New rough itinerary for 4 months in Europe with husband and two teens

For visiting Auschwitz, you should stay in beautiful Krakow. Our hotel (Hotel Amber Design) arranged a tour for us to Auschwitz. We loved this local hotel with such a helpful staff, a few blocks from tne main square.
There are many sites to see in Krakow as well. It is where Pope Joh Paul studied and spent his career before becoming Pope.
I am not one who would visit Germany for so many days. No time in Paris? And I would spend more time in Amsterdam and/or another location in The Netherlands.
If you decide on Switzerland, I think your boys would enjoy Grindelwald. Spectacular scenery and hikes, good train connections.
Good luck with your planning. This is quite an undertaking!

Thank you Suki! My daughter and I were in Paris just a year ago and I've been there three times. Hubby and son have no interest in Paris (gasp!!)

I wonder if we have too much time in Germany...but honestly, any of these places could easily fill up weeks..or lifetimes.

I never in a million years thought I'd be talking about 4 months in Europe, and having to pare things down LOL

Three weeks seems fine for Germany, given that you're including Austria with that.

This trip looks amazing, I’m super jealous!! We did a few days in the Rhine valley and fell in love with it too! Just wanted to say-have fun!!!

Have you thought about just you and your daughter going to Paris? You could easily see the Normandy Beaches in 2 days, then you and your daughter could take a train to Paris for 2-3 days and have a mom-daughter time. By that point in your trip, you all might need a break from one another anyway.

@diane
I had not thought of that but that is a fabulous idea!! Great bro time for my husband and son who will want more WW2 history time...and freedom for my daughter and I to shop! Lol We were in Paris for a week last year but having my mom slowed us down a bit .

That all sounds doable, with flights between the first few countries. Trains through France on the last couple of legs normally are via Paris with a change of stations in Paris. Caen does have an airport served by Hop! airlines with some service to/from Nuremberg, Strasbourg, and Brussels.

I was told by a well traveled European that the old Eurorail pass is no longer used very much because of the many cheap airline companies that provide service from city to city all across Europe. So to save time, you might look into flying.

As for your itinerary, I would spend more time in Switzerland at the expense of all those days in Germany but I just love the mountains.

Great bro time for my husband and son who will want more WW2 history time

Since they have an interest in WWII history and your going to Germany, have them check a web site named thirdreichruins.com. It's a collect of photos of many places taken during or just after the war and photos of how those same places look today.

Are you going to Vienna? My family of four (including two teenagers) stayed in a 6 Rooms apartment there for about five nights. Easy walk to underground station, grocery store and drug store. A little further to the Museumquartier but not bad. Also, the Cafe Sperl, a super authentic Viennese caffe house, is at the end of the block. We had a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with washer (no dryer, but a drying rack) which was quite comfortable and suitably equipped to cook a few meals. Note that while there were two bathrooms, they only included shower and sink. The one toilet was in a separate smaller half-bath The building is circa 1890 complete with black and white tiled entry hall and ornate plaster and wrought iron accents. The Wi-Fi worked well also. We loved it! Oh, and it was less expensive by the night than our one cramped hotel room in NYC at the beginning of the our trip.

In Salzburg, we stayed at the Apartments Wolf Dietrich. The location was fantastic but it was a bit of a hike back to the apartment from the Old Town. That could be easily overlooked because it was a charming pedestrian street with lots of wonderful restaurants, bakeries, etc. There was only had one bedroom and one bathroom in the apartment with no washer. We were only there a few nights so it served the purpose but next time I would try to book a larger apartment there.

We also visited a concentration camp and I'm glad we did. It was a very moving experience that I highly recommend for everyone whether a WWII enthusiast or not.

Have you already addressed your 90 day limit dilemma? Maybe you have and I just didn’t see. You only have 90 days within 180 day window to spend in the Schengen area.

Looks like she has with 30 days or so in British Isles.

Tim

From the revised OP

Days 82-84: Amsterdam Thinking of the possibility of flying from
Amsterdam to Switzerland and spending 5 days or so in Switzerland but
will be cutting it close to 90 days in Schengen area..plus who knows
how we'll feel... ... Then we'll have just over a month to visit
England, Scotland, and Ireland.

OP here...yes, very much aware of the 90 day Schengen rule. We are still working on our itinerary but at this point in time planning 80 days within Schengen.