i lived pretty close to Wiesbaden/Frankfurt, right next to the Kaiserslautern metro area near Luxembourg and France
We flew to most places (Ryan Air), but it was centrally located enough to drive to Bern, Switzerland, Prague, Versailles in France, Luxembourg City, and obvious the major cities in Germany
But anywhere else (Canary Islands, Baelleric Isles, Budapest, N. Africa, Scandinavia, Denmark, Croatia, Serbia, England, Ireland regular and Northern type, etc...) we just flew b/c the costs were so cheap
The entirety of Europe is slightly larger than the US (only if we don't count US territories though), which one doesn't really realize until they are there. As big as Germany is, it's actually in between Montana and New Mexico in total area if we compare it to a US State