Advice on Backpack-across-Europe Trip?

(So, sorry if some of you have seen this already, but I posted it on Lilymud before and figured since there were so many new/different faces here (and a lot of Europeans by the looks of it!) that I should ask here as well. So forgive the copy/paste, but I would really love some feedback. ^^; )


Basically I have a friend who is about to start medical school and won't have any free time for the next six years so she just decided to go ahead and do the Europe thing while she can, something she's always wanted to do. We go way back and, while I was saving up to move to Colorado this summer, I can't just let her go alone...plus I do like travel....and there's always next year to move to the mountains.......

SO!

I was hoping you guys could help by filling me in on some of the must-sees in Europe. I know a bunch of you live out there or have been there and maybe you could tell me some of the stuff I absolutely must do/see. I am fairly outdoorsy and she is a bit of a city girl but doesn't mind seeing the country side, so feel free to suggest natural attractions as well if you know of any cheap/free natural spots that we should see while over there.

We will be doing the Rail Passes to travel and a good deal of couch surfing/hostels along the way to save money. Here are the countries we will be visiting and (roughly) the number of full days we will spend in each, not including traveling:
6/4/13 Edit for updated Itenerary:

Leave Texas June 13th

Dublin (arrive June 14th @ 1540 - depart June 15 @ laaaate )
Belfast (arrive June 15th @ laaaate - depart June 17th in afternoon by plane)
Edinburgh (arrive June 17th in afternoon by plane - depart June 20th @ 0540)
London (arrive June 20th @ 0940 -depart June 23rd @ 1101)
Paris (arrive June 23rd @ 1417 -depart June 25th @ 1423) **london to paris does not use a day on the pass
Zurich (arrive June 25th @ 1835 -depart 27th @ 1942 by overnight train)
Prague (arrive June 28th @ 1029 by overnight train - depart July 1rst @ 0839)
Berlin (arrive July 1rst @ 1315 - depart July 4th @ 1049)
Brussels July 4th at 1509 continue on to Bruges
Bruges July 4th in evening---depart Bruges July 6th in afternoon
Rotterdam July 6th in evening -- depart as scheduled (July 9th at 1005)
Amsterdam (arrive July 9th @ 1041- depart July 11th @ by overnight train @ 1901)leaving from amsterdam central 23392347 86 dollars
Copenhagen (arrive July 12th @ by overnight train @ 1007-depart July 14th 0735 by plane)
Helsinki (arrive July 14th 1010 -depart by train to Joensuu around noon)
Joensuu/Sovolinna (arrive late July 14th -depart 1500 from Joensuu July 17th)
Helsinki (depart July 18th 0800 for home)

Definitely open to suggestions and these day lengths are not set in stone with the exception of Finland because the girl I'm going with has a friend over there.

For the record, I am not wanting to be super touristy about this. I don't feel like I will simply die if I don't see the Eiffel tower or the leaning Tower of Piza or anything so unless there are some big tourist attractions that are must-sees, don't feel you have to mention them. I'd rather know what I should do/where I should go from a local's opinion of a place.

I'm from Belgium.
Even though its a small country, 2 days might be too little.

If you are sticking to 2 days, I'd suggest Brussels. As it is our main capitale.

Antwerp and Ghent are great too.
In Bruges there is a chocolat museum.

And the French side of Belgium is more all about nature and both world wars.
Still many bunkers left (some wich you can visit and go inside).

If you wanna know something specific, just ask.
Would also be happy to show you guys around.
I've been in all the big citys.

For the UK I'd say visiting London is a real must, but I'm sure you had that on your list anyway. Almost everyone wants to go to London or knows about it. :lol:

Other sights to see are Stonehenge (even though I've never been there, I'd like to go at some point). If you're planning on doing more of the UK apart from England, I'd definitely recommend you to visit Edinburgh in Scotland. There are good rail links there. Also maybe whilst you're there you can take a trip to the Highlands. Leor and I did a full day trip there, and one of the stops was Loch Ness. There were many gorgeous sights you could see there. ;)

There's many more things to do here, but if I were to list them I'd be here all day. :lol: If there's anything you want to know in particular, just ask. :)

Probably wouldn't bother with stone henge unless passing by it. You can't even get close to it and have to pay like £10 to stand behind a barrier. You get just a good view from the road. Hope you get to do everything you want :)

With such short time in each country I think I would stick checking out the capital city of each country. I never heard anyone inter railing to Finland thought as there is no rail way that will take you there from any other country besides Russia. You can take a cruise ship from Germany or Sweden to Finland, but that will take a day on it's own. If you need help getting in specific place in Finland I'm happy to give suggestions, but even I lived in Finland first 25 years of my life, I can't think anything that would fall under category of must see, especially as I don't know where your friend's friend is located.

We are actually flying to Finland from Sweden I believe.

The days aren't set in stone really, at this point just trying to figure out what to do--if we discover some cool stuff we could switch around the days a bit. Honestly there is so much to see in each place I know it'll be hard to narrow things down.

And yeah, sticking to the capitols is probably best...I just don't forsee myself being in the financial situation to be able to go over there again anytime soon, so it would be nice to be able to hit some awesome places this time around in case I don't get a second shot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nathalie

I'm from Belgium.
Even though its a small country, 2 days might be too little.

If you are sticking to 2 days, I'd suggest Brussels. As it is our main capitale.

Antwerp and Ghent are great too.
In Bruges there is a chocolat museum.

And the French side of Belgium is more all about nature and both world wars.

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Aaaah you sold me on chocolate museum and nature. <3 Tell me more! Any specific natural sites we should be sure to visit? Also, where can I get the best chocolate? xD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kasei

Aaaah you sold me on chocolate museum and nature. <3 Tell me more! Any specific natural sites we should be sure to visit? Also, where can I get the best chocolate? xD

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Here's a website from the chocolate museum.
http://www.choco-story.be

Knowing that if you go there, and wanna go back to Brussels by train, it can take up to 2 hours for the trip.

Since I'm Flemish, and on the Dutch side of Belgium, I can't really tell you much about the French side.
It's more green-ish, and a very different envirement then Flanders is. The houses are very different and such.
I do know places like Doornik is very beautiful and full of Belgian history.
(that's like, the only Wallone place I know, lol)
Oh, and Waver is also there, which has a Six Flags (or former Six Flags, I think the name changed again).

You can cross Belgium in about 5 hours, lol, go from one side to the other, but you would need a car for that.
And obviously if you wanna stop places, you need at least a day or 4-5 to actually see those places.

Here's another thing I know on the French side, it's the Fort of Eben-Emael.
http://www.fort-eben-emael.be/en

They do guided tours in this thing, and it's really cool if you are interested in the World Wars.
This fort took years to build, and after only 6 days (I believe) when it was really up and running, the Germans invaded it.
(you get to see the part where they did, bullet holes are still in the walls and such, very impressive when standing there)
I've been inside, and with a dad who's a "fan" of World War 2, this was a must-see for us!
(also, it's only a 20 minute drive for us, haha)
The tour takes about 3-4 hours, that's how big that thing is, and then you haven't even been everywhere, or on top of the fort!
I've been on top aswell, nothing but cornfields on there though, hehe.
The walk up there, is like 20 minutes, lol.

When being in Brussels, you can get a train to everywhere in Belgium (Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Hasselt ... those are 4 of the bigger cities in Flanders with history and shopping-streets, all 4 cities are VERY different), but I'm really not familiar to the French side of Belgium.

The trains are the same though throughout the entire country, so I know how that works.

But we have 2 bus-companies in Belgium, and if you need to take a bus, I can only help you with "De Lijn", which drives through Flanders only.
The French side has their own company, and I have never taken one of those busses, and they display their hours also very differently.

In Brussels, we got things like "Atomium".
The smallest thing in the world, has been blown out of proportion in Brussels, lol.
9 "balls" really (haha), in which you can walk/visit, one even has a restaurant in it.
http://todio.nl/afbeeldingen/atomium.jpg

There's off course, the Palace.
It's somewhere in Brussels, I think just outside the city center, but I'm not really sure where it is, haha! Only seen it once in my life.
http://belgiumview.com/foto/smvote/0000739ab.jpg

Manneke Pis (the boy that pees, lol)
He's in the city center.
On some occasions he's dressed up.
http://belgiumview.com/foto/smvote/0004164ab.jpg


Loads and loads of museums in Brussels.
I only know the music-instruments one, and the history museum.
http://www.naturalsciences.be/index_html


Market place.
That's the City Hall on the left. Legend is that the architect jumped of from the tower when it was finished, because the tower is slightly off centre ...
You can even see it in the picture, that the tower isn't 100 % in the middle.
So I'm not sure about that legend ... I can't understand how he didn't see that when building it? lol
http://www.ilotsacre.be/images/2008TapisdeFleurs.JPG


Actually, my Godmother lives in Brussels city, if you need a guide, just yell, lol.


Now, about the chocolats!! :D
LEONIDAS rules :bleen:
That's all I'm gonna say.
Pure Belgian chocolates.
www.leonidas.com

Oh my gosh, those pictures are great Nathalie! Just spent a few hours pouring through all the info you guys have given me and showing her your images--love it! We are a little overwhelmed with all of the info from all of these countries, so it's nice to have someone who is from the country actually telling us what highlights are worth seeing and well-known to locals. That is what we want--the local experience, not the touristy one. We plan on spending some time biking around various countrysides even so we can get the feel of these places. (fyi we are totally sold on the chocolate museum. Is it choco-story?)

Keep any advice coming guys, you rock! :D

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So, my friend and I (it's down to two of us now, my other friend can't afford to come :( ) were going over places we would like to go on this trip and here is what we came up with for the UK--we basically just wrote down cities we have heard of but have no idea what to do in them. If anyone has anything to add PLEASE let me know so we can look into it as we are going to start making lodging plans in the next few weeks...we decided against stonehenge because, well, rocks. For a lot of money. And out in the middle of nowhere. But we are looking for any tips on other must-see places/things.

Ireland
-Dublin
-Temple Bar
- Hurling (Gaelic Football) Croke Park Stadium
- Howth (near Dublin) cave exploring and ocean adventures!
Belfast
-Giant’s Causeway

Scotland
-Edinburg
- Loch Ness (because why not. Camping anyone?)

England
harry potter stuff!
-Alnwick castle
-The Elephant House
-Manchester
-London (help! Cool pubs? Non-expensive places to visit?)
-Yorkshire moors

Netherlands
-Amsterdam (The Hague, possibly)


Wales: No ideas yet. Help!

Any summer festivals going on in the UK in June? Or must-see concerts? We have no idea what is going on over there this summer, so any tips-offs would be helpful. :3

Yeah, it's "choco-story" :)

Man! I can't believe how soon I am going on this trip! @_@ A few things have changed and my friend has updated our itenerary, so I thought I'd update this thread....it's only about a week away, eeeeeee! *_* Never done this much travelling before, am getting excited/slightly nervous as I don't know what to expect from Europe.

Also, any of you who live in any of these places and want to meet up for coffee or sight-seeing or something during these times, let me know! Also we are still looking for must-se/must-do tips so if anyone has anything to suggest, fire away!! :D

New Itenerary! (updated first post too)

Leave Texas June 13th

Dublin (arrive June 14th @ 1540 - depart June 15 @ laaaate )
Belfast (arrive June 15th @ laaaate - depart June 17th in afternoon by plane)
Edinburgh (arrive June 17th in afternoon by plane - depart June 20th @ 0540)
London (arrive June 20th @ 0940 -depart June 23rd @ 1101)
Paris (arrive June 23rd @ 1417 -depart June 25th @ 1423) **london to paris does not use a day on the pass
Zurich (arrive June 25th @ 1835 -depart 27th @ 1942 by overnight train)
Prague (arrive June 28th @ 1029 by overnight train - depart July 1rst @ 0839)
Berlin (arrive July 1rst @ 1315 - depart July 4th @ 1049)
Brussels July 4th at 1509 continue on to Bruges
Bruges July 4th in evening---depart Bruges July 6th in afternoon
Rotterdam July 6th in evening -- depart as scheduled (July 9th at 1005)
Amsterdam (arrive July 9th @ 1041- depart July 11th @ by overnight train @ 1901)leaving from amsterdam central 23392347 86 dollars
Copenhagen (arrive July 12th @ by overnight train @ 1007-depart July 14th 0735 by plane)
Helsinki (arrive July 14th 1010 -depart by train to Joensuu around noon)
Joensuu/Sovolinna (arrive late July 14th -depart 1500 from Joensuu July 17th)
Helsinki (depart July 18th 0800 for home)

I could have almost met you in Finland... I going to be there most likely in either last week of July or beginning of August.

You gonna be so dead after that trip XD

No! Those 3 days you'll be in Belgium, I will be in Disneyland.
Its this month you'll be leaving, right?

Shame :(

I would have done it a bit differently I think.

London, Paris, Brussels, Germany, Zurich ... if you look at it, going from Paris to Zurich, then back to Brussels, I think you're going in "circles" then kind of, because you are basicly passing through Belgium when wanting to go to Germany aswell.

I also wouldn't have picked Bruges to stay at most of your stay, I like Antwerp a lot more (or even Brussels), but that's your choice off course :)
Just giving some tips.

Darn, shame I'll be missing you guys. :( And I agree, Sadiki, we are gonna be dead tired. xD

Nathalie, I want to say the reason for all of the circling has something to do with our hostel/train ticket situation. The friend I am travelling with is in charge of arranging all of the travel and she has been tinkering with the schedule constantly depending on what tickets become available with the rail we are using. I'll pass on the advice about Antwerp though!

Oh, like that, OK. It just seemed odd that you're kind of going back and forth.

Antwerp and Bruges aren't really close together, so if you have to do that by train, make sure to look that up, because you might spend more time travelling then, and if so it is better to stay in one place maybe.

Hmm.. It's likely that I'll be in Helsinki at the time you'll be there. But that's a pretty narrow window of time for you to do anything other than get yourselves on the train station.

Hope you have a fun trip! Finland is at its most beautiful right now.

Yeah, the girl I'm travelling with has a friend in Joensuu we'll be staying with before we head back to the states...we *might* go back to Helsinki with our friend after we get to Joensuu, but it really depends on what they want to do and how tired we all are. xD

Cool that you'll be there too though! What are you doing over there?

I'm pretty sure he lives close by currently. ;)

I used to live about 20mins from Helsinki myself, but now even with optimal flight plan it takes me 18h to get there... I most likely will be there from 5th of August onwards until beginning of September... Well anyways, I really hope you enjoy your tour of Europe. :cheese:

Have nothing to add, but OMG, HAVE FUN! :D

I think you've almost left by now? In any case, I hope you have an amazing time! :)

Ooh, Copenhagen! That is fairly close to where I am, but it's right around the time when me and This Land will be getting ready to head for the UK, so we might be a little too busy packing on the 13th to get away. Typical xD

I guess you'll be on your way now too! The travel plan looks great, I hope you'll have an awesome time! :D

I think you must already be back home ??

I'm very curious to know how it was, and to see pictures!

I am! Crazy thing is, I got back and then immediately went camping/hiking for a week in Colorado with my Mom. xD We climbed Mt. Evans (like, from the trailhead, not driving up the road) and 4 other smaller (12k-13k foot) mountains that week, it was so fun!

...and ever since I got back from that trip a few days ago I have been frantically packing up all of my belongings because I am moving out of my parent's house and into an apartment in three days....SO EXCITED. I've been back home for over two years now paying off my student loans and saving up money, and it's all finally come together....I am debt free and going to be independant again! Woo hoo!! :D :D :D


....but anyway, all that to say that I'm sorry I haven't updated you guys yet, just been really really busy! The trip to Europe was AWESOME though, and I will definitely update with pictures when I get a chance...probably not til after this weekend and I am all moved in though. ^^;

Wauw, you have been busy, hehe.

Can't wait to hear what you thought of Bruges :p

Wow, that is very busy. The camping trip you went on sounds absolutely amazing, camping is one of my favourite things in the whole world. Congrats on being debt free! I still have student loans to pay off, the system with mine is that you only have to start paying them off once you reach a certain pay-bracket. Something which I have not yet done, but I'll have to pay them off one day.