There is so much to do in London alone...I think you could do just Great Britain for months and months...but DH wants to do the rest of Europe, so we only get three days for London and the vicinity. I'd like to do a day in Bath, so that leaves two days for London and/or a day trip elsewhere. It'll be wonderful! :

When did you go? Have you (or anyone else) been to Germany or Amsterdam? Those are our other two stops. DH is interested in Germany, especially the Rhine and Mozel valleys. If I can avoid spaetzle, it'll be a good trip.


Yes, you can avoid spaetzle, its not as common as people think. You cannot, however, avoid pork and potatoes!! Most menus have 'schwein' in ten variations, and of course 'wurst'. Your veggie choices are: french fries, fried potatoes, or potato salad and a green salad with yogurt dressing. (Sometimes you have other dressing choices but not always. Its good, and not fattening, just probably not what you will expect.) Be prepared to have a green salad as your usual side dish at each sit-down meal. Of course I'm making generalizations here and other things can be found, I'm just stating what is most common.
Many menus have fish selections but that is usually the most $$$ thing to order. The soups are usually a good choice and that with a salad can make a nice meal.

I'm pretty familiar with Amsterdam also. Tons of restaurants of all types there and they speak English.

Also, over here in restaurants the drinks are small, no refills and no ice Plus things like cola and juice cost the same price as beer and wine

Its all great and the food is fresh everywhere, not frozen and packaged like back home.

It does sound great...I'm looking forward to tasting fresh, healthy food from other countries!

Thanks for all the insider info!

Okay, so I know this sounds stupid, but is it safe to drink the water? Or do you have to order mineral water or some such bottled type? I am not a huge soda drinker if I don't have to be. When we travel, I usually bring a gallon or two of bottled water with me, but I doubt I'm going to be lugging that across Europe!

Laurie, when in Europe I ALWAYS order bottled water. It's not worth ruining a trip with Tourista!

Very good point, Ruth!

The only place I have been, besides highly civilized Canada, is Mexico. There, I ate Pepto Bismol tablets before each meal on the advice of my doctor. Would that be the procedure in Europe, or can we rely on most places being free of nasty bugs? (not to slander Mexico...I LOVED it there!!!)

I never worried about that - just the water. DH did have a nasty session, however, when he insisted that the radishes we had just bought at the market would be fine after he washed them in the Loire River. Duh! I offered to wash them in my mineral water but he decided to be macho.

Do you like club soda/mineral water? Depending on where you happen to be your water choices may be limited to which brand of "bubble" water you can get. Even when I go to the market and buy water labeled "still" it is usually still bubbly and sometimes salty, too.

But you probably won't run into that anyway. Most of the larger tourist areas around Europe have natural (still) plain ol' bottled water so that shouldn't be a problem.

Do bring your Pepto anyway, tho, because you may get a case of traveler's revenge just because the food is different, not because it has something wrong with it.

If you get a chance to buy your water in a grocery store it will save you $$ as the kiosk stands in popular locales are very convenient but you really pay for it.

I love all these wonderful helpful tips! Thank you, thank you!

(my stomach thanks you in advance! I got Montezuma's Revenge on my next to last night in Mexico, and I'd be very happy never to get that again! )

I remember being at a very ritzy restaurant in Beverly Hills with my best friend's family for her birthday. I was probably 13 or so. Anyways, they didn't have our table ready, so we waited in the bar, where I had a soda. When they brought us to our table and asked what we wanted to drink, I didn't want to take advantage of their generosity, so I asked for some water. The waitress asked if I wanted carbonated or non-carbonated, which was my first clue that something was up! I asked for non-carbonated, and she then asked whether I wanted French, Italian, Dutch, etc., etc, etc. It was like ordering wine! I think my water probably cost more than my dinner!

Ruth, that is way too funny about DH. Men! The guy in the book that I'm reading just fell into a canal in 1600s Amsterdam. Blech! I can't even imagine! Hopefully they are much cleaner now.

So, A Broad, what's your favorite healthy thing to eat? Does this yogurt dressing have sugar in it?

Ruth, that was a funny story about DH! *men* (sigh) Tho I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time.

Laurie, the yogurt dressing does have some sugar in it but not much. Most of the fresh food products over here don't use preservatives, so it is better for you from the get go. The dressing tastes creamy with herbs and not "yogurty."

My fav healthy thing to eat? Wow, that's a hard one, but probably smoked salmon. I'm fortunate to live next door to a discount market so I pop over weekly to take advantage of seasonal produce at a good cost. I like the yogurt and dairy products over here much better that the US versions (at least the ones I had a choice of stateside)

In Amsterdam, if you take one of the canal cruises, the guide will tell you that "on average at least on car drives into the canal per week!"
Do you plan on visiting the Anne Frank house?

Ooh, smoked salmon is goood!

Yup, definitely plan on visiting the Anne Frank Huis...I was Margot in a school play in High School, and I feel really close to her. We're planning on doing that, several museums, and lots of walking around checking out buildings. We found a great guidebook at the library on walking tours of Amsterdam. I had no idea they had canal tours. Wow!