Europe 20-Day Itinerary

In 20 days (excluding the two days required to fly into and out of Europe), we were able to explore 6 countries and multiple cities. This post will compile the destinations in the order of how we traveled. Please click on the links for individual blogposts on each city.

Click on a pin in the map to read the blog post or scroll down for travel itineraries. Happy travels!

Germany: Munich 3-Day Itinerary

Read Day 1 here - BMW Welt and Olympic Park

Read Day 2 here - Neuschwanstein Castle

Read Day 3 here - Nymphenburg Palace and Deustche Museum

Neuschwanstein Castle

Nymphenburg Palace

Austria: Salzburg 1-Day Itinerary

Munich --> Salzburg

Read about Salzburg here - Mirabell Palace and Gardens, Salzburg Old Town, Mozart's birthplace, Fortress Hohensalzburg

Salzburg Old Town

Austria: Vienna 1-Day Itinerary

Salzburg --> Vienna

Read about Vienna here - Sch�nbrunn Palace, Vienna Old Town, Naschmarkt

Schonbrunn Palace

Hungary: Budapest 3-Day Itinerary

Vienna --> Budapest

Read Day 1 here - Rose Gelato and House of Terror
Read Day 2 here - Buda Castle
Read Day 3 here - Gell�rt Hill

Budapest Parliament Building

St. Stephen's Basilica

Czech Republic: Prague 3-Day Itinerary

Budapest --> Prague

Read Day 1 here - Prague Castle
Read Day 2 here - Staropramen Tour and Old Town
Read Day 3 here - Wenceslas Square and Kampa

View from Prague Castle

Wenceslas Square

Germany: Berlin 2-Day Itinerary

Prague --> Berlin

Read about Berlin here - Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, German Bundestag, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin Wall Memorial, Berlin Cathedral

Berlin Wall Memorial

Berlin Cathedral

England: London 4-Day Itinerary

Berlin --> London

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

Kensington Palace

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

France: Paris 3-Day Itinerary

London --> Paris

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

Eiffel Tower

Sacre-coeur

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day Three

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

One of my most anticipated places to visit on this trip was The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Brothers Studio. I booked my ticket with Golden Tours because the Warner Bros. website was sold out of the time slot I wanted. Golden Tours included the bus ride and admission to the studio (GBP 63 each.)

Golden Tour's Harry Potter bus

There were two pick up points and I chose the Gloucester Place one. The Golden Tours instruction in the email was confusing about where the pick up point was. To get there, alight from Baker Street Station and turn right when you leave the station. Keep walking straight until you reach the street that says Gloucester Place and turn right to find the bus stop. The bus stop sign will say "Harry Potter Studio Tour."

Bus stop sign

The bus I took was scheduled for 10:10am but came at 10:20am. The double decker bus was completely full and we were given our admission tickets from the driver after boarding. The bus ride took about an hour to reach Leavesden where the studio was without any stops in between.

Exterior of the studio

Queuing up to enter!

The tour took about 2.5 hours depending on how slowly you went through and I really enjoyed myself! There were many props and behind the scenes designs on display which helped me appreciate the crew behind the movies even more. Ten years worth of Harry Potter films were shot at this studio and I was so happy to see each thing that linked to the different movies.

Great Hall

Gryffindor Common Room

There was a section where we could ride broom sticks in front of a green screen and pretend to fly while a video of scenery played behind us. It cost GBP 25 for a USB with the footage on it. Butter beer was GBP 3 next to Privet Drive.

The bus left the studio at 3:30pm and we were back at Victoria Station by 5pm.

Privet Drive

King's Cross Platform 9 3/4

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day Four

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London --> Paris

It was our last day in London but we didn't depart until the evening so we checked out of the hotel and left our luggage at a storage at St. Pancras International Train Station. Each piece of luggage cost GBP 10.

King's Cross station was next to St. Pancras station and I wanted to see what Platform 9 3/4 looked like. It was modern with automatic gates and didn't allow people without tickets to enter the platform. However, next to Platforms 9 and 10 was a Harry Potter gift store. The small store was packed full and on the wall next to the store was a sign that said Platform 9 3/4 with a cart halfway in the wall for fans to take photos. The queue was quite long and it cost money to take a photo but it's a good option if you do not have time to make it to the Warner Bro. Studio Tour.

From St. Pancras station, it was not a far walk to the British Library. The black barred section in the photo below was the King's Library.

British Library

We visited Hyde Park which wasn't particularly pretty but was famous for the Speaker's Corner.

Hyde Park

Harrod's was easily visible after a short walk from Knightsbridge station. The famous department store was very large and I did not go beyond the first floor to avoid getting lost and absorbed into walking around for far too long. On the first floor there were designer handbags, a raw oyster bar and a delicious confectionery section.

Harrod's

Interior of Harrod's

In the evening we took the 4:22pm Eurostar from London to Paris. It cost about CAD 130 per person and took 2.5 hours to reach Paris.

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day One

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

Berlin --> London

Departing from our hotel in Berlin at 7am, the metro with all the transfers took 1 hour 20 minutes to reach Sch�nfeld Airport. We reached the airport 1.5 hours ahead of our flight time and barely made it to the gate!

The security checking process was confusing and frustrating. People who had flights coming up were told to cut queue by airport staff so the line barely moved. As well, there were a lot more people in the queue than the security process could handle. After making it past security we ran down a flight of stairs, down a long hallway and up some more stairs before we reached the immigration booth. We had to queue some more to have our passports checked and only sat for a few minutes at the gate before we walked out to the plane.

We flew with Ryan Air from Berlin to London and expected some delays. Fortunately, the flight left close to on time at around 10:15am and landed at 10:45am London time (11:45am Berlin time.) A bottle of water cost EUR 3 on the flight.

We arrived at Stansted Airport and bought a National Express bus ticket to London Liverpool Street (GBP 10 per person.) The bus was scheduled at 11:45am and we reached our destination at 1pm. At Liverpool Station we were able to easily purchase Oyster cards for a GBP 5 deposit (refundable.)

British Museum

From Holborn underground station, it was a short walk to the British Museum. Admission was free so it was very crowded with many student and tourist groups. There were fascinating exhibitions though and was worth the visit.

Inside the British Museum

After the museum we walked to Covent Garden, Seven Dials. The name was derived from the seven streets that converged to a centre piece like a dial. The atmosphere was great with the narrow streets, red brick buildings and plenty of cafes, restaurants and shops.

Covent Garden, Seven Dials

From Seven Dials it was another short walk to London Chinatown. It was a small Chinatown that was pretty clean and lined with restaurants. Across from Chinatown was the Soho area filled with bars and pubs. Many Londoners stood outdoors enjoying their drinks after work.

Piccadilly Circus was an area with many old buildings that had huge TV screens plastered on them. It looked like London's version of Times Square with the abundance of advertisements for products, shows and musicals.

On the walk to River Thames

Leaving that area, we walked towards River Thames and came across the Horse Guards Parade area. Past that, we could see the London Eye from across the river. Walking to the side of the river where the London Eye stood, we could see the Parliament and Big Ben in its entirety.

London Eye

Parliament and Big Ben

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day Two

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

We began our full day of London city touring at the Breakfast Club by Liverpool Station. First stop of the day was from Kensington High Street Station and walking to Kensington Palace. It honestly was not as grand as what I expected a palace to look like but it boasted a large park and pond. The gift store was cute with all the royal and British products.

Kensington Palace

Alighting from Victoria Station, we went to Buckingham Palace after the changing guards time was over but there were still a lot of people. Again, the palace was not as large as I imagined it to be but it was still nice. The area felt very patriotic with UK flags floating in between the trees on the streets surrounding the palace.

Buckingham Palace

From Buckingham Palace we walked down Birdcage Street toward the Palace of Westminster (UK Parliament) to see Big Ben. Again, there were many tourists. If you're taking the underground, alight at Westminster Station. Westminster Abbey was also in the area.

Big Ben

Next we went to see the St Paul Cathedral (alight at St Paul Station.) Outside the cathedral we spotted an old style double decker bus number 15 to Tower Hill and hopped on immediately. Someone at the back door scanned our Oyster cards with a handheld device. Most of the double decker buses were the newer style so we were glad we caught this one despite the lack of air conditioning. It wasn't too hot with the windows open.

St Paul Cathedral

Interior of cathedral

Double decker bus

Traffic jam was a constant problem in central London and many streets were single lane for each direction so it took a while to get there. We alighted a few stops early and walked instead because the bus was so slow.

Tower Bridge was a beautiful structure in stone with blue and white suspensions. I always thought that this bridge was London Bridge but it appeared that there was a new style concrete bridge a few blocks away from Tower Bridge that was actually named London Bridge. Hence what I thought of as London Bridge was actually called Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's