Things to do in Europe? (UK, FRA, ITA, GER, CZE, NLD, BEL, SWE, DEN)
- Thread starter ISUCyclones2015
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I've been to most of those countries but I did it about 15 years later than you did. If I was your age I would put an itenerary together and then modify. I like to use tripit to put places I want to visit, eat drink, etc. It would be nice just to kind of do it on the fly so you can stay longer/shorter at places you like/dislike. For example, I could easily spend 5 days in and around Rome but other places like Munich 2 days would be enough for me. I would also spend at least 1/4 of your time in small towns. Some of the best places I've been have been small places in Belgium, Italy, France, etc.
+1000 on spending time in the small towns. It's fantastic to experience a place for a few days. Easier to do in a smaller town.find a favorite restaurant and bar and get to know the people. Our best times have been in small towns in France, Croatia and Slovenia. Was even invited for a day of fishing in Slovenia that started with an inquiry in a coffee shop about how the fishing was in a local lake. The next day, I was out in a boat catching northern pike with the father of the coffee shop owner. Shared a few beers at the end of the day.great times.
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You are at the age where a 20 day, 10 country trip might be fun. 
It's probably the only time that you'll want to do anything like that.
I'm old and travel pretty much the opposite way (4 Europe trips--7 days in England, 10 days in Italy, 14 days in Ireland, and 16 days in Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels). So you would do well to do the opposite of me. I didn't love Rome, but really enjoyed Florence and Pisa. I loved everything about Ireland. Dublin was a blast, but the little towns were the best. I think the French and Paris get a bad rap. Loved that place. Go to the light show at the Eiffel Tower. I hated Amsterdam until I realized it was more than the the Red Light District. 25 year olds might like that more! (Although, we were dorks and did a Red Light District Tour and while my friend and I thought the whole thing was weird, the senior citizens on a trip with their Baptist church group loved it!)
One thing that I noticed on the Paris/Amsterdam/Brussels trip is that it bothered me more than I thought to leave each city. I would get used to Paris and then have to go to a whole different country.
It's probably the only time that you'll want to do anything like that.I'm old and travel pretty much the opposite way (4 Europe trips--7 days in England, 10 days in Italy, 14 days in Ireland, and 16 days in Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels). So you would do well to do the opposite of me. I didn't love Rome, but really enjoyed Florence and Pisa. I loved everything about Ireland. Dublin was a blast, but the little towns were the best. I think the French and Paris get a bad rap. Loved that place. Go to the light show at the Eiffel Tower. I hated Amsterdam until I realized it was more than the the Red Light District. 25 year olds might like that more! (Although, we were dorks and did a Red Light District Tour and while my friend and I thought the whole thing was weird, the senior citizens on a trip with their Baptist church group loved it!)
One thing that I noticed on the Paris/Amsterdam/Brussels trip is that it bothered me more than I thought to leave each city. I would get used to Paris and then have to go to a whole different country.
I agree that 10 countries in 20 days is too much. Don't forget the time needed to travel. But again it depends what you'd like to do: do you want to spend time and soak the atmosphere or do you just want to cross the items off your list?
for example you can go from north to south Netherlands on a train in about 4 hours but you might miss a lot of things that make the country unique. You can go to Cinque Terre in Italy and hop on and off the train in those 5 towns in a day but you might not have a chance to enjoy the uniqueness of each towns compared to if you pick 2-3 towns only and spend longer time there. Same with Rome: I went 2-3 times to St Peter Square just to soak the atmosphere but some people feel it is enough to go once, take pics and leave.
If you want to visit Italy and want to see churches, make sure you cover your knee and shoulder otherwise you will be denied entry.
for example you can go from north to south Netherlands on a train in about 4 hours but you might miss a lot of things that make the country unique. You can go to Cinque Terre in Italy and hop on and off the train in those 5 towns in a day but you might not have a chance to enjoy the uniqueness of each towns compared to if you pick 2-3 towns only and spend longer time there. Same with Rome: I went 2-3 times to St Peter Square just to soak the atmosphere but some people feel it is enough to go once, take pics and leave.
If you want to visit Italy and want to see churches, make sure you cover your knee and shoulder otherwise you will be denied entry.
Wear a cutoff Rebel Flag Tee with Zumbas and talk about how 'Merica does it better. I hear that helps out a lot.
I've been to most of the countries in Scandinavia. As others have recommended, I would spend time at local, dive-ish bars that are not touristy and get to know the locals. While europeans in general can be a bit pretentious/unfriendly towards Americans, if you make the effort to ask them questions about their way of life and culture, I found that they appreciate it and open up quite a bit. We definetly had more fun doing that than we did at any of the big night clubs or touristy spots, and it saved us a lot of money. We had only planned to stay in Aarhus, Denmark for 1 day but ended up staying for 3 days because we made friends with some of the dock workers, who took us out in their boats and showed us around the town. By the third night, when we walked into the local dive bar where our dock worker friends hung out, they had Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" qued up for when we walked in. Great times.
Also took an over-night ferry from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki,Finland. Made friends with some Finnish guys who take it every weekend to smuggle Chewing Tobacco into Finland, because it is illegal to sell there. They had a room almost full with it. 10/10 would reccommend. I believe the cruise was thru Viking Line.
Okay so here is the download on the Netherlands:
1) Amsterdam is the most fun you can have anywhere, but don't just spend all your time in the red light district, Leidseplein is way way better and more fun, go to the Cooldown Cafe (AKA De Kleine) on Leidsedwarsstraat. Spend some time on Museumplein and see the Rijksmuseum, one of the 5 or 6 truly world class museums in the world (better than the Louvre IMO) Walk around the city center of Amsterdam during the day the architecture is awesome.
2) Utrecht is a student city of about 350K and is a lot of fun, think of it as a smaller Amsterdam with a younger crowd. Utrecht is also the center of the rail network for the Netherlands so travel is convenient.
3) on travel within the Netherlands: YES the country is very small (2/3 the size of Iowa) so you can go end to end in a day and just stay somewhere in the center of the country. Check out Groningen for some fun (Another student city 200k population) it's also a bit different culture in the north (Friesland). On the other end of the country go to Maastricht, the city is over 2000 years old and still has the Roman wall as well as some really cool shops.
4) Food, the Dutch know their drunk food, fried everything is in order, Try the bitterballen (not actually bitter), Krokete, Frikandele, and obviously Dutch fries ( go to manneken pis in Amsterdam on damsweg as you walk back to the station from the RLD or Leidseplein. They also have Febo, which really needs to have an Ames location.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/FEBO
5) Rent a bike and see the country by Cycle (Fiets in het Nederlands) you can bike literally everywhere and you have right of way even over cars.
6) See Amsterdam from the canals, if you have a friend with a boat in Amsterdam go to the Albert Heijn (Hy-Vee) grab a crate of Heineken, Grolsch, Brand, or Hertog Jan (10-14 EUR for 24 bottles) and some bread with various toppings (kip kerrie, kip satay, kip sambal) and just put put around the city. If you don't know someone with a boat then just take a tour boat.
7) Everyone speaks english, especially in Amsterdam, 95% of the country is fluent in English and dutch isn't really that far off anyway. a little bit of effort goes a long ways though.
1) Amsterdam is the most fun you can have anywhere, but don't just spend all your time in the red light district, Leidseplein is way way better and more fun, go to the Cooldown Cafe (AKA De Kleine) on Leidsedwarsstraat. Spend some time on Museumplein and see the Rijksmuseum, one of the 5 or 6 truly world class museums in the world (better than the Louvre IMO) Walk around the city center of Amsterdam during the day the architecture is awesome.
2) Utrecht is a student city of about 350K and is a lot of fun, think of it as a smaller Amsterdam with a younger crowd. Utrecht is also the center of the rail network for the Netherlands so travel is convenient.
3) on travel within the Netherlands: YES the country is very small (2/3 the size of Iowa) so you can go end to end in a day and just stay somewhere in the center of the country. Check out Groningen for some fun (Another student city 200k population) it's also a bit different culture in the north (Friesland). On the other end of the country go to Maastricht, the city is over 2000 years old and still has the Roman wall as well as some really cool shops.
4) Food, the Dutch know their drunk food, fried everything is in order, Try the bitterballen (not actually bitter), Krokete, Frikandele, and obviously Dutch fries ( go to manneken pis in Amsterdam on damsweg as you walk back to the station from the RLD or Leidseplein. They also have Febo, which really needs to have an Ames location.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/FEBO
5) Rent a bike and see the country by Cycle (Fiets in het Nederlands) you can bike literally everywhere and you have right of way even over cars.
6) See Amsterdam from the canals, if you have a friend with a boat in Amsterdam go to the Albert Heijn (Hy-Vee) grab a crate of Heineken, Grolsch, Brand, or Hertog Jan (10-14 EUR for 24 bottles) and some bread with various toppings (kip kerrie, kip satay, kip sambal) and just put put around the city. If you don't know someone with a boat then just take a tour boat.
7) Everyone speaks english, especially in Amsterdam, 95% of the country is fluent in English and dutch isn't really that far off anyway. a little bit of effort goes a long ways though.
Also, the festival you are going to is in Boom, Belgium very close to the border with the NL, with travel and infrasturcture being better in the Netherlands, I'd stay there instead of in Belgium. Belgian trains are a nightmare and in the french speaking region no where near as many people speak english. Vlaanderen (dutch speaking Belgium) is a little better in that regard but still not as many as the Netherlands.
Go to the desk in the train station in schiphol (amsterdam airport), or any major station (A'dam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht etc.) and get a temporary OV card, makes traveling a breeze and you can just reload it wherever.
the peace palace in The Hague (Den Haag) is amazing if you can get one of the infrequent tours (seriously if you can get one you need to go, the place is amazing)
Go to the desk in the train station in schiphol (amsterdam airport), or any major station (A'dam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht etc.) and get a temporary OV card, makes traveling a breeze and you can just reload it wherever.
the peace palace in The Hague (Den Haag) is amazing if you can get one of the infrequent tours (seriously if you can get one you need to go, the place is amazing)
Also if you want a tour of an estate with a Castle dating to the 13th century give me a shout and I'll hook you up.
(usually closed to the public)
http://www.nyenrode.nl/About/castleandestate/Pages/History-of-the-Castle-and-the-Estate.aspx
(usually closed to the public)
http://www.nyenrode.nl/About/castleandestate/Pages/History-of-the-Castle-and-the-Estate.aspx
Big M - what are you doing in the Netherlands? Studying/teaching?
agree with your comments about Netherlands. I have a relative living there and had a chance to visit couple of years ago although we didn't go to Utrecht but hd a chance to see Eindhoven and Dordrecht, the oldest town in the country IIRC.
isn't The Hague where John Adams negotiated some of his treaties/secured funding during the Revolutionary War?
I've been there a few times, my favorite is Germany by far. I never have but always wanted to ride bikes on the trails in the Netherlands. As far as England - Piccadilly Circus was fun, France - Eiffel Tower of course and you'll need two days to see all the Louvre (beaches in the south are amazing), Switzerland - go to the alps and get a cabin.
Germany... I love Cologne, and it's a cool area to center your time there, easy transportation around from there. Munich is a good time too - catch a Budislega game.... I hesitate to tell you this - go to Dachau. It is depressing and German guides won't want to take you there... And you will leave hating the Germans.... But when you leave the key to remember is that this is a totally different Germany and they would like to bury that place to put it behind them.
The French are jerks, Germans and English love to party.
Germany... I love Cologne, and it's a cool area to center your time there, easy transportation around from there. Munich is a good time too - catch a Budislega game.... I hesitate to tell you this - go to Dachau. It is depressing and German guides won't want to take you there... And you will leave hating the Germans.... But when you leave the key to remember is that this is a totally different Germany and they would like to bury that place to put it behind them.
The French are jerks, Germans and English love to party.
Also Rothenberg in Germany is awesome'
In the tourist areas most natives speak English, get off the beaten path and it's a different story!
In the tourist areas most natives speak English, get off the beaten path and it's a different story!
I guess it depends where you go. I found the French to be surprisingly friendly while I found the Germans to be cold. Agree that Dachau is very depressing, I don't think I'd go back if I could do it again.
