So I thought I'd do at least a quick rundown of the other places on the itinerary, to at least give an idea of what they are/why we're going to them specifically.  From Rotterdam we will be taking the train to Brussels, which is in Belgium.  The main event there will be taking a day trip (via train and bus) to Bastogne, which is a town around which the Battle of the Bulge played out in the winter of '44/'45.  This is another site that plays very prominently in Band of Brothers (the 101st Airborne fought in and around Bastogne during this period and a couple of the episodes take place around the town) and that's where I first encountered it, though I've done some other reading on it since. There is a really big war memorial just outside of the town which I especially want to go to.  It should be a pretty intense day I think.  This is the war memorial:  

From Brussels we are taking the train all the way to Berlin.  It's like 7 hours!  In retrospect I feel like maybe this was a sort of crazy idea :) since we are only going to be in Berlin two nights so really just the one full day.  But when we were planning it it seemed like a tragedy to be going through Germany and not at least be in Berlin for a bit.  So hopefully it will turn out to have been worth it.  

Then from Berlin it is on to Salzburg, which in a way is the highlight of the trip for me....

SALZBURG!!  I can't even believe I will be there.  We are going on a Sound of Music tour one day which stops at alot of the places in the movie:  the abbey; the church where Maria and the Captain get married; the place where they shot the scenes outside the von Trapp house; etc.  I will likely take about 3400 pictures on that day alone!! so please brace yourselves in preparation.  This is a link to a description of the tour.  On another of the days in Salzburg we are taking another bus tour, this one goes to Berchtesgaden, which is just across the border back in Germany (Salzburg is in the far northwest corner of Austria so the bus ride isn't too far).  Berchtesgaden was one of Hitler's main residences (he thought of it as his mountain retreat) and alot of his senior staff also had houses there so it is often called the home of National Socialism.  There are several really fascinating historical things.  This is the tour we are going on.  Anyway I also expect that Salzburg itself will be pretty awesome even apart from the bus tours.  

And from there I leave for Rome!  I will be taking a night train so that should be interesting, I've never done that before.