Travel: Euro Trip Part 1 - Pre-Flight Notes

I just got back from a 15-day trip to Europe with B and a couple good college friends (H & K). I will be posting this in parts, seeing as how this would otherwise be too massive as a single blog entry.
Here are the quick stats:

• $2,000 budget per person INCLUDING airfare from LAX, food, lodging, toll fees, etc.
• 8 European countries (Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Monaco, France, and the Netherlands)
• 13 European cities (Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Monaco, Nice, Epernay/Champagne region, Versailles, Paris, Amsterdam, and Eindhoven)
• 15 days
• 1 free car (will not explain this further)
• Unlimited free gas (will not explain this further)
• 1 free and really huge apartment in Eindhoven, Netherlands (will not explain this further)
• 2 laptops (our own) and 1 TomTom (free) for navigating

At some point during our trip, we split up, said goodbye to our car, and had to rely on the rail system to get around (talk about an adventure!). But as you can see, we didn't exactly have to slum it, given the freebies we were working with. Still, getting the Lonely Planet: europe on a shoestring didn't hurt ;).