Euro Trip 2016 -- 10 weeks' itinerary. Thoughts, suggestions, please?

i got exhausted just counting the number of places you list - OVER 150 !!
That is over 2 per day for every single day in 10 weeks.
Now if you reduce that list to even 35 then that is still one destination for every 2 days.

Week 1 Germany
Week 2 Switzerland
Week 3 Austria
Week 4 Hungary + Czech Rep
Week 5+6 Italy
Week 7 France
Week 8+9 Spain
Week 10 France
or
Week 7+ 8 France
Week 9 Belgium+Netherlands
Week 10 Germany

Good luck. Safe driving.

Thank you for your feedback, David!

I've edited my post, mentioning my modus operandi when Euro-traveling: out the door around 7am (I hate crowds!) and then go-go-go until the evening. I've done 2-3-4 third-tier destinations per day before, focusing on a few highlights per place. Given the short European distances, it's more than feasible. No need to stay in e.g. Verona for two days – if fact, I reserve multiple days for Florence, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Amsterdam only. Mid-tier destinations get 1 day: 1-2 museums, 4-5 other sights, totally feasible!

Also, I travel alone. Yes, I'd like to share experiences, ideally, but it drives me nuts to discuss daily what, when, how to see things and how long to spend various places, argue about logistics, etc. What a waste! I like to be my own master and travel with a goal and a purpose...

The more I think about it and research, the more I see Spain and Portugal as being dispensable – I think I'd rather explore Italy and France in more depth...

Thanks again!

I often travel alone too, and similarly am not one for compromise, wasted time or arguments.
I still couldn't face the stress of driving every day in Europe for ten weeks over high summer.

Hi,

I'll comment mainly on the German part of the itinerary. Going over for the first time in Germany? Your choice of German cities is pretty much the same as my itinerary on my first two trips there... minus Essen, which you can do as a day trip from Düsseldorf, take the S-Bahn from Düsseldorf Hbf. I agree with Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, was never in Flensburg. If I were to switch one city in the north, I'd change Bremen for Kiel...different feel between these two places.

Hannover I would not suggest unless you're there to see the Herrenhäuser Gardens, or if you have a good level of German. Münster/Westf. is interesting, worth a visit, as are Bonn, Frankfurt esp if you're into German cultural history, a day trip from Frankfurt to Wetzlar. Traveling solo definitely has its advantages, which I mostly do in Germany, but since you are going by car, you are not dependent upon German trains. With a car you can get to the outlying villages of big cities such as Dortmund. I'm dependent on the trains there.

Good choice of Amiens and Reims...well worth seeing the cathedrals in both cities. Reims I was there once but Amiens a few times.

Hi,

The other part of the German trip aside from Berlin focusing on Halle an der Salle, Leipzig, Weimar, Jena...all well worth it. If you decide to drop a place here (how can you with such choices?), then I heartily suggest Naumburg an der Saale.

If you're interested in warfare history, there are the battlefield museum in Jena and monument and museum in Leipzig. Weimar, the city of Goethe and Schiller, and Naumburg, Halle...these are the main small cultural towns in this general area. I really liked Weimar and to a lesser extent Halle.

Thank you very much for your great suggestions, Fred! Noted...

Hi,

Your're welcome. Those dates you have planned for the trip are usually those when I'm over there, until the last few trips... early summer instead.

For the cultural sites, you can see Goethe's house/museum in Frankfurt, Wetzlar, aside from that in Weimar, naturally. On the music sights in Vienna the house/museums of Haydn, Mahler, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven. If you go to Linz, Mozart's House is there too (recall his Linz Symphony). Halle an der Saale (on your list) is a good choice...nice town, the birthplace of GF Händel, whom the Germans also claim as one of their own, easy to get to from Leipzig or Berlin.

In Salzburg there are 2 Mozart houses...the more famous one where you run into a ton of tourists is that on Getreidegasse...Mozarts Geburtshaus. The one before that if you're walking from the train station is Mozarts Wohnhaus...also well worth seeing with fewer tourists. If you're in Hamburg, you can do a day trip to Eutin/Holstein where the house/museum of Beethoven's contemporary Carl Weber von Weber (composer in German Romanticism) is located, a lot easier going by car. I go there going from Kiel.

Why Terni? Rieti is more interesting.

Thank you again, Fred! Fantastic info about classical composers... I will pursue your kind recommendations!

Thank you, Zoe, I'll look into Rieti!

I don't understand why you are going to Interlaken (week 2).

Your stated interests are:-

museums, palaces/castles/cathedrals/architecture, classical music-related sights.

Interlaken has none of those.

It is miles from other places, and definitely not in the mountains. It is like saying you want to go to Lincoln Center in New York and driving to Trenton.

Is there a reason you are unexpectedly skipping Wuppertal and the Neandertal?

Is there a reason for the alternating shouting and normal type in your question?

Nigel, thanks for your suggestions! I"ll look into it.

Yes, the first stated goal is cultural, etc., but I'm not avoiding mountains, lakes, breathtaking scenery.

Sorry for the different type/size/font. I realized what happened... In my original post, I had "--------" between weeks as a sort of visual spacing, which was interpreted by the browser as before. I deleted those now. Sorry about that – I was puzzled myself.

I think you need to slow down and regroup. Despite taking many weeks, you're days are going to be spent driving, not sight seeing. The distances between cities in Europe are easy to underestimate.
I suggest you group your trip into 2 week segments. Take in 5 segments. For example, Italy is a 2 week destination. Budapest/Bratislava/Vienna/Prague is another 2 week destination. Paris and the places in France on your itinerary would be a 2 week destination.
Try to travel in regions that complement each other--cities not too far apart.

"...first stated goal is cultural...." Your itinerary in Germany and Austria certainly reveals that pattern as regards to the composers...Vienna, Halle, Bonn, Bayreuth, Eisenstadt (Hayden's Museum/House) in Burgenland, Linz, (Bruckners Museum) Salzburg. You're probably amending the trip. I would include Leipzig in light of the cultural sites, ie house/museums of Mendelsohn, Bach, Wagner, Liszt, and drop Dortmund (unless you're going for the beer, those famous Dortmunder Biere, ), Bremen, Essen unless to see Villa Hugel.

Less than an hour away from Stuttgart accessible by S-Bahn from Stuttgart Hbf. is the town of Marbach am Neckar...well worth going to as a day trip if you want to see the literary side of cultural sites...the Schiller (of Goethe and Schiller fame ) Museum.