21 days around Europe

MonicaBing

2 mates of mine are heading to Europe for 21 days via inter-rail. The thing is they want to hit as many countries within the 21 days as is humanly possible before one of them hits a significant birthday.
Can anyone give them a few pointers on what kind of route to take, where to avoid, where to definitely visit etc?
There both fairly mature travellers and have bought 2nd class rail tickets as there's supposed to be no difference between 1st and 2nd.

Their also not to bothered about luxury so sleeping on train or in hostels doesn't worry them.
Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks!

RHunce

visit munich!

zagmund

No difference between 1st & 2nd, eh ? Mature travellers, eh ?

There may be no (or not much) difference between 1st & 2nd on the 0732 Utrech to Amersfoort commuter train, but if you're going long distance and overnight in a full intercity train there can be big differences. Anyhoo . . .

The request is a little vague, but in terms of covering the most countries I would go Paris->Brussels->Amsterdam->Copenhagen (maybe Stockholm too)->Berlin->Warsaw->Prague->Vienna->Venice->Geneva (maybe Madrid & Lisbon too)->home. I'm sure there are other countries they could add in as side journeys or change the cities, but that would be the basis of my trip. Mind you, last time I did anything approaching this the cold war was still on, there were still two countries called Germany and entire countries could be summed up in "Europe by Rail" in 6 or 7 pages. People with more recent experience may mention routes with all sorts of new countries that didn't even exist last time I interrailed.

z

Tusky

Not sure on what route they should take but they should definitely try include Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona (although this one might be awkward), Prague and possibly even Krakov.

Jack Sheehan

Visit Lake Bled in Slovenia. Everyone I know whos done the interrailing thing says it was the highlight of the trip.