Oh, and go watch a real football match. Especially an English Premier match. They’re a blast and you usually can buy tickets outside the stadium on game day.

Two tips for Paris:

1) The Institut du Monde Arabe: great view of central Paris from the rooftop deck, and you can sip tea in the building next door, which feels like a bedouin tent. This is a little off the beaten path for tourists but it’s worth a visit. http://www.imarabe.org/

2) Not far from there, one of my favorite restaurants anywhere; L’Atlas, a very nice and upscale Moroccan place. Very friendly staff. http://www.latlas.fr/

Three restaurants that we liked in Rome were:

3) Gusto, http://www.gusto.it/ It’s a restaurant and a cafe complex around the Augustan mausoleum; you can also go to the Ara Pacis just up the street. I liked the pizza with squash blossoms. The restaurant is a bustling place and it’s nice and warm in there at night.

4) Gran Sasso, on the via di Ripetta not far from the Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish stairs. I had a very good grilled squid there.

5) La Famiglia, near the Termini train station (Via Gaeta 66). Nice family-style place. I had a nettle risotto that was really delicious; there is also a lunch buffet with a good variety. Like most places in Rome, they’re used to tourists as well.

review here

I’d also try to see the city at sunset from the top of the Altare della Patria (the big monument to Italian nationalism in the center of town). The place is crowded and there is only one bathroom up there, so it can be a little uncomfortable, but the view is fantastic.

My only advice, then, would be to stay open to random encounters with fellow travelers but to avoid former East Germans, or current Australians, for that matter, if you want to have any actual memories of the trip later.

In the old town market square in front of the Frauenkirche (“Church of our Lady) there are usually a number of stalls where one can get a quick wurst or Frikkadelle (hamburger-like patty) and a pretzel. In this square is also a popular fixture, the Schöner Brunnen, a curiously decorated tower, covered in statues. The statues represent the Seven Imperial Electors and nine ancient and mediaeval heroes. Around it is a unbelievably ornate iron fence, and woven in between the grillwork is a small brass ring. The local legend holds that if you make a wish and turn this ring three times it will come true. You must get a photo of youtself turning the ring!

Most Americans think of the Nazi era landmarks, the huge Congress Hall and Zeppelintribuene (the latter is prominently featured in the Party Rally seen in “Triumph of the Will”) for tourism, and while they’re worth seeing, far more beautiful is the Imperial castle and Sinwell Tower, and old city landmarks, like the Albrecht Dürer house. Nuremberg was the center of the Holy Roman Empire, and it’s because of that connection to the Imperial history of old that Hitler had all those rallies and buildings built there. It wasn’t a more “Nazi” city than any other… if anything Munich was the spiritual center of the Nazi movement.

Prague is also very beautiful (and has often stood in for a number of European cities in movies!) While in the Czech republic, you must try some of the finest beer in Europe, the Budvar. When the region was under German influence, the same town and its namesake beer was known as “Budweis”; the name shamelessly ripped off by Anheuser-Busch for its domestic piss-water.

The best place to appreciate the Eiffel Tower is from across the river at the Trocadéro. If weather permits, stay awhile and enjoy the view while the sun goes down. (Bring a bottle of wine.)

The best European vacation tip: Just take your time and hang out. Touristy stuff is all right, but you’ll probably look back more fondly on a few hours spent at a Parisian café than on waiting in line at an “attraction” somewhere.

For Dublin: see preceding paragraph, but substitute “pub” for “Parisian café”.

Sounds like your tour will be a whirlwind; Nuernberg arguably deserves two days. Lot of art history for a fairly small city, it’s in the middle of a region called Franken (Franconia) with excellent white wine. A predominantly Protestant region in northern Bavaria which is otherwise overwhelmingly Catholic, the locals tend to identify more as Franconians than as Bavarians and the dialect is different. (Of course if you speak German you know all of this already.)