25 days and 13 cities, does not compute. Work for an average of closer to 3 days per city — maybe 10 cities.

I’m sure you’d enjoy any of the places, but…
Why Bonn?
Why Vienna?

Look at cutting Barcelona — not that it’s not a great visit, but it’s the most “out of the way” vis-a-vis the rest of the cities — you’ll spend too much time getting there to enjoy it. Your other slightly out of the way place is Ljubljana, but it’s the last place I’d cut. Add a couple of days there to spend some time in the Julian Alps and cut one destination in Switzerland.

i have friends in aix-en-provence in france and barcelona’s really close to it (plus i have heard great things about it!) so added it…the trip from amsterdam to berlin would ve been very long so i added bonn in between,plus a friend who’s going to accompany me till berlin lives in bonn so he has to go there at all costs..i can cut out berlin, barcelona and geneva still..and have 10 cities in 25 days..

Just ftr, I’ve taken an overnight train from Amsterdam to Berlin and it really wasn’t that bad. Just got toasted on Dutch beer with my cabinmates and crashed for 6 hours.

cool…bonn has to be included as my travel mate lives there and would like to show me around town..cant skip it..im wondering if the journey from rome to interlaken via milan, from geneva to aix-en-provence, and from aix to barcelona, are these three manageable by train all of them?

Well, fair enough.

Any distance is manageable by train, so long as you’re ok with the time it takes to get there. You could hitchhike to the coast and beg a ride on a container ship across the Pacific if you wanted—but is it fast? Hell no. There’s a trade-off. If you’re simply looking to get from one city to another, hop on a train with a book and a journal and a beer and enjoy the view. But a full day of train transit really does sap some energy, so you should be prepared for that too.

And I agree with everyone’s advice so far.

On Berlin: must you visit Berlin? There’s some fantastic places to visit near Bonn, like Cologne and the Rhine valley. You can stay at your friend’s place, and explore these places too, not just the city of Bonn. I’m surprised your travelmate hasn’t come up with this travel plan. From Cologne (again, really close to Bonn), I found a direct overnight train to Prague. Just trying to save you some time, while doing good justice to Germany. Of course, I think you’re trying to pack too much into your 25 days. And while Aix looks close to Barcelona, it’ll actually be a half-day commute, pretty much, so just take that into consideration. I’ll be making this same commute in May (from Arles to Barcelona). You’re gonna have to prioritize which countries you want to visit on this trip, as I feel it’s a but much. All are worth visiting, and Germany looks like it’s a must, since your friend lives there and wants to show you around Bonn.

hey guys thanks for all those brilliant insights….looks like i d have to apply some major tweaks to my plan now…im more than convinced that my plan packs in too many cities in 25 days so id be changing everything and planning from scratch next week when im over with my exams..thanks all for your help!

Yeah put me down on the “scratch Barcelona” list. It’s a nice enough city (if you like stinking hot Mediterranean cities ) but yeah, it takes a while to get there, even from Aix en Provence which looks like it’s not that far away. Take that recommendation about using the Deutsche Bahn website to approximate travel times. It takes some getting used to, but is probably the most useful tool available to Euro-trippers.