land of the trolls
Since everybody here seems to focus on central and western Europe, I would like to make an argument for northern Europe!
I did some backpacking and train travelling there and it is a must see. Norway with thousands of fjords, glaciers and beautiful cities like Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. You can cross the polar circle and maybe do a tour to the North Cape, the northern most point in Europe, and look into the arctic sea! (I never made it but during 24h of daylight in the summer, it must be a blast). Sweeden and Finland with wonderful forests and lakes and great cities like Stockholm and Helsinki - very special!! These countries are, by the way, the closest you get to the "north America" experience in Europe as you get - for the only reason that the population density is so low. Be sure to take the day time ferry from Turku(Finnland) to Stockholm (Sweden) across the Baltic Sea for relatively few bucks (it takes about 8 or 10 hrs), so you won't miss the Aland Isles in between. I think there are special train tickets for the Scandinavian countries available.
I am not kidding - try to do it. Of course, Paris, Rome, Munich, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, are all great cities - but everybody does that....
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