pinknic38

Well... if you're going to do that whole route, I would suggest perhaps a night or 2 in Dusseldorf. You might want to sandwich it between Amsterdam and Cologne since it's between the two, right on the way to Cologne. I never got to go but always wanted to. I spent a very short time in Frankfurt which was ok but I don't recommend... very different from the rest of Germany... very modern... looks like any big city in the US. Airport is freaking HUGE though haha.

I was originally considering Amsterdam and Belgium also when I went last summer and opted for more time in Germany and 4 days in Poland. But I did ask around and as far as Belgium goes, everyone I've talked to has suggested Bruges over Brussels.

Another Germany suggestion is Bremen, which is kind of on the way right after Amsterdam. Another place for right after Cologne but before Stuttgart is Mannheim. We passed through there on the train and I always wished I would have gotten off there and wandered around a bit. It's another city on the Rhine.

Also, try not to plan Heidelberg for a Sunday... I went on a Sunday and a lot of the quaint little shops and stuff were closed for the day!

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bertus

Berlin has some fantastic architecture and is a big contrast from Munich since Berlin is very modern and Munich is not. From Berlin you can also go to Potsdam, it's connected on the S-Bahn so it only takes about 45 minutes if I remember and only costs about 5 euros round trip. Potsdam has a large number of palaces and they are all contained in one park so you can easily spend a day wandering around, plus most of the tourists just go to Sanssouci and ignore everything else so it's not as busy as you would expect.

dsanchez

Thanks everyone for the help and advice from a few months back. Much appreciated.

So I leave in one week and am starting to get very excited!! After some thought and revisions, here is my plan:

Amsterdam (3 nights)
Brugges (2 nights) - spend one day exploring Brussels on my way to Koln
Koln (1 night) - stop off to explore small towns along the Rhine (Koblenz maybe)
Heidelburg (2 nights)
Fussen (2 nights) - hiking and cycling especially, visit castles, maybe bike to Reutte Austria for a day
Munich (4 nights) - spend one day in Salzburg, Austria

Any last minute advice or tips to offer? Looking forward to my first trip in Europe.

Next Friday cannot come soon enough!!!