I thinking of traveling and would like to hear Dopers opinions. Thanks.
Paris. I thought it was the most beautiful city I have ever seen. I don’t generally like cities, but I loved Paris.
A pretty even toss between Bamberg and Wiesbaden. Spent time in both, really enjoyed it. Bamberg was home for two years, Wiesbaden for a little over 6 months.
London. Too expensive by half, but the Perfect City.
Antwerp, Prague and Barcelona are all absolutely stunning, and while Prague is very affordable, the food in Barcelona is maybe as good as any city on Earth, which neither Antwerp or Prague can claim.
Cork.
It’s my other hometown. Not that I’d recommend it to anyone else on that account.
Paris just seems the epitome of civilization, in nearly every respect.
Vienna is second for me: the right combination of cool buildings and good bread and public transport.
Madrid is perhaps third, a lot like Paris physically, but with a different cultural underpinning.
Venice. See it before it sinks. No cars, beautiful art everywhere, glorious houses and museums. Quiet, extrodinarily gorgeous and not as expensive as you might think.
Rome. Like New York City because it’s fast and full of wonderous things to see everywhere but really old. Eat pizza by the etto, sneak into a fifteenth century church to use the bathroom and admire the paintings, throw a rose on Julius Caesar’s graveyard and throw unbelievably ancient Roman ruins, drink the water of the Trevi fountain.
Athens. I fell in love with the history, the architecture, the food, everything.
Apart from being too expensive 
Maastricht. Duh. 
Okay, London and Prague are not to bad, either.
Edinburgh. All of the big city amenities, but with a small-town feel. And the people there are very friendly.
London - a great city, world class, filled with amazing stuff
Rome - hums with life, dirty, crowded, shambolic and beautiful. It’s the only place you can become blase about ancient history
Amsterdam - the best city for just wandering about aimlessly
Edinburgh - well I was born there. As Not Dennis says, it’s a small town, but the view from Princes Street towards the Old Town has few peers
My choices would be Antwerp and Budapest.
Antwerp has great architecture, it’s a really cool place to walk around, has some great bars and a fantastic restaurant just by the Cathedral called “The Eleventh Commandment” - has to be seen inside for the full impact.
Budapest has the same, except instead of a restaurant by the Cathedral (St Istvan’s Basilica) it’s got a great bar called the Montmartre. The Szechenyi spa is somewhere we always try to visit when we’re there, it’s a great place to relax once you’ve spent hours walking around the zoo opposite!
As for London, I’d avoid it like the plague. Horrible, horrible place.
Edinburgh- as the above two posters have said. It has a million dollar skyline, and despite the Scottish reputation of skinflints, it is not an expensive city. (I love Scotland so I am biased).
Paris is a knockout for architecture and the arts. London is special. Dublin I couldn’t really recommend.
Sorry, but I need to pitch in for my neighbors. Bilbao has even better food. Madrid’s is quite good too, but not as good as Bilbao, plus Bilbao has the advantage of being much more compact (and it’s foodie areas, even more so).
That said, I personally love Barcelona, but it involves personal reasons (I know where to find my kind of people here) as well as those of having lots of interesting places both within the ciry and nearby. When people ask “what to do in or around Barcelona”, the answer is the same as if they were asking about Spain: “tell me what do you want to do, I’ll tell you where to do it.”
[QUOTE=Cicero;14962180… the Scottish reputation of skinflints …[/QUOTE]
This is actually an intra-Scottish joke aimed at Aberdonians, in reality Scotsmen are generally too generous for their own good in my opinion.
A list in no particular order:
[ul]
[li]Edinburgh[/li][li]London[/li][li]Paris[/li][li]Munich[/li][li]Lisbon[/li][/ul]
Budapest it probably my favourite capital city in Europe. It’s pretty, without being Disneyfied like Prague - it’s still a bit shabby, and if you go to a bar even in the heart of town there’s a good chance it won’t be entirely full of other tourists. It has a wonderful thermal baths, both indoor and outdoor, often with fantastic architecture. It has green spaces and hills close to the centre that you can walk up and get a good view across the city. And it has the kertek - outdoor summertime drinking dens, many of them in abandoned or semi-derelict buildings that make a wonderfully surreal place for a boozy night out.
I have such good memories of traveling in Europe. Prague was my favorite for many years, but I’m sure it’s changed in the last 25 years. Florence is certainly up there. For larger cities, Paris and Rome have to be the top picks. I have a great fondness for Lisbon, since I lived there for two years and had a terrific apartment.
I guess it would be easier to choose my least favorite, as nearly all of the cities I traveled to had their charm. The only one that had nearly nothing going for it was Geneva. I was there several times for my job and never found any redeeming features, other than you could get a train out of there easily and head up to Zermatt, easily one of the more charming towns in the Alps with a killer view of The Matterhorn.
I haven’t delved into why I like those cities because it would just take up too much time and space. To pick just one: Prague had that old European feel to it. The old town section was untouched in WWII and retained its charm and architecture. Cobbled, winding narrow streets, old churches, a great castle on the hill, the Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava River with the old mill still sitting on the river. Great beer and good food.
Peking has rickshaws, New Orleans jazz.
But ah! Paree!
Beirut has sunshine – that’s all it has,
But ah! Paree!
Constantinople has Turkish baths, and Athens that lovely debris.
Carlsbad may have a spa–but for ooh-la-la,
You come with me!
Carlsbad is where you’re cured after you have toured
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah! Paree!