In general I absolutely agree with the "off-the-beaten-path" approach to traveling. But since this is going to be brapper's first trip to Europe (and he doesn't have enough time to see all of it) my suggestion would be to primarily cover the "major" places and plan for a few "un-tourist" activities along the road.
This way, he gets the best overview of a relatively large number of different countries/cultures without just rushing from one country to another - the laid back mediterraneans, the crazy Romans (I swear, you have never seen that many people talking on their cell phone as you will in Italy), the comfy "Alps" folks, the stiff and always stressed-out Krauts, the cool Danes as well as the liberal Dutch and the completely whacked out Brits.
After gathering a set of initial impressions, he can then go ahead and plan for a more in-depth second (third, fourth etc.) trip which should take him "beyond tourist lines". 6 weeks isn't even close to seeing a quarter of Europe - heck, you could probably spend three weeks in Rome (not in summer, though) and you still wouldn't have seen all the sights and tried all the foods.
Of course, there's a ton of great stuff to see - from the French Atlantic coast (Bretagne) to Hungary (Budapest, Balaton), to the Fjords of Norway (Oslo's way cool as well, btw) back down to Turkey (Istanbul) - but to include all of these in a round trip, you're gonna need a hell of a lot more time than 6 weeks.
So, this Old European™ recommends a round trip with a nice variety of all the "big sites" with a couple of "off-the-beaten-path" mini-trips sprinkled in.
Cheers,
eff
P.S. Let us know when you have a good idea of what places you're going to visit and I'll see that I can help out with a few "off-tourist" suggestions.
P.P.S. I forgot Paris in my list above - you could alter the route in my previous post like this "Kopenhagen" > "Amsterdam" > "Paris" > "London". This will give you a very nice impression of the contrast between two of the major European cities ...
P.P.S. "culture shock" is for babies
you just gotta take the plunge.
(edited, because I still can't spell worth a doo-doo)
This way, he gets the best overview of a relatively large number of different countries/cultures without just rushing from one country to another - the laid back mediterraneans, the crazy Romans (I swear, you have never seen that many people talking on their cell phone as you will in Italy), the comfy "Alps" folks, the stiff and always stressed-out Krauts, the cool Danes as well as the liberal Dutch and the completely whacked out Brits.
After gathering a set of initial impressions, he can then go ahead and plan for a more in-depth second (third, fourth etc.) trip which should take him "beyond tourist lines". 6 weeks isn't even close to seeing a quarter of Europe - heck, you could probably spend three weeks in Rome (not in summer, though) and you still wouldn't have seen all the sights and tried all the foods.
Of course, there's a ton of great stuff to see - from the French Atlantic coast (Bretagne) to Hungary (Budapest, Balaton), to the Fjords of Norway (Oslo's way cool as well, btw) back down to Turkey (Istanbul) - but to include all of these in a round trip, you're gonna need a hell of a lot more time than 6 weeks.
So, this Old European™ recommends a round trip with a nice variety of all the "big sites" with a couple of "off-the-beaten-path" mini-trips sprinkled in.
Cheers,
eff
P.S. Let us know when you have a good idea of what places you're going to visit and I'll see that I can help out with a few "off-tourist" suggestions.
P.P.S. I forgot Paris in my list above - you could alter the route in my previous post like this "Kopenhagen" > "Amsterdam" > "Paris" > "London". This will give you a very nice impression of the contrast between two of the major European cities ...
P.P.S. "culture shock" is for babies
you just gotta take the plunge.(edited, because I still can't spell worth a doo-doo)