well...you convinced me! we added a day/night in Berchtesgaden which should allow us to see visit Burg Hohenwerfen (castle built around 1076, with a funicular!) and Eisriesenwelt (ice caves). we cut out one night in Kitzigen - dad said other than a quick nostalgia tour around town there really wasn't much to see (it's barely bigger than Palestine) this also makes our travel to Strasbourg not quite so condensed - we'll have an entire day to make our way there, can take our time and if we're feeling like it we may even be able to make a pitstop at either Neuschwanstein Castle or Linderhoff Palace.
all lodging booked, all flights and trains booked, rental car booked. i honestly feel pretty good about the itinerary, i think we're gonna have ample time to see what we want to see as well as just chill out a bit in various places...
firm activities already pre-booked are 1) City Segway tour in Strasbourg, 2) dinner cruise on the Seine (this is the only night dad/sis will be in Paris, seemed like an easy way for them to get to 'see' a lot of things in such a short period), 3) walking Secret Food Tour in Monmarte neighborhood, and 4) half-day Tuscany winery tour out of Florence.
still need to book/get tickets early to a number of things...
so has anybody visited Mont St. Michel? i'm not even sure how to do this as far as timing - like, do you have to study the tides and figure out when you can even get there??
also need to layout a general 'area' itinerary for our days in Paris, Florence, and Rome. i mean, i have a huge list of stuff to see in those cities but i know they aren't all right next to each other. and at least one day in Paris i don't really want to plan anything, like just stroll around and see what we see. and other than Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral (both within 1 km of our hotel) i expect we'll spend our time in Dublin just hanging out with our friends and relaxing/recuperating.
i'll be working on fleshing out our itinerary in the coming weeks, as well as restaurant recommendations/reservations. (i've already got Trattoria Sostanza in Florence noted...i'm going to ask our hotel to make our reservation for us! )
23 nights total...officially the longest trip we've ever taken. and we'll be coming home right as high tourist season kicks off, good timing!