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Itinerary input, Switzerland thoughts?

My 22 yr old daughter and 50 yr old self are going on our second 30+ days trip around Europe in Aug/Sept 2016. Would like your thoughts on my itinerary flow, should I add or delete cities? (Last time we hit the biggies like London,Paris,Amsterdam,Vienna,Munich,Rome, lots of Greece) We like to stay 2-3 days per city,travel by train/short flights if need be, no car. Both of us are major Type A's who like a plan and like little down time. We like walking tours, being told the history etc, rather than reading a guide book or following an audio guide. We have really enjoyed bike tours, our cooking class in Venice, anything active or hands on. Not big museum lovers, but do love to visit cathedrals, castles, etc. Hopefully that gives you a little insight about us. Here we go...
Stockholm (perhaps a Baltic Cruise for a week or two to see Copenhagen, St.Petersburg etc while they do the transporting?)
Copenhagen
Berlin,Prague,Krakow?,Rothenburg,
Switzerland (Need help here! Where? Looking for ease of transportation as well)
Venice
Florence/Pisa
Cinque Terre (perhaps not in this order?)
then another Mediterranean Cruise for the relaxation as well as transportation to Sicily,Crete, etc?

If no cruise, we have a week or two that still needs planning after Cinque Terre. French Riviera?

Thanks so much, you all always give such great advice!!

Posted by
2779 posts

I think a Baltic cruise is not a bad idea at all. Find one that starts and ends in Copenhagen and includes Gdansk/Danzig (Poland) on the ports of call list. Ideally in your case avoid a Warnemünde stop.

After the cruise take the bullet train from Copenhagen to Berlin. Optionally you could stop over in Hamburg, Germany's most beautiful city (second largest city and fortunately not yet fully discovered by oversea tourist, just plenty of Dutch, Swiss, German and British tourists so far). The train from Copenhagen to Berlin stops at Hamburg. From Hamburg to Berlin it's only 90 minutes by train by the way.

From Berlin (you'll need at least three days plus an extra day for http://www.spreewald-web.de/kahnfahrten/?type=1) take the train to Dresden. The city is packed with history but also quite an elegant place to do shopping. From there it's only two hours to Prague (welcome to America in Europe!).

From Prague take the German Rail IC Bus to Nuremberg, visit the WW2 sights. From there it's easy to get to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Stuttgart would be your next natural stop. From there it's easy to catch a train to Switzerland...

Posted by
250 posts

Thanks Andreas, that's the kind of information I need. very helpful!