Four weeks in Europe, suggestions on itinerary

Thanks Kent! I'll tell you, that's been the hard part of the planning. I think our next step will be to really get into the deutsche bahn site and start looking at times more. I've spent a fair amount of time doing that already, but just to get some approx times. The problematic part is planning our train from Bayeux to Paris to fly to Stockholm and then the Stockholm to Zurich to Lauterbrunnen leg. My wife and I will talk more about keeping Munich in or not (the cousin we're meeting in Berlin is flying in from Sweden there to show us around. She loves Berlin! So, I think we'll keep that at 4 nts though we could do shorter.). My preliminary look then if we cut out Munich would be 4 hours or so by train to get from Fussen to Rothenberg. That may make a long day as we'd like to get up early and do King Ludwig's castles first thing, train to Rothenberg and then do the Watchman's tour. A day or two of craziness like that's probably okay but I don't want our days to be too crazy!

Sounds fairly reasonable. My only question is what time of year are you traveling? Lauterbrunnen is fairly dead in the shoulder seasons, although certainly not as dead as Murren or Gimmelwald.

Thanks Kent and Tom, I really appreciate the feedback! We will be heading over in the middle of summer and should be in Lauterbrunnen in mid to late July.

You're right Kent, the deviation from North(Stockholm) to South (Zurich) is a big one. I struggled a lot with that piece. We will be in Stockholm to meet some extended family and family from the States. Since we were flying home from Berlin I thought this was the best way to minimize backtracking and travel time by flying all the way south and heading north. I did consider flying into Frankfurt and working our way south, then leaving Munich as the last stop before heading to Berlin (we used miles to book our flights, so we had to book early to get any flights, which has locked us into Amsterdam and Berlin as our entry/exit points.) but figured we would spend time backtracking around our southern destinations a bit more. Feedback on this is appreciated! Reading the helpline and posts has been invaluable for planning! Thanks!

Funny you say that because I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure that one out! On Rick's website he mentioned the town name for Rothenberg (Rothenburg ob der Tauber) as it was different and Fussen was a different spelling too, though I haven't figure that one out completely yet. I had to get my map out and look at all the different cities I was transferring to to make sure it was the right route! I think I figured it out enough. It looks like there is no direct/semi-direct way to Rothenberg from Fussen. I don't have a map with me now, but it looked like you had to go NE of Rothenberg and route through a couple other small towns. Part of the adventures of planning the trip!

Thanks a lot Kent for all your suggestions/input! As a first timer planning such a big trip this site (and all who post on it) sure make it a lot easier for us newbies! I think we're at the point where our itinerary is mostly set, now it will be exploring lodging options!

I don't think you will need 2 days in Bayeaux - I would spend the two days in Mont St. Michel which is incredible. Are you doing the shoulder season or summer?

We're looking forward to Berlin! Should be interesting mix of old and new. It will be nice to have our own private tour guide for that too.

The reason we were going to stay in Bayeux for 2 nights was because we were going to do the full day Battlebus Tour of D-Day (We will be there in the summer). Our plan was to leave MSM mid-day and head up to Bayeux, spend the night, do the D-Day Tour, spend the night and head to the airport in Paris to fly to Stockholm. I'll look though at the logistics of reversing that and spending 2 nights in MSM. Thanks for the suggestion!

My wife and I talked tonight and we are going to cut Munich out. :-( We're going to add one more day to Stockholm (4 whole days with family instead of 3) and add another day on the Rhine/Mosel. Then we can fit in a bit more wine tasting! Although, the beer tasting in Munich is tempting too!

Kent, I can't wait! As much as it's somewhat of a hassle to get out there by train (embarrassing to say, neither of us drive a manual, and automatics are really expensive over there when I've looked) it will be well worth it to see both MSM and the D-Day beaches. That and the time in the Alps are what I most look forward to on our trip...oh and some wine! I think the selling point for us for the extra day on the Rhine/Mosel versus Munich is exactly what you said: sitting looking up at the hills having a glass of wine (or two!). Cities have their magic too, but I think experiencing the smaller towns and the people there will be the best part of it. Rick certainly has that part right!

And I wholly agree with Kent on the advantages of staying on Mont St. Michel rather than just day-tripping.

One more question, are you driving through Germany or taking the rails? If by train, Fussen is a reasonable option for visiting Schwangau. If you drive, there is no reason to stay there overnight, with so many less touristy and less crowded alternatives nearby.

Thanks Tom! We will be riding the rails in Germany, so I figured the best way to get an early start on the castle is to stay in Fussen.

We will be spending one night at MSM, but unfortunately not two. Our plan is to do a full day Battlebus tour so we will need to spend the night before that in Bayeux. Our flight out to Stockholm will be the following day, and because of flight times, late morning early afternoon, there's probably a good chance the 2nd night in Bayeux may end up closer to the airport because when I was looking last night, it's a 4 hr train trip to CDG from Bayeux.

Hi Jed: the security lines can be horrendous at CDG so I'm a bit concerned that if you are trying to take a morning train from the Bayeux area to get to CDG for a late morning flight the timing could really be dicey. Instead you might want to consider taking a late train from Bayeux to Paris, then staying overnight in a hotel near one of the train stations/bus services that go to the airport. Hope you have a wonderful trip no matter what you decide!

Thanks Sharon! I think that's probably what we'll end up doing. With not ever being in France, or taking the rail there, I don't think we want to mess around with all that. Too bad, I'd rather stay another night in a nice small French town as opposed to a hotel by the airport!