Must-See Things to Do/See in Europe
I'm starting to narrow down my list of the things I need to do to get ready for Europe. My theory on overplanning and overthinking on the front end is that I'll have that much less to worry about when I get there. Obviously the tour is going to have its own theories on what I will or won't do, but I gathered from my reading the Rick Steves offers at least some time away from "the herd." So: what do I expect to get out of this trip? What do I want to see? What do I want do? I've already nailed down the questions I want to ask myself for my journal:
- What did you see?
- What did you hear?
- What did you smell?
- What did you taste?
- What did you touch?
- What did you do?
- What did you think?
- What did you feel?
- Who did you meet?
Perhaps it's best for me to break things down by destination:
Netherlands/Amsterdam
- Anne Frank House (part of tour)
- Ride in canal boat
Germany/Rhineland
- Ride on river cruise (part of tour)
- Visit at least one Lutheran church/place of historical interest
- Visit a castle (part of tour)
- Buy Hummels for Mom, Col, and Ellie
- Visit World War I / World War II battlefield
Austria
- Hike among the mountains
Venice
- Doge's Palace (part of tour)
- Boat tour (motor, not gondola)
- Seafood
- Go looking for James Bond (kidding)
Florence
- David (yeah, yeah, he's tall and nekkid; can we find some wine now?)
- Walk where Dante Alighieri walked
- Giardino di Boboli
- Find some Tuscan wines and just chill out
Rome
- Roman Forum (part of tour)
- Catacombs
- Vatican City (part of tour)
Cinque Terre
- Hike along the cliffs above the ocean
- Do some serious chilling out
- Find the local wine
- Write
- Don't do a d@mn thing
Switzerland
- More hiking in the mountains
- Find a decent cheese/chocolate, devise plausible excuse to ship several tons to U.S.
- See the Large Hadron Collider?
France
- Tour a vineyard (part of tour)
- Sample whatever wine, food, and wine is available
- Find a vineyard that will ship cases to the U.S.
- Wander Paris (part of tour)
- Musee Rodin
- Versailles (time permitting)
- Chill out somewhere Hemingway chilled out
- At least try the coffee
Other things will come to me. Given a semi-structured tour and that tours are likely to get me to most of this anyway, what things should I do/try/see in my limited free time? Ideas welcome.