As a quirk of my job, I need to take a 2 week block of holiday once a year. I get loads of leave more than my partner, and I'm loath to sit at home "wasting" it. This year, my two weeks is at the start of September - the first week is in Glasgow and Lithuania (where Scotland happen to playing football), but I'm in need of some inspiration for the second week, and hoping someone can provide some on here...

Here are the caveats:

- I live in Worthing (as per name), so whilst Gatwick is my "local" BA airport, Southampton, Heathrow and City are within relatively easy striking distance. Bristol is also a possibility, as that's where the girlfriend's parents live. I don't drive so am hamstrung by public transport.

- I get back from Vilnius on the Sunday afternoon. I could do with a lie-in, or even the whole of Monday, to potter around and unpack/repack.

- I would like to be in Dusseldorf by late Friday afternoon, and will fly back to UK from there or somewhere close by (my girlfriend will fly over on the Friday evening for the weekend)

- Due to the above, basically looking at Mon 11th (afternoon onwards) to Fri 15th Sept (until mid-afternoon, unless positioned in Germany).

- I am making a play for silver this membership year (started at the beginning of July), and currently have 80 TPs. I have additional CE flights booked upto early Jan that will earn me another 200 TPs, and can pretty much bank on another 2 trips in early 2007 (as well as whatever it takes to make it to the limit). I'm not too worried when I get to 600 as long as it's before 7th July next year.

- I'm learning German, so a German speaking country would be best (if in Europe). I have a DB25 card, so can travel on German rail relatively cheaply (as well as Germanwings and AirBerlin cards). Unfortunately, most of the German destinations seem to me "business" orientated and don't benefit from the cheap I class fares.

- I have around 50k miles, but I'm intending to carry on building this (flights and BA Amex) and use on 2-4-1s, so would prefer not to use these (e.g. for positioning myself in the middle-east for the BAH-DOH run). The main purpose of this run is not miles but TPs.

- Although I want TPs, I'm not looking to spend the full 5 days in airports, so would like some time to explore the sights and bars of wherever I end up.

- All my travel is leisure (i.e. self-funded), so really looking for the best bargains here. Best I've found so far is LHR - Stuttgart Monday evening, back from DUS on Sunday afternoon for around £280, but I feel I'm missing a trick here! If a multi-leg trip, could probably stretch to £600-£1,000 depending on whether it was worth it (in my opinion).

Many thanks in advance.