August Itinerary Questions

Read your itineray. Sounds doable. I"ve never been to Normandy but, hear it's great. If you're heading toward Germany, I'd suggest the Alsace region (on the border btwn France and Germany and has a lovely wine route with many beautiful villages, cobblestoned streets, pastel half-timbered houses and great food and beer as well. May need to do a tour since you won't have a car but, such a unique place to visit. Brussels is lovely. Amsterdam is fantastic, lots of music, street performers, etc. Don't miss the Anne Frank house if you're interested in WW2 stuff. It can be dirty and smelly but, worth the stop. In Germany, we visited Dachau concentration camp. Would do it again although not exactly uplifting.
Costs are higher in big cities. When possible, stay in B&B's because they are cheaper, friendlier, and more of a cultural experience. Again, just my opinions. Good luck!

is there a good site for a B&B search? airbnb is really more like VRBO.

Do you have RS guide books for the area you are planning to visit? If so, good. If not, I would suggest that you get them and read them as it will help you ask more specific questions on this web site that will generate better answers. Have you also checked TravelAdvisor for B&Bs? I sure prefer B&Bs to hotels in Europe any day.

A few notes. First, "EUrail" is a travel agency that sells marked-up tickets to travelers. The railroads in each country are operated by their respective national rail carriers, ie, Deutsche Bahn for Germany, Nederlands Spoorweg for the Netherlands, etc. Like all 3rd party ticket re-sellers, they usually charge more than you would pay if you just bought the tickets yourself... the caveat being that I'm not sure how their youth passes compare. Very few Belgian breweries offer tours to the general public. Some of them operate restaurants in lieu of a tour. My experience with these is that the food is often well below the usually high standards of Belgium and are filled with foreign beer pilgrims. The only "brewery" I know of that offers regular tours to the public is De Halve Maan in Brugge. But this is more of a museum than a real brewery, as most of the company's serious brewing occurs in a modern factory outside of the old city. Westvleteren: in my opinion, it's reputation as the Holy Grail of Belgian beers has more to do with its scarcity than its taste. Its good enough, about on par with Westmalle. But personally, I think the widely available products from Chimay beat it handily in a taste test. You are correct about WWII remains in Germany. The indirect evidence of the Nazi period is everywhere, but only a handful of structures built by the 3rd Reich remain. There's one undamaged building in Munich that was either the local Gestapo or Luftwaffe HQ (I forget which), but that's about it. I'm not sure about Berlin.

i'm going to be heading to the library to get some guidebooks (RS included) tomorrow! tom, where would you recommend going as far as a beer lover in belgium? i have heard kulminator in antwerp is a must see, as well as cantillion (since i'll already be in brussels.) i have read that the trappists don't really let anyone in. i am a big fan of trappist beers, as well as general tripel/quad styles. i love delirium and everything they make. i'm not even that concerned about the ill-fated westy reservation of a case of beer system, but if it would be possible to try westy 12, i'd love to. i have read st. bernardus operates a B&B that is worth going to.

Justin, I didn't read your itinerary, but can comment on the later beer discussion. As mentioned, this one is in the top 5 rarest in the world. http://www.sintsixtus.be/eng/brouwerij.htm
They make you sign a paper when you pick up the beer that you won't resell it. Highly recommend.

the itinerary (beta version 2): paris (6-7 days) (day trips to versailles, epernay/reims) brugges (3 days) (via lille train) brussels (2-3 days) amsterdam (2 days)
munich (3 days) (ideally via dusseldorf ICE...seems this will almost take a day) berlin (3 days) thoughts? i think i am going to call that BETS (budget europe travel services) place who offers free advice on whether to buy eurail or point-to-point. is there a better order of things so as not to take too much time travelling between like amsterdam and germany? maybe amsterdam-brussels-bruges-paris-munich-berlin?

Brugges is an over-kill by a long shot. Amsterdam in an under-kill. Switch the time for these two around - - better yet, stop in Brugges for lunch and give the rest of the time to Berlin or Amsterdam.

" "EUrail" is a travel agency that sells marked-up tickets to travelers." RailEurope is the travel agency that sells marked-up tickets to travelers. It is often mistaken for Eurail, but it is not the same thing. Eurail is a cooperative effort of the national railroads in Europe to package and sell railpasses. Eurail sells only railpasses, not point-point tickets. RailEurope is a travel agency owned mostly by French Rail. RailEurope resells Eurail's passes. (Rick resells Eurail passes through RailEurope.)

Except at some of the fanciest places, a good beer selection is a given at most decent Belgian restaurants. And seriously, the high alcohol content makes it pretty difficult to sample more than two or three beers per meal. If I had to choose some of the best beer drinking spots based on atmosphere, here would be my choices that I am most familiar with: - the Oude Markt in Leuven (not the Grote Markt by the cathedral and Stadthuis). There are many cafes here and if the university is in session, it will be packed with students. - Zoet Water, near Leuven: this is a lake with several good restaurants around it. Hard to reach without a car. - Graslei, Ghent: one of the most beautiful canal/streets in Europe. There are several restaurants here, and this also being a univeristy town, usually a lot of students. - around the Groenplaats and Grote Markt, in Antwerp. Unlike Ghent and Leuven, though, the crowd in Antwerp can be a bit rougher.

how do you mean 'rougher?'

rougher: not as sophisticated as Tom

"Rough" meaning a lot of merchant marines on shore leave. When one thinks of sailors in port, one does not imagine them spending their time playing bridge and sipping tea. Not to imply that Antwerp is the Belgian version of Tortuga, but there is a noticable difference in the night life crowd between Antwerp and Ghent/Leuven. The excellent Flemish crime drama series "Zone Stad" takes place in Antwerp probably because of the city's grittier reputation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeXIvgGuLrw

To respond to some of your other issues at http://paste2.org/p/1409463 The solution to being a "chronic over packer" is to stop over packing. And believe me, with an itinerary like yours, it will make a huge difference to the quality of your trip if you do. Your next step, after doing some more reading, in your planning should be to assign some number of days to each of the stops and steps in your itinerary. I think you can physically visit all of these places in 3 weeks, but the question you and yours should care about is, what will make the best three weeks for us? More can be less, and if you plan too tightly you can spend all day traveling to someplace that can be derailed by a day of bad weather. So think carefully about what you want to do in these magnificent places, and how long you will need to do it. Good planning leads to great trips, have a wonderful time!

Re your new itinerary: Looks pretty reasonable to me, if those are your priorities. (I agree with Ed about more Amsterdam, less Brugges though.) If the idea appeals to you, you could consider a night train to Munich. It might not be the most restful night, but would save you a whole day--and they can be fun.

is there a good way to search for night trains?

You might want to add on some days to Berlin and cut back on Brussels and Bruges. Wonderful, big city with so much to see and do, that 3 days will barely scratch the surface. Why night trains? You miss all the scenery, plus, it isn't much of a savings, when you can get a hostel bed for under 20 euro. Personally, my one experience of taking a sleeper train was a complete disaster. No sleep at all, arrived at our destination absolutely exhausted.

is there a good way to search for night trains? Those guidebooks you went to the library for last week, if they are the RS ones, have details on some night trains. The other way is use the Bahn website and put in times at night.