Edinburgh to ??? to ??? to Munich

I 'd squeeze Vienna into your suggestion.
Venice - Vienna - Salzburg - Munich
I'd also question your desire to drive.
There is a night train Venice to Vienna.
The high speed Austrian RailJet services Vienna - Salzburg - Munich.
http://www.seat61.com/railjet.htm#.VYSGAPnzrs1

If you haven't already book a flight from EDI to the continental mainland, you could go by train through York (charming place with an impressive cathedral and medieval walls, plus The Shambles), then on to London, then on (by Chunnel) to Paris. If this is Mom's possibly only trip to Europe, she should experience both London and Paris. You could then fly or continue via train farther east.

Hello ean1879. You said you will be at Munich, 2 days. What number of days will you be in Scotland ? The first thought that comes to my mind is : go to Dijon in France, and Vienna and Salzburg in Austria. (If it has been decided that you will not go to London and Paris in this trip). In one day you could ride in an airplane from the airport of Edinburgh to an airport of Paris, and ride in a train from Paris to Dijon. The most convenient transportation for travelling from Dijon to Vienna may be to ride in a train from Dijon to Paris, and ride in an airplane from Paris to Vienna. Please inform us of where you decide to go in Europe.

Since it's your mother's first and maybe only trip to Europe, where does she want to go? (You're implying you will get to go back, so let her have the most input about where you go on this trip).

You can fly inexpensively from Edinburgh to Munich on EasyJet.com.

From there, you could go east to the popular cities of Salzburg and Vienna on a train.

Or, you can fly Edinburgh to Venice-Marco Polo on Jet2.com. Then you could catch the train up to Innsbruck and into Munich.
I would suggest going south as the weather in October and November can start to get cold.

ean,

In the same situation, I'd probably travel Edinburgh > Paris > Switzerland > Munich. A few thoughts....

The trip from Edinburgh to London St Pancras (via East Coast Rail to King's Cross) is actually quite pleasant, about 3 hours or so as I recall. From there you can take the EuroStar across to Paris. Your mother might enjoy travelling by train rather than the hassles of air travel. She may enjoy the nostalgia of train travel and with pre-planning, it should be very tolerable for her.

For your stop in Switzerland, I'd suggest Lucerne. It's an incredibly beautiful city and while there you could wander across the historic Chapel Bridge, have lunch along the river, take a day trip to Pilatus or a nice cruise on the lake in one of the classic old boats. I'm not sure what the weather will be like in October, but hopefully it will be reasonably good.

As each of your journeys will involve changing trains one or more times, be sure your mother can manage that.

Harold hit the nail on the head!! Where does Mom want to go? And how much travel can she tolerate.

All-

Thanks for sharing your suggestions! A few of you asked what she wants to see. That's one of the big problems...she wants to see it all. Each time we start to talk about a place, she say "that sounds great!" She even sends me emails with everything from Greece to Slovenia to Istanbul about places she wants to visit. That said, we're trying to avoid multiple plane flights and only have the one plane flight from EDI to the mainland. That's why we're looking at Salzburg, Venice and even Ljubljana for example.

Mom is fairly active. She's had both hips replaced, and although we wouldn't want to go on an aggressive hike, she should be able to walk a full day around a city.

Also someone else asked how many days we'd spend in Edinburgh - we're thinking 3.5 days (counting day of arrival as a half day). I know it's not much, but we want to give her 3-4 distinct cultural experiences. We've got Scottish and German. Perhaps it makes since to do Vienna or Lucerne as suggested?

Thanks again for all your thoughts!

I would ask her to pick her top three (or four) and cut it down from there. Having said that, Venice is like no other city we've ever been to. Strongly suggest it be given a long hard look.