FAO Megson if you're about...

2 weeks is a fairly short amount of time and you can't use sleeper trains all the time as you 1) are lucky if you can get a wash, let alone a shower and 2) have a nightmare sleeping - remember the trains are often stopping and shunting across the tracks during the night and you'll be woken very often.

Don't travel like every other day or something as you will never get to enjoy the holiday and will be knackered!

Some info on train journeys I've done in the past:

Eurostar London -> Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam. Easy, good trains, well organised. Not much to see from the trains, and no sleeper.

Amsterdam -> Poznan (Poland) and potentially on to Warsaw as the Poznan train is the same one. Great trains, sleeper possible until Berlin. Shit train from Berlin to Poznan. Poznan quite nice but nothing to write home about. Train goes via Hannover and Berlin so possible stop-off points there (I stayed in Berlin for a few days).

Warsaw -> Krakow -> Zakopane (Tatra mountains). Warsaw isn't much, but the train journey is perfectly OK. Take some food with you and ours wasn't a sleeper. Krakow is fantastic - beautiful, atomspheric, cheap and full of history although I wish the Synagogues would celebrate Judaism a bit more to even out the Holocaust stuff. Auschwitz and the salt mines are worth a visit. Zakopane is stunning (although I went in winter), and if there is snow it's great to get a horse-drawn sleigh ride up to the lakes in the mountains.

Amsterdam -> Utrecht -> Zell-am-See (Austria). These are sleepers and basically take you into ski resorts. Stunning scenery mostly in Kaprun.

Vienna -> Prague. Extremely slow (even though I took the "fast train") but stunning green hills and valleys and a couple of times you go across a single track bridge hundreds of feet above the ground - very hairy! Prague is really amazing with a lot of history as well.

Prague -> Bratislava -> Budapest. Sleeper, but I had to share with a Czech truck driver. Lovely man (couldn't speak a word of English though) but snored ALL night and smoked out of the window meaning all I could hear was the screeching of the train braking all the time. They wake you up at each border to present your passport (maybe different now). Bratislava is much nicer than the station suggests, and Budapest has some fascinating sides and good nightlife. Friendly people too, but be careful with taxis (mafia).

Munich -> Salzburg. Munich is a nice place to visit and go out, but a bit too big for me. Salzburg is beautiful and a really nice village atmosphere. Take the missus for a horse-and-carriage ride, visit the castle, and go to one of the great Jazz cellars. The journey between the two through the Tirol mountains is also beautiful.

Eurostar Rome -> Florence. Fast (2 hrs I think) but expensive and no sleeper. However, both cities HAVE to be seen and both are very different.

Cannes -> Nice -> Monte Carlo (Monaco). They are so close to each other this one is easy and Monte Carlo is a must-see even if it is quite disgusting in terms of wealth! Beautiful weather and, while not cheap, not as expensive as I had expected.

Personally I like the idea of the "Dracula" route - I think it was Rotterdam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt (?), Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and then off to Transylvania. I'd love to do that one day.

As for cities in general, the ONE city you must visit at least once in your life is Venice. It is absolutely unique and blew me away all three times I have been there. I am already planning our next trip there!

My favourite European cities are Venice, Dubrovnik, Montmartre (OK, only a part of a city, but still), Prague, Rome, Salzburg, Berlin and Budapest. If you go to Rome, allow a few days though as you should visit Hadrian's Villa, Ostia, and the famous stuff in the centre (Colloseum, Forum, Palantine, etc).

Over-rated in my opinion are Paris (except Montmartre), Vienna, Geneva, Brussels and probably many more.

Posted By: Steve in Holland, Dec 31, 15:29:39