Well my wife is about to graduate from the University of Denver with her masters in Social Work, so I want to take her on a trip to Europe.

Now's the time since we want to have a kid sometime relatively soon, and I'll be starting Law school soon too We have to hit France because we met in French Class in highschool and can both speek French. WE'd like to visit some castles and such and some historical sights (I am a History major from CU Boulder!)

My questions are:

Where to go?
Where not to go?
What to see?
Where to stay?
Anything else you can offer!

THanks in advance.

 

Get ahold of AlpineRam or Pistolwhipt... Alpine obviously is still there, Robert jsut came home from Europe and either should be able to help you out with recent info ........

 

Only places I have been is Amsterdam (dont take your wife or she will be an Ex soon) and Norway.

Norway is beautyful and everyone speaks english. Its expensive (you get about 6 NOK for a dollar and expect to pay 10 Nok for what you would expect to spend a dollar on (ie, a bottle of Coke out of a vending machine is going to cost 10 nok)

 

my brother was just there last month for work, he spent the week in Paris. Visited all the major site. Notre Dame, the tower ect. Sounds like the trip of a lifetime. have fun and enjoy.

 

If you want to visit France and are interested in history I'd suggest the southern region, especially the langue d'oc - You can choose between history in arts (Toulouse Lautrec etc) or military history, religious history (the langue d'oc was the region with the longest standing of the force continue cult, the cathar wars etc) then you can see a lot of castles and landscapes like the gorges du tarn, visit la turbie (a kind of eagle's nest almost vertically above monaco- also a place to go) - well that's about it for southern france off hand. I'd not especially suggest paris because it's overrun with tourists and even though there is a whole lot of interesting stuff there you'll find that most guided tours during summer are tests in how quick can we shoo the tourists through without damaging the walls with the sonic boom of passage

Just my 2c

AlpineRAM

 

Ive been to england and scotland. I thought London was a waste of time, IMO it was kind of a dump. Bath was awsome(roman baths) stonehenge was kind of a waste(bunch of big rocks you cant even get close to). Stratford, and York are awsome though. Scotland(all of it) was awesome, ecspecially edinborough, and the north sea. Nice to see another history major!

 

Well, if you aren't fixed on only france you should visit Austria. Clearly I'm a bit partial about it, but it's very interesting. Austria has been an empire once- just for grins and giggles, Mexico belonged to Austria once. It was an empire where the sun never set.
Since there is so much history here I could look into finding some info for you, but you will need to tell me what you want to see- eg the worlds biggest collection of medieval weaponry? architecture (which period- BC or AD, if AD a rough bracket of centuries would be nice)
If it works out I'd like to meet you and show you around in some places that aren't too known... like an original roman bridge, the weapon collection, etc....

AlpineRAM

 

I would go to France. Get on the TGV!!! What a blast. The US needs high speed trains like this. My wife and I flew into Paris and hopped right on the TGV to Annecy,then came back to Paris for a few days. Annecy is a great little town on a lake sort of in the foothills of the alps I think (?). Lots of cobbled pedestrian only paths to walk around. We got pain au chocolats every morning from the ""Chaud brioche" - and they really were chaud! Diesels everywhere! For me Paris was a bit overwhelming... just so much to do and see but I think if we went again not having gotten 24 hours earlier it would be less stressful. We did a ton of walking and got a multi day pass for the bateau bus that makes stops up and down the seine. If you go do all the popular tourist attractions, get a multi day pass (can be bought underneath l'Arc) and you will save a ton of money AND cut all the lines.

PS Don't be an idiot like me. Get a converter so yo ucan charge your digital camera's batteries!!!

J'ai pris francais a l'ecole pour huit ans mais j'ai oublie tout