10 days to kill driving back from Poland - Where do we visit on the way?

[Ghouljamaflip]

Taking the dcs to a family wedding in Poland and as its half term the following week are going to have a bit of a road trip on the way home. Have about 10 days or so and I am now looking for inspiration on where to visit and things to see with the dcs.

We have ds1 (10), dd1 (7), ds2 (6) and dd2 (3) and DO NOT want theme park type things.

So far on the list are:-

Berlin Wall
DD landing beaches (ds1 is doing ww2 this year)

I have rarely traveled in Europe and have no idea of what might be worth going to.

Any ideas?

10 days!! Crikey you can go wherever you want with that amount of time. 3 hours of driving gets you from Calais to halfway through Belgium. It took us seven hours including a nice long lunch to get from there almost all the way through Germany. We left Germany at 1pm and had lunch in Austria and were having supper in Florence at 9.00pm. Europe is tiny.

One thing we did was see the Last Supper in Milan. You can only see it by booking tickets in advance and you go small group for 15 mins. You wouldn't necessarily go to Milan for a holiday but it's perfect for a road trip. The cathedral is amazing too obviously.I hadn't realised it's painted on a side of a church so was stunned to see how massive it is. Would be an easy drive down from Poland - Czech Republic - Austria - through Italian lakes to Milan. you could see something in every country and still have 5 days to make it back through Switzerland and France (which we did in two days without any sort of rush!)

If you are going to the beaches where the landings took place, you could easily go to Ypres to see the cemeteries. I am not a religious person, but there is an air of tranquility in them. I"d recommend this one and then there is a nice museum in Ypres itself along with the ceremony in the evening.
On top of that, there are some lovely chocolate shops.
Drive and hour and a half further and you get to Antwerp. One of the most beautiful cities we've lived in.
You are lucky.

Oh wow! I would do Berlin then drive down the Rhein valley staying somewhere like Heidelberg, then go to Strasbourg and Colmar. Then drive across France via Reims and Rouen to the Normandy Beaches and Honfleur, Mont St Michel, St Malo.

Or I would go the other way - via Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bruges, Ypres (as Rip mentioned) and down into Normandy that way. There is a great castle at Falaise in Normandy - birthplace of William the Conquerer. Honfleur is lovely.

Thanks for the replies - will get googling in a minute

Its going to be a once in a life time trip for us as dh rarely gets away from the farm so we're really looking forward to it. And to make things even better I have spoken to school and theres no probs with taking the dcs out for the week before half term.

so so so excited!

Bruges, Gent are lovely as is Cologne.

Portofino's route is good.

We drive to Italy every year for holiday and find it great fun.

We find the Novotel chain great for families as they are fairly central , most have swimming pools, rooms are fresh and clean and kids share with parents. Book though Hotels.com for good rates.

Luxembourg City is fun (but only for a day). The city is riddled with underground passages called Casement du Bock that you can explore. It's a bit like an Indiana Jones or Dr Who set come to life.

What about Paris and Versailles? Versailles is to the west of Paris, the theme park that shall not be named is to the east.