well when your in Scotland you should come up to Aberdeen, its a great place :D

Not true - it's easier in Amsterdam, where on almost all stops there AREN'T even any attendants at all! LOL. Once in a blue moon there'll be patrols on the metro itself, but as long as you avoid those, dodging fare is almost too easy to pass up. (I usually don't though, because when you do get caught the fine's pretty steep) ;)

</font>[/QUOTE]LOL sounds like Budapest. They have ticket checkers only at peak times on the main stops. When I'm there for a month I never get my ticket checked more than 3 times in that month, sometimes not at all. But normally I'm ok as I just get an all-encompassing travel pass.

Aelia, I'm disappointed that you're not even giving Eastern Europe a look-in [img]tongue.gif[/img] . You're missing out on Prague, Budapest, Vienna etc. oh well I suppose you can't fit everything in.

LOL - you don't have to wait until London to experience that - try going to your nearest shopping centre and getting on the escalator and then try to get off when the people in front of you decide the top would be a perfect place to stop and talk :rolleyes: :D . And I know I haven't replied to your mail yet, Davros, but I really appreciated all your suggestions! They've gone onto the list [img]graemlins/bighug.gif[/img]

I think I mentioned on another thread that we're going to go to Lords and see the Ashes, Donut - you must be so proud to be able to show them off [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I'm disappointed too, Vaskez! There's so many places I'd love to go see but not this time I'm afraid. We even have to totally bypass Greece which makes the ancient historian in me weep!

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions! What a great idea, Philip, going up the Eiffel tower at night - we'll definitely do that! LOL we're not doing hostels - we're both a bit precious for that :D . We found the tripadvisor site - what a great resource! We found the people who wrote 500 word reviews a bit much though ;)

We're actually staying at the university, Mel - the conference is being held there. I think there's also a day excursion for all the conferencees which I'll tag along on as well - I think we'll be doing castles and such then, should be very good. Advice on restaurants and so on would be really appreciated if it's not too much trouble! Yes we're going to stick to trains and buses - we're travelling between all the cities by train and then obviously the metro and underground and so on. I am so impressed by London and Paris's subway systems. LOL all the hotels are like ' 2 minutes from subway station' - not much of a call when pretty much everywhere is! ;)

And thanks Link for your Rome ideas! We're definitely going to the Vatican, Hiero, so we can see our favourite artwork - Raphael's School of Athens. LOL it was funny, my brother said 'we have to go see my favourite painting', and I said, 'oh yes, I'll have to figure out where my favourite is so we can see it too', and he goes 'as if you know anything about art', and it turned out we both loved the same one :D

I'm getting more excited all the time! We're going to see our travel agent this morning to sort out hotels and train tickets and so on, we have our plane tickets already. More ideas would be appreciated as well!

Well, i hope for your sake the Eiffeltower isn't shut for whatever reason. I've been to Paris a couple of times myself, and every time the damn thing was shut. They must have been on the lookout or something..... THERE HE COMES.... CLOSE IT DOWN, QUICK ! :D

And should you be wandering through the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, mind your steps. I've been there myself once, when i got ambushed by a call of nature. Of course there wasn't a restroom anywhere near. You fill in the rest. :D

I've already been to Paris several times and it is a beatiful city. Just so that you know the Louvre is huge and you need several days to look at everything in there, so if there is a highlights tour it might be worth it if you don't have too much time to spend in Paris.

[ 03-31-2004, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: dplax ]

I don't have much to add to what's already been said in terms of advice and what to see and do, but I hope you have a wonderful trip, love. I'm really happy that you're getting the chance to see all these countries, since I know you've always wanted to [img]smile.gif[/img]

Oh, I forgot my tip about Paris - if you get the chance, go to the cemetary Père Lachaise. It's a beautiful place to take a stroll, and the monuments on the graves are very beautiful too. Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Jean de la Fontaine, Molière, Jim Morrison, Gioacchino Rossini and Edith Piaf are just a few of the celebrities buried there.

This is one of the places I missed, even though Melusine told me about it. I wish I had remembered to go.

Mark

For a seccond I thought you by "Help me enjoy Europe!" meant the band... would be an impossible task, that.

I'll second that [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]