Trip to Europe over winter break, advice?

[kabouter]

I would start at London, if you aren't on a real tight budget (and if you haven't bought the tickets yet).

I don't know if it's possible to trade the train for a car and return it in Italy, if that is possible I would make this trip:

London - Paris - Amsterdam - Berlin - Rome - Venice, this way you can stop in between and visit cities if you feel like it.

Berlin is a great city, I'm not that big a fan of Munich though.

When you go to Amsterdam, you need to visit one of the coffee shops, but don't go to the bulldog or the grasshopper, I hate those shops.

And pub crawling is great if you want to see a bit more of the city. If you are in Amsterdam, make sure you visit Paradiso, on the Thursdays they always have a great party called de noodlanding.

I'm in south Africa during the winter, otherwise I could show you some places to get completely wasted in Amsterdam :P

Ohw and if you are interested in the second world war you could visit Omaha, Gold beach etc... in northern France. But it's quiet a boring place, no night life what so ever...