Itinerary

Day 1

Board your overnight transatlantic flight.

Day 2 Arrival in Frankfurt, Germany

Time to rest or explore the bustling metropolis on the River Main. At 6 pm, meet your Tour Director and traveling companions for a welcome dinner at your hotel. (D)

Day 3  Frankfurt–Remagen–Cologne Pay a visit to Cologne’s awesome gothic cathedral along the most scenic section of the Rhine River with castle-crested hills, terraced vineyards, pretty wine towns, and finally the Lorelei rock. Disembark and drive to the ruins of the bridge in Remagen, where American troops breached Hitler’s West Wall. Spend the afternoon in Cologne and enjoy a guided visit of the awesome gothic CATHEDRAL.  Its twin 515-foot towers, five naves, splendid stained-glass windows, and the shrine of the Three Holy Kings are eloquent testimony to the quality of medieval engineering and craftsmanship. (B,D)  Story aboutCologne Cathedral "When a resident of Cologne returns after even a short stay outside the city, it just isn’t home until they’ve seen the black towers of the “Dom” against the sky. Germany’s largest gothic cathedral can’t be described with the usual words – monumental, awe-inspiring, beautiful, and majestic. It’s more than that. It’s been known to perplex visitors about what makes this cathedral so visually overwhelming. Its height has something to do with it – 515 feet of sandstone blackened by time and exhaust fumes. Or maybe it’s the Dom’s location, the feeling that a massive 13th Century gothic church was dropped out of the sky into the center of modern Cologne, a stone’s throw from the central train station and the shops on Hohestrasse."

 A special treat at the very start of your journey through Germany is a RHINE CRUISE

Story about A Short Wine Guide "Historically, Germany’s wine has suffered with an “inferiority complex” fueled by the reputation of wine powerhouses France and Italy. And in modern times, they’ve tacked of “how to compete with a Bordeaux or a Chianti” by improving quality, while keep prices reasonable. Finally, German vintners are starting to reap the rewards. The world famous Riesling region, centered on the Rhine and its tributaries and in eastern Germany near Dresden, is the biggest success story to come out of Germany’s 13 wine growing regions. White grapes form 80 percent of the harvest, but reds are on the rise, as well as the general reputation of German wines."

 

Day 4   Cologne–Berlin The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin serves as a symbol of peace and reunification of the city and the 210-foot Victory Column in the vast Tiergarten Park. Visit the KAISER WILHELM MEMORIAL CHURCH. The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and a main symbol of Berlin. Ride the EUROCITY TRAIN to Berlin, capital of reunited Germany, where sightseeing with a Local Guide in the once-divided metropolis includes the elegant Ku’damm, the restored Reichstag, Charlottenburg Palace, a picture stop at monumental Brandenburg Gate. (B,D)

 

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Story about Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church "During World War II, Americans soldiers in occupied Germany got a booklet called the “Pocket Guide to Germany” that explained the ins and outs of occupation. In 1944, it read: “Don’t forget that you’re ordered into Germany now partly because your fathers forgot so soon what the war was about last time.” The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district is the eternal reminder. It was an unremarkable late 19th Century church until the allies bombed it in 1943. After the war, Berliners protested plans to demolish it. Today, the ruins are a symbol of what Germany lost by letting itself be seduced by Nazism. They could have roped it off and slapped a plaque on it. Instead, they left it open, free to the city. You can walk through it, under it, look up at the shattered bell tower." with its bomb-damaged tower, drive along Unter den Linden Boulevard, and pass the State Opera House and Checkpoint Charlie

Story about Checkpoint Charlie

"It’s just a white shed and a stack of sandbags filled with concrete, a replica of Checkpoint Charlie. Visitors to this traffic island on Friedrichstrasse pose from two directions – west and east – because they’re standing on the old symbolic border of the two Berlins. Checkpoint Charlie was for diplomats, Allied military and foreign tourists wanting to get into East Berlin, and that’s the source of its mystique. Today’s Cold War buffs have to be content with photos by the 1960s-era replica shed, a browse through the private collections of the nearby Haus am Checkpoint Charlie – and maybe a visit to the Allied Museum in Berlin’s Zehlendorf district, where the original Checkpoint Charlie building is on display. The huge portrait photographs over Checkpoint Charlie of two soldiers – one American, one Soviet – symbolize the Big Brother military presence of Cold War Berlin."

Day 5  Berlin

You may wish to join an optional excursion to Potsdam, and tonight is your chance to sample Berlin’s fine restaurants and nightlife! (B)

Day 6 Berlin–Leipzig – Nuremberg

On your way south through what used to be the “other” Germany, visit Leipzig, an important center since the Middle Ages. Visit the THOMASKIRCHE, where J.S. Bach worked, and the Market Square with its fine renaissance buildings. Continue to Nuremberg, the town of children’s toys and gingerbread. It is also the birthplace of painter Albrecht Dürer and poet and meistersinger Hans Sachs. Admire the impressive medieval ramparts and walk through the pedestrian area of the charming Old Town. Visit ST. SEBALD CHURCH, painstakingly reconstructed as a monument to peace from the rubble of near-total wartime destruction. (B,D)

Story about Bach's Leipzig "Johann Sebastian Bach was a lucky accident for Leipzig. In 1723, when the city sought a cantor for the Thomaskirche, the late gothic church in today’s Thomaskirchhof, Bach got the job only when the city’s first choice Georg Phillip Telemann refused. Their second choice turned out to be the best – and forever changed music history. "

Day 7 Nuremberg-Rothenburg-Munich -Oberammergau

Today, focus on Germany’s Romantic Road, which leads from the flat country towards the Alps. Enjoy a walking tour of medieval Rothenburg with its ramparts and towers, cobbled lanes and 16th-century houses. Then, head south to the Danube Valley and Munich for an orientation drive before continuing to picturesque Oberammergau. (B, D) 

Story about"Munich, Germany's Secret Capital" "Munich is the only German metropolis that seems to have everything – wealth, beauty, prominence, fame. Some even call it Germany’s “secret capital.” Unlike Berlin, which some dub “architecturally challenged,” Munich bursts with historical buildings reconstructed after the devastation of World War II. Its grand Residenz, the former home of Bavarian kings, dominates the city center, which also boasts the flamboyant, gilded Cuvillié Theater. Nearby, the neo-gothic Neues Rathaus gives a medieval touch to the Marienplatz, the heart of Munich. "

 

Story about Oberammergau "Promises to God are notoriously hard to keep. The townspeople of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps have not only kept their renaissance promise, they’ve turned it into euros and cents. Flashback to 1633. Oberammergau was a stop on the market road between Augsburg and Venice. When the plague hit, the town elders swore to heaven: Protect us and we’ll do a play about Jesus’ crucifixion every ten years. The first began in 1634. Today the village of Oberammergau lives because of theater. Half of the 5,400 residents break a leg in the Passionsspiel, performed in years ending in zero from May to October."

Story about Watch Tower along the Romantic Road "Roses and candlelight dinners weren’t top-of-mind when the German tourism experts invented the Romantic Road, a route through western Bavaria starting in baroque Würzburg in the north and ending in Füssen near the Austrian border. The name came from the German Romantics, who formed an early 19th century school of philosophy, literature and art that prized beauty and the emotions over the rationalist thinking of the Enlightenment. For the visitor to the Romantic Road, that means sitting back and simply enjoying the beauty of the dozen medieval and baroque towns along the route."

Day 8 Oberammergau

Today, the highlight of your vacation: the original PASSION PLAY, held every 10 years, and performed by the residents of Oberammergau. (B,L,D)

Day 9 Oberammergau-Lindau-Black Forest

The Black Forest in southwestern Germany

 

A scenic day starts out with a leisurely drive along the panoramic German Alpine Road to the sunny northern shore of Lake Constance, Europe’s largest freshwater reservoir. Stop for a lunch break in charming Lindau, then, continue north and visit the baroque church at Birnau, on your way to your hotel. (B,D)

Day 10 Black Forest-Heidelberg -Frankfurt

This morning, enjoy a WOODCARVING DEMONSTRATION before arriving in Heidelberg, Germany’s oldest university town of Student Prince fame. Time to stroll around and to have lunch in the Old Town. Then, the highlight of today: visit the red-walled CASTLE where the GREAT VAT, a 49,000-gallon 18th-century wine cask, attracts particular attention. Back to Frankfurt for a farewell dinner with your companions of a fascinating vacation. (B,D) 

Story about Mark Twain's Heidelberg "“One thinks Heidelberg by day – with its surroundings – is the last possibility of the beautiful; but when he sees Heidelberg by night, a fallen Milky Way, with that glittering railway constellation pinned to the border, he requires time to consider upon the verdict.” Mark Twain wrote this ode to Heidelberg in his humorous travel book, “A Tramp Abroad” (1880). During the three months that Twain spent in the city in 1878, many of his recorded experiences aren’t entirely dissimilar from activities that travelers and residents still enjoy today. He gazed out over the Nektar River; strolled across the Old Bridge; and watched university students dueling in a tavern."

Day 11

Your homebound flight arrives the same day. (B)