Europe travel question

Anon, it never hurts to ask "Do you speak English?" in the language of the country you are in, rather than in Australian.

Several hundred years ago, when I went backpacking, I was convinced that was the key to getting people with minimal English feel comfortable giving it a workout: once you've butchered somebody else's language, they tend to feel less self-conscious about butchering yours.
 
Anon, It depends on what you like and what you're like. I've been travelling in many different places and at a different pace. After all that, now I'd say don't get scattered all over in your travels. As in everything balance is necessary between boredom and overactivity
 
Another advice comes to mind: you can either choose nice weather, or English spoken. And in Germany you can't get either of the two :)

If you get tired of seeing buildings, streets and squares, you may want to spend some time in Provence (France) or Tuscany (Italy) or one of the very many other gorgeous parts of Europe. That will require a rental car, though, and driving may be a bit challenging compared to the US but you should be able to get an automatic even from smaller rental agencies if you book ahead with the likes of Hertz, Avis...
Luckily, Grea comes from a sensible country that drive on the correct side of the road & can operate a manual gearbox without crashing ;) ;) ;)
 
This is how it's panning out ... Prague, train to Vienna, train to Innsbruck on the way to Venice (expecting this part of the trip to be beautiful), Rome, Paris and, of course, London.

I guess that means I need to say these understandably ...

Mluvíte Anglicky
Sprechen Sie Englisch
Parli Inglese
Parlez-vous Anglais

Some great suggestions that definitely helped me decide - thanks all for that!

No plans to drive. I get lost in my back yard, let alone overseas. Andy, I did drive manual about 30 years ago - never again :)
 
This is how it's panning out ... Prague, train to Vienna, train to Innsbruck on the way to Venice (expecting this part of the trip to be beautiful), Rome, Paris and, of course, London.

That sounds absolutely perfick.
 
Grea, I've just come back from Rome and I have to tell you that whatever else you do or don't see, the Villa Borghese is an absolute Must. We'd always intended to go but never got round to it, and it's so good that we're going to go again every time we visit Rome. It's a gallery of renaissance and slightly later paintings and sculptures, with a number of Caravaggios and Berninis - absolutely breathtaking stuff.

You have to book your ticket in advance, you can't just pitch up on the day, but really and truly it is gobsmacking. We like it better than any other gallery we've ever been to, including the National Gallery and the Louvre.
 
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