you are aware that you probably just picked the most well-known tourist destination in all of Switzerland?
I've never heard of it. I would've thought Interlaken and Lucerne would be the most well-known and popular places. Is there much difference in the quality of, say, Lucerne and Zermatt, or are they pretty much the same, just with different names?
My advice would be to forget the whole "unknown/obscure" thing, especially if you're just looking for some cool solo "traveller not a tourist" enlightened horizons-expanding backpacker type buzz from seeing something other people don't. It's a bit of a joke.
Travel (especially in Europe) is such a mass industry these days, even backpacking, that anything remotely worthwhile is already getting visited quite a bit. Just see what you wanna see, don't worry if other people already have.
Yeah, all I really want to see are the major tourist attractions plus whatever else I can fit in. I'm just trying to figure out the latter.
When are you travelling? In Finland there's not really anything to see. Winter and midsummer might be exotic for you. To experience winter you should be here in January or February and in inner Finland, there's no real winter in Helsinki. And perhaps you have already seen snow and -30 C temperatures. Summer is best experienced at the countryside too, but midsummer can be exotic also in Helsinki, as every place is shut, and it looks like there had been a massive disaster: There's almost nobody in the town, since every Finn has gone to forest to drink him/herself unconscious.
I'd be in Helsinki in July (as the plan is currently), with my cousins and my sister. So it's deserted in July, like a mega-ghost town? Or is that more in August-September?
Then pop by on your way to Finland. I can offer a quick tour in Tallinn and a drink.
I may do just that. I haven't quite figured out the whole north-Eastern Europe thing yet. What (other than yourself, of course) does Tallinn have to offer?
France - my favourite places were Paris, Caen, Mont St Michel, Avignon, Strasbourg. I found the churches of Tolouse cool, but there really wasn't that much to see. I haven't seen the castles of Loare, they say they're great. Oh,
Germany - Berlin isn't bad, but 1 day is more than enough. Koeln is a very nice place. Lately I've been to Trier and Koblenz, and both were very nice cities, esp. Trier.
Really? I would've thought you'd need 4 or 5 days in Berlin to see everything. Is there not much to see, or does it just not interest you?
Benelux: I didn't like Luxembourg at all, but perhaps it's just me. Brussels was nice, Delft was nice, Tournai was nice. Antwerp was nice.
My sister tells me Luxembourg is nice (for a day), but Belgium is a hole. Would I be correct in assuming I could see pretty everything interesting in Brussels in one day?
Spain - I have seen only some places in Catalonia, Euskadia and Al-Andalus. I'll advertise Sevilla above all else, but also Malaga, Grenada and Cordoba. Barcelona was nice as well.
This is particularly something I'm not sure about. Barcelona or Bilbao? My sister went to both, and she says that Barcelona wasn't that great, but that Bilbao was brilliant. Is Barcelona just sand and beaches, or is there more to it that I wouldn't get from, say, Bilbao?
Greece - Thessalonike has some nice byzantine churches, but is not anything amazing. Athenes suck, apart from the Acropolis. Of smaller places, I advise you to go to Vergina, which is close to Thessalonike - it's nothing on the outside, but you can see the graves of father and son of Alexander the Great, their crowns etc, and it's cool. Nauplion was a relatively nice city as well. Mistra is said to be fine. It's just next to Sparta, which is not worth much attention, because there's nothing left.
So Athens isn't worth the trouble getting to it?
Switzerland - I don't recall any really interesting city, perhaps apart from Bern.
Austria - Vienna... perhaps Salzburg.
One particular question I have about Austria is southern Austria. Is Klagenfurt or Villach worth a day or two, or is it just a bunch of nondescript lakes?
Italy - Venice, Siena (!!!), Firenze, Rome, Naples, Asigi (?),
Palermo is said to be very interesting.
I liked Padova a lot. Ravenna is different from the others mentioned, you can see nice byzantine monuments there.
Siena? What is there in Siena?
Czech RP - just Prague. There's an extremly nice castle, called Karlstein or so, but as far as I know it's closed for tourism.
That's a shame. Is that a common occurrence in Europe? Viable attractions being closed to the public?
hungary - nothing to see. The parliament in Budapest is a nice thing, but it's the only thing of any interest to me there.
Yeah, I pretty much want to go for the parliament. I hear it has some interesting old/new divisions, too.
