How much spending money do I need for Europe?

you don't take money except a small amount of pounds and euros. You tell your bank before you go and withdraw cash as you need it from ATMs. what are you spending on? No-one needs souvenirs, all you need is transport and site admissions.

How much is that in £? It really depends, do you need to eat out every meal? Ie breakfast, lunch and dinner? Do you enjoy a drink? Etc. £2000 should be sufficient.

I concur with others suggestions of using ATMs as carrying a lot of cash around is not very wise in big cities and you tend to get a better exchange rate too. All capital cities are expensive both to explore and eat out but it can be done cheaply if you shop around.I think the amount you are considering would be fine for 17 days. I always allow £100 a day for a holiday if having to eat out etc whatever that is in AUS $.Some days you wont spend that much,other days you can spend more so it evens itself out.Europe is actually very expensive so shop around and buy sensibly but you will get duty free as you are from outside the EU so that will make things cheaper to buy.

Obviously depends on your chosen lifestyle... but assuming you will get breakfast in your hotel or maybe a McDonald type place.... eat a sandwich, picnic, take-away, pie & a pint etc. at lunch time and a proper restaurant meal in the evening at a low to medium priced place... £50 per person per day will be more than enough in London, Paris and Berlin and you might well save up enough for a special meal in each place. Avoid the main tourist streets...you can easily pay twice as much just because of the location, nothing to do with the quality of the food. Use Tripadvisor.com forums for advice and reviews... you could find some real gems that way. In London...look for the big chain pubs like Wetherspoons who do a very reasonably priced meal menu all day and Harvester restaurants that do a salad bar.... most put a sample menus outside. Watch out for overinflated prices on the drinks (extras). There are some excellent bakers shops that do sandwiches and hot pies or pasties (you have to try one) or sausage rolls etc. Of course the Bagel place on Brick Lane is legendary and proper fish and chips on a cold day out of the paper... oh now you have gone and made me hungry.