4 - Paris and Normandy
Week 5 - Basel (major rail hub)
Week 6 - Salzburg
Week 7 - Verona
Week 8 - Florence (or Bologna)

I wish I could take two months at a time to see Europe! What a great trip!

I find it curious that much of your time will be spent in places you've already been. If you're a cold war buff, you should consider eastern Europe for at least part of your trip. And not just Prague, which is about as far west as you can go in eastern Europe. How about the former Yugoslavian countries, or Poland, or the Baltic states? Given your love of history, natural beauty, and water, I would definitely recommend Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Montenegro. And I hear Bulgaria and Romania are also beautiful, though I haven't been.

Basing for 2-3 weeks in Florence is a good way to OD on art if that's an issue for you. Yes, there's also beautiful countryside and charming hilltowns to explore, but I'm not sure what you want to see and do there for 2-3 weeks that fits with the interests you describe.

You've spent more time in Europe than I have, so it's hard to give you better suggestions than this without a better understanding of what you intend to do with your time. Seven days is a lot of time to spend in many locales. Are you looking to relax and enjoy your surroundings with a good book and a glass of good wine? Or do you want to go hiking? See traditional tourist attractions? Find places that aren't in most of the guidebooks? Try to blend in and live like a temporary local? (I would add lie on the beach, but I'm not sure how much of an option that is in September/October.)

It seems you already have a good idea of what you want to see and do. Maybe sit down with a map and put it together into an itinerary and then you'll be able to figure out how to fill out your 8 weeks.

I'm jealous too! And I also wonder why you're planning on so much time in areas you've already visited. If I had two weeks for a trip, I would likely re-visit some places I have been too and love, but the majority of my time would be in places that were new.

Also, consider what percentage of your time you want to spend in cities, or large cities, vs. towns and the countryside.

Perhaps develop a theme of sorts for your travels. For example, WWII sites in each location, or the Cold War, focusing on museums like the , or the works of one artist (Vermeer, or Bosch, or some other artist whose works you can kind of track down), or a certain type of artifact (on one trip, my son and I saw the Code of Hammurabi in Paris, then the Rosetta Stone and Magna Carta in London). It might give you some order to your thoughts as you plan.

Hi,

Where did you live in Germany exactly in the Frankfurt area? Great that you'll be solo on this 8 week trip. Are you going to Berlin for the historical "stuff" and seeing more of the city? If so, numerous esoteric places connected with the war I could suggest for you to track down. My trip in 2009 was almost like your projected trip. In 2009 I went solo for 9 weeks, which is good in terms of having time to pace yourself, setting aside so called time to relax, ie down time in a small town, not rushing through museums, most definitely not history museums. Which areas are you interested in as regards to tracking down war sites...the lower Rhine, Alsace, Normandy, the Greater Berlin area, especially if you read German? On going to Prague: the American Monument on the war is in Pilsen

I'm with Lane in suggesting that you look East this time. I think that you would love Slovenia & Croatia. Seriously consider Budapest, Krakow and Salzburg as well as Prague.

Fairly recently, I was solo in Europe for several weeks from late Sept. to early December. I combined train with cheap flights.

A hodge-podge of 'connect-the-dots' using cheap airlines sometimes makes more sense for criss-crossing Europe, than any 'linear' progression. Example: cheap flight from London to Krakow, cheap flight to Bergamo from Krakow, trains in Italy, cheap flight Rome to Prague, etc., etc..

Consider also Sicily - lots of WWII history there. There are cheap air links between Catania or Palermo with Germany, for example. I will be on a cheap direct flight from Florence to Catania in January myself.

Croatia and Slovenia are absolutely beautiful in the Fall. You can fly to Bari from Catania or train to Bari from Rome or Venice, then take a ferry to Croatia. Ljubljana is an easy train ride away from Austria or Budapest.

Use a website like SkyScanner to play around and find the various odd routes that cheap airlines use for direct flights - you would be quite surprised at what you can find!

Here's what I do: I pick a random date a couple of months from today's date. Then I put in one city that I definitely want to include, ie Prague or Berlin. Then I choose either 'everywhere' or 'Italy', direct flights, and see what pops up. I seriously would not have guessed that I could fly for 20 euros from
Krakow to Bergamo.

Finally, all you need is a car for a few days here and there... a rental car is your friend in Normandy, Sicily, Tuscany/Umbria, and Croatia. You don't even need a car for your entire time in these areas either.

Have fun!

If you haven't been in the UK outside London, you should certainly look beyond. Dover Castle has tunnels honeycombed inside the famous white cliffs where they mounted guns during WWII and tried to anticipate the invasion that never came. Besides its own attractions, York is surrounded by beautiful countryside, and there's a scenic train ride through the moors to Whitby(?) on the North Sea coast. Further north, Hadrian's Wall is scenic as well as historic. You can take a bus more or less along it, with many stops, so you don't have to drive. In fact, a stretch of the wall could be a great hike, maybe with a night or two in pubs on the way. You could even get to Edinburgh, full of interest and a base for a Rabbie's tour into the highlands -- though you'll be taking chances with weather in the fall.

With due respect to Belgium and my ancestral Netherlands, I'd run out of things to do in two weeks there. Especially if you're giving Paris only four nights and haven't been there in decades (if I read your post right). Spend longer there, take some of the Paris Walks featuring WWII themes, visit the Leclerc and Jean Moulin museums above Gare Montparnasse, and the Shoah memorial in the Marais. Note all the plaques where people died or were deported, and how they're worded to acknowledge in recent years the French role in some of the Nazis' misdeeds. In Amsterdam, see the Dutch Resistance Museum, very thoughtful exhibits about different people's responses to occupation, not always heroic.

And I'd agree with several other posters about Prague and Vienna and Budapest, especially Prague and Budapest for Cold War history. Budapest's House of Terror (misleading name, sounds like a Halloween thing) takes you from the pro-Nazi government through the Soviet occupation (with many of the same characters "changing clothes" in the mid-40s). If I read your post right, you've been in Europe a lot but never behind the former Iron Curtain except (sort of) Berlin. Time to fix that, especially if you're interested in Cold War history.

Whatever you decide, you'll have a wonderful two months I'm sure!

Thanks to everyone who replied. I hadn't realized when I was thinking about the trip that it did include so many places I had already been so looking east sounds good. I also realized that I have really explored Paris or part of the UK with WWII stuff in mind.
I personally HATE flying so I'm not sure if the short hops will work for me, but we'll see. I also want to build in enough "sit with a book and a glass of wine" time :). I am not one who likes to plan things down to the last minute of the day but have 1-2 sites to see in mind then let the day unfold from there combined with days of no plans. I also realized when I was writing that I didn't really want to move every 7 days but be centrally located to the areas I want to see so that day trips could be done. That is the hope anyway. We'll see.
In Germany I lived in Friedburg, near Hanau. Maybe instead of Berlin I might try Dresden on my way east?
Or start in the east and work my way west. Right now the winter months will be spent reading and plotting on a map.
Thanks for all for your thoughts and suggestions. I am really lucky that I can even consider doing this.

Hi,

Did you mean Friedberg or Friedburg, not familiar with that place? If it's not about money, time or health issues, do this eight week trip.

"I also want to build in enough "sit with a book and a glass of wine" time :)"

You would really like Budapest for that. It's also easy and cheap to rent a flat by yourself for 7/10/14 days. There are many daytrips that can be done from Budapest as well, using public transportation. I can highly recommend the apartment that I rented on my last trip there (was my fourth). I finally got to also visit the WWII & Cold War era 'Hospital in the Rock', underneath Buda Hill - it was fascinating (and I got to be the one to crank the air raid siren!)

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/1162800
The owner, László, was excellent! Any of his 5 flats would be a great choice as a base!

8 weeks, spend no more than 2 of them in places you've been to. Hardly anybody likes flying. Many European flights are from smaller airports (less hassle, less time needed pre-flight) that are closer to the cities and flights are mercifully short. They do open up a lot more possibilities.

2 weeks - Ireland/Scotland
1-2 weeks Poland - Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk
2 weeks - Prague to Budapest via Vienna.
2-3 weeks - Sicily/Malta
2-3 weeks - Spain, 1 week Barcelona, 1-2 weeks Andalusia/Madrid
1 week - Portugal
2-3 weeks - Turkey and Greece

You've gotten great suggestions already. Let me just add that you should make one big plane hop from London to your furthest point east, whether Istanbul or Athens, somewhere in Poland, Budapest, or Prague, and then work your way back west. Though you don't like flying, maybe one flight to get you east may be worth the sacrifice. Remember that the cold weather settles in sooner not just the further north, but also the further east on the continent.

I travel solo for 12 weeks every summer (privilege of teaching fall/spring), I use public transportation almost exclusively. I am sure you will have a great time.

From each place, you can always take daytrips. I based in Nimes four five days and took daytrips on four of them, seeing new places but returning something like a routine at night.

As for where to go, you have time and Europe, so lots of choices.

You could spend a few nights less in Belgium/Netherlands and more in France.

Investigate Poland as a possibility, and Berlin if you are looking for places further east.

For the French/German border, I loved Koln, Aachen, Trier, Strasbourg.