No free refills sucks ass though. Any city where you can safely drink the tap water (most, depending on how far east you want to venture out...) just keep a water bottle with you and refill it regularly. Rome is nice because they have fountains everywhere with drinkable water, but pretty much everywhere else in Europe don't expect it or free public restrooms.
As for the food, it depends on what country you. Of course every country has good food but some have more than others. In my experience for instance, don't expect great pizza in Poland for instance. But they and other central europe countries have a lot of good meat & potato dishes. Ireland is the exception, it has no good food. Food in Italy is overrated IMO, but still pretty good. Their gelato is excellent.
Agreed on trains vs planes - only take a long distance train if you want to experience a train ride. Planes are faster and often cheaper. Longest train ride I have been on was from Czech Republic to Slovakia on an old beaten up train. It sucked.
Paris pretty much sucks, but I disagree about London and Rome - both are fantastic cities to visit. I guess it depends on what you enjoy to do when traveling. I have made it a point of mine to try and visit a concentration camp anytime I am
In terms of air conditioning - as said before its extremely limited but some places do have it. If you schedule all your accommodations ahead of time you can make sure you have AC in most places. Depending on the time of year you go this might not even matter.
