Hola from Madrid!

A few weeks ago, I rather abruptly decided that I want to backpack around Europe. So here I am! Since there are so many well traveled members of the board here, I figured it'd be criminal to not ask those who've been there before for a little advice to help me get the most from my time overseas.

First, a little background. I pretty much know what I'm doing as this is my fifth visit "across" the pond. I've already seen almost all of the really-famous-touristy stuff in England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece and just about everything of any interest what so ever in Spain. (With the glaring omission of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. I lived here for 2 months one summer, love it.)

I've got a backpack and two equally crazy friends I was able to convince to drop everything and come with me. So far, I've hit Barcelona which was unbelievable (I've got to come back in a few years to check on the process of the Sagrada Familia, which is awe-inspiring.) Then, I spent a few days at San Fermines which easily ranks as one of the top five most fun experiences of my life. I befriended a couple of native kids my age from nearby Zaragosa and chilled with them the whole time I was there. I'm certainly coming back in the next few years. (although next time I'm not running-- what a idiotic American I am.) So now I'm spending a few days at a friend's summer house on a private lake outside Madrid before I return to cheapo hostal life.

As for the rest of the trip, it's kind of up in the air, and I'm open to suggestions. Here's what I'm thinking:

1. 1 night somewhere in southern France, either touristy-type place of laid back beautiful / fun type place.
2. 1-3 nights in some sort of beautiful outdoors-y place in nouthern Italy say in the dolomites or something. Maybe even Cinqueterra on the north western coast.
3. A couple days hunting down some of the less well-known stuff (principally the incredible art I could spend weeks with) I've missed in previous Italy.

Now for the places I've never been:

4. Touristy / famous place in Praugue, Vienna, and possibly Budapest. Would like suggestions over the stuff to see here, including any nearby places worth seeing.
5. Germany. Never been there, and will probably need to come back in the next few years to see everything. But I need to do some research on the famous stuff I can see in a week or so. Ideas certainly include Munich, some famous castles, Rhineland, and probably further north, although that's a lot of distance to cover. Oh yeah, and the BMW factory, hehe.
6. Anywhere else you suggest or I find during my travels. Considering returning to Switzerland if not just for the beautiful town and scenery. Amsterdamn is also a definite possiblity, although I don't know enough about it yet (except that it recently held an empeg meet I missed where Rob seems to have demoed some empeg-like device with a color screen. Wish I'd been able to make that.)

So, in closing, any help, advice or places to check out would be most welcome. If anyone's interested, I can post more about what I've done later in the trip. I might not be able to check the board but every few days, but don't worry I'm listening!

So where to next?

John

monaco is cool just for the grand prix circuit you can walk or drive round.

If you feel reel adventoureous you could make the short hop to iceland which is by all reports mad.

Croatia is by all accounts a very nice place to go and it is near italy

Of course there is scotland and our ever present rain and i have an empty house since i moved in with girlfriend

Cinqueterra Rocks! SO beautiful and fun to hike. I suggest it highly. If you have never been to Germany - go there now. Stuttgart is great for the Mercedes museum (awesome!!) and the Porsche factory. The number one place in Germany that I want to go back to is the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The website doesn't do it justice. Just look at the number of cool exhibitions they have. This was the most amazing science and technology museum that I have ever seen. Crazy. Berlin was also amazing. I spent 5 days there and could not see nearly everything I wanted to. Berlin is such a huge construction site. Hundreds of cranes everywhere you look.

have fun!

Cinque Terre is not the "little secret" it once was.
If you go there at this time of year you might not be able to get a room.
But you might luck out if you are willing to Hostel it.
It is a truly wonderful place. I just hope its newfound popularity doesn't ruin it.
I just read that the number of tourists there have increased 30-40% over
just five years ago. And it is apparently booked May-Sept. now, rather than
just July and August. But it was recently made a national park, so they
are definitely trying to preserve it.

If you have a car, you might want to consider the Dolomites.
I went throught there last September, and it was relatively uncrowded and
cheap sandwiched between the summer holiday months and the ski
season. Not sure how it would be during the peak time right now.