Our family is heading off for a vacation there in about oh… two weeks, and were looking for a good atlas for the trip… our main itinerary sp? is:
London
Northern UK
down east coast
cut across to manchester
manchester - > hamburg
berlin
SE Germany
Prague
Big border town in Switzerland
Loop around Germany back to hamburg
hamburg - > manchester
London
Home
Any have any must sees in this area as well?
I’ve been told Amsterdam is a nice city this time o’year. 
fierra is a bit NW of London…and exactly 4343 miles away from me right now, according to my GPS. 
Well, myself and messiah are in London, kferr is about an hour away, RickQ and casdave are in Leeds, plus we have esteemed colleagues in Manchester, Scotland and Ireland. And that’s not even counting the Dutch, Danish and German contingent.
By this do you mean Scotland?
I live in Aberdeen. Not sure how far north you’re planning to travel, though.
Salzburg is a pretty town near the German border. I happen to live near it.
If I was you I d go for Amsterdam. 
dodgy
Well, as it happens, I live in Hamburg p.t. - I’m Danish.
Hamburg is quite a nice city, but it fades somewhat compared to places like Prague or A’dam, admittedly. I’d be happy to help you find some good spots, if I can - what would your interests be ?
The classical tourist attractions are actually quite OK: The St. Michael Church (baroque, and beautiful), the town hall (late 19th century weddingcake style, interesting if hardly pretty), the art museums are pretty cool. But if you have any specific interests, I’d be happy to see what I can dig up.
S. Norman
As you‘re going to be in the neighbourhood, I’d strongly recommend a visit to a small town in southern Bohemia called Cesky Krumlov.
The photos don’t do the town any kind of justice. As well as being absolutely beautiful it also has the distinct advantage of not being Prague i.e. it still has the trendy tourists relatively under control.
While Cesky Krumlov has certainly suffered from being in the spotlight (so kindly afforded to it by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site – humm…), it remains a genuine, unspoilt medieval town overlooked by a great forbidding Monastery. Very, very evocative of Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’.
Don’t forget, in two weeks time they’ll still be clearing up after Amsterdope 2001, which takes place this weekend!
Miss dodgy, I believe you were at one time thinking of coming to Amsterdope. What’s the final verdict on that?
Since L_C mentioned Cesky Krumlov, I have to say that Bratislava is a very good alternative to Prague, if you prefer not to share your experience of a beautiful Central European city with throngs of other tourists.
If you like Art Nouveau architecture, pop your head into any variety of buildings in Prague – there’s some great stuff. And I can heartily recommend the dark beer. And the Cafe Louvre does a nice meal at a reasonable price.
It’s hard to recommend things in London without knowing what sort of thing you like to see. My parents liked the open-top hop-on hop-off buses which go around to all the major tourist attractions. You buy a day ticket, and can get off at any of the stops and wander about, and then get on again later. Good value. Oh and the National History Museum has a new animatronic T. Rex, if you’re into big smelly dinosaurs.
And in both cities, beware of pickpockets, especially on the Underground/Metro.
In all honesty, apart from Old Trafford, there’s not an awful lot to see in Manchester…does the curry mile count?
Thanks for the help all. I have 14 days to go and counting… Cesky Krumlov seems like a beautiful place to see and we are thinking about heading there. We also are planning a stop in Salsburg so I am looking forward to that, and when I said Northern UK I meant up into the highlands of Scotland (sorry if I have offended and Scottish or English in my descripion, I am still trying to get all of the correct terminology down so I don’t cause a rucuss by mis-nationalizing someone. The best advice I have been given yet is to avoid calling someone British, Irish, or Scottish cause it may have a tendency to make them mad? (could just be paranoid Americans too)). I am REALLY looking forward to this trip… now I just have to wait for my passport to arrive.
Don’t worry too much about the terms. England, Scotland and Wales together form Great Britain; add Northern Ireland to that lot and you have the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (aka the United Kingdom).
Most people don’t mind if you refer to them as British (me, I’m English and I actually prefer describing myself as British).
not sure what part of switzerland you’ll be looping around, but luzern/lucerne is a beautiful town nestled in the alps. as for germany, heidelberg, freiburg and tuebingen are classic university towns which are quite quaint. the first is probably the most interesting of the three. tuebingen is a pretty small town, and worth spending a day in. freiburg happens to be one of my favorite german towns. it’s in the sunniest part of germany and is the “capital” of the black forest. if you like the woods, then you’ll love this area. check out triberg and you can see the world’s largest cuckoo clock. although there’s a competing “world’s largest cuckoo clock” in the village next door – schonach (or something like that.)
bratislava, well, i’m sorry hibernicus, but i really wouldn’t call it a good alternative to prague. i live in budapest, and i’ve been to bratislava several times and, well, i’m really not impressed by it. maybe you have to show me something i’ve missed.
I’ll third the motion on Cesky Krumlov.
And definitely Salzburg. If you’re gonna do Austria, I prefer this town to Vienna by miles (or kilometers, as the case may be.)