9 Day All Inclusive Germany Tour

Today we will meet at JFK for our flight to Frankfurt via widbody air craft. Dinner and breakfast will be on board the flight.

We will arrive in Frankfurt and upon arrival we are met and transferred to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

Our journey begins with a relaxing sightseeing cruise along the Rhine River, one of the most picturesque stretches of this majestic waterway. We sail past magnificent castles and the famous Loreley rock. We continue to Mainz: We visit the birthplace of printing, the Gutenberg Museum: the evolution of printing is documented, and Gutenberg’s first Bible is on display, also the world‘s tiniest Bible. Jon Gooseflesh, better known as Johannes Gutenberg is considered to be the most important individual contributor of the Second Millennium. Then we tour St. Martin’s Cathedral, built in the 8th century and towering in all its might and grandeur the city. Seven king’s coronations took place in the course of the centuries in the Mainz cathedral. Then on to Worms for overnight and dinner.

Worms: thought to be one of the oldest towns in Germany, where Luther was summoned in 1521 to appear before an Imperial Diet to justify his conduct. We visit the world’s largest Memorial to the Reformation

and the Church of the Holy Trinity, Europe’s oldest Jewish cemetery, the Holy Sands and St. Peter’s Cathedral, located on the highest elevation of the inner city and one of the most exquisite examples of Romanesque architecture. We board the coach for Speyer and visit the Cathedral, the biggest historic architectural monument of its time and burial place of the Salian emperors. It is supposed to be the masterpiece of Romanesque architecture in Germany. We continue to the ruins of the Speyer synagogue which are the oldest visible remains of a synagogue in Central Europe and the Mikwe, established in 1104. In the Middle Ages the rabbis of Speyer, along with their colleagues from Mainz and Worms were already counted among the religious authorities in all middle Europe. Then on to Heidelberg, a gorgeous town on the Neckar River, where romanticism is both past and present. Our walking tour includes the Old Town, the famous Stone Bridge over the Neckar River, the Heidelberg Castle (where the Heidelberg Confession was written in 1653), the Castle Church, German Apothecary Museum, and the Church of the Holy Ghost. We return to our hotel.

Following breakfast we drive into Lutherland to Eisenach and Wartburg Castle: We tour the Palas (Great Hall), Art exhibition, the Elizabeth Hallway and the Luther Room where “Junker Jörg” (the Knight George) translated the New Testament into German. Then on to St. George’s Church where Saint Elisabeth was married and J.S. Bach baptized, Luther House where Luther lived as a student with the Cotta family from 1498-1501. We board the coach for our drive to Erfurt for overnight and dinner.

This morning we explore Erfurt and visit the Augustinian Monastery with its famous dome and stained-glass window choir: Luther, student of law, entered as a novice in 1505 and took his vows as a monk in 1507. We tour the city with Fish Market, Town hall and Merchant’s Bridge, Merchant’s Church and the Luther Memorial. Then on to Eisleben, where Luther was born in 1483 and died in 1546. We visit the St. Andrew’s Church (Luther held his last sermons here) and Luther’s “Death House” (closed for construction works until spring 2012), walk across the Market Square through the old town to his “Birth House” and to the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, where Luther was baptized. We continue to Leipzig for overnight and dinner:

In the morning we tour the city on foot highlighting the Opera House, Gewandhaus Concert Hall, Moritzbastei, St. Nicolaus Church, Naschmarkt and Goethe Memorial, St. Thomas Church where J.S. Bach worked and now rests, and the Völkerschlachtdenkmal (Monument of the battle of the Nations). After lunch on our own we proceed for Wittenberg, the main workplace of Martin Luther from 1508. We visit Luther Hall, formerly an Augustinian monastery and from 1525 domicile of Luther’s familyand nowadays the largest Reformation history museum in the world. We also visit the “Schlosskirche” (all Saints Church) where Luther posted his 95 theses on the Castle Church doors sparking the beginning of the Reformation and sepulcher of Luther and his fellow reformer Philipp Melanchthon, tour St. Mary’s Church where Luther did the majority of his preaching and visit the Melanchthon House, renovated for the 500th anniversary of his birth and offering a rare look into the life and works of this important humanist and reformer. We check in to our hotel for overnight and dinner.

On the way to Berlin we stop in Potsdam and tour Sansouci Palace and Park, built by Frederick of Prussia in 1745. Upon arrival in Berlin we explore the city on a sightseeing tour by bus featuring Charlottenburg Palace (from outside), the Reichstag (Parliament), the Brandenburger Tor, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the boulevard Kurfürstendamm (Kudammm), the refurbished city center, Gendarmenmarkt, Alexanderplatz, Pariser Platz, the famous boulevard “Unter den Linden,” the Berlin Cathedral, visit the Berlin Wall Museum, and the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. We check in to our hotel for overnight and dinner.

We transfer to the airport for our departure home.

Tour members are welcomed for our connection flight to Amsterdam via wide-body aircraft arriving the next day. Meals served on board.

We arrive in Amsterdam today and upon arrival we are met and enjoy a panoramic city tour of Amsterdam before being transferred to the hotel for dinner and overnight

Today, we enjoy a panoramic city sightseeing tour of Amsterdam. On this tour we pass the Royal Palace on the dam, the 560-year-old “New Church,” a “Skinny” Bridge spanning the Amstel River, the Mint Tower, a source of coins in the late 1600’s, the venerable Portuguese Synagogue and Rembrandt’s House. Then we see his paintings including the Night Watch, and those of other Dutch masters at the Rijksmuseum, Holland’s National Art Gallery. This afternoon we enjoy a cruise on Amsterdam’s canals and while gliding through the old center of the city and out into the bustling harbor, we can review Amsterdam’s history in comfort. The waterways are lined with merchant’s mansions and carillon crowned churches, gabled buildings and wooden shuttered warehouses dating back to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Return to our hotel for dinner and overnight. Only for the May groups: In the afternoon, enjoy an excursion to Keukenhof to visit the world’s largest bulb flower park.

Today we drive south through the windmill dotted Dutch lowlands. We cross into Germany through the Ruhr Valley to Cologne, the Rhineland capital. This afternoon we visit the magnificent Gothic Cathedral with its 515-foot twin towers, five naves, stained glass windows, shrine of the Three Holy Kings, and fabulous treasures of the Domschatzkammer. The church is one of the largest and most beautiful in the world. Continue to Frankfurt to our hotel for dinner and overnight.

Following breakfast we visit the world-famous Pergamon Museum with its many treasures including the Ishtar Gate and the Market Gate of Miletus. We then continue to Dresden (a World Heritage Site) for a walking tour of its impressive historic center with its Castle and Castle Church, Theatre Square and the famous Semper Opera, the Semper Gallery, Zwinger Palace and Bruehl’s Terrace Check. We visit the magnificent Frauenkirche “Church of Our Lady”. This baroque cathedral was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. It was reconstructed and completed in 2004 as a landmark symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies. We check in to our hotel for overnight. (In the evening, possibility to attend a performance or concert at the Semper Opera (subject to availability).

We drive through lovely landscapes southward to Nuremberg and walk along the “Historischen Meile”, which highlights the major architectural and artistic landmarks of an historic city which enjoyed its Golden Age in the late Middle Ages. In 1525 Nuremberg became “protestant” and was one of the first cities to make this change without an iconoclasm. In the late afternoon we arrive in Augsburg for overnight and dinner.

Augsburg: its magnificent Renaissance buildings-dated from the 15th and 16th centuries- give the city its unique character. Martin Luther stayed at the monastery of St. Anna church in 1518, during his confrontation with Cardinal Cajetan. Visit the oldest social settlement in existence in the world “The Fuggerei” , founded by Jacob Fugger in 1521 as a residential settlement for Augsburg citizens in need. The annual (net) rent for an apartment in the Fuggerei still today is the nominal value of the Rhenish Guilder, at present 0.88 Euro together with prayers three times a day for the founder and his family. About 150 people live at present in the 140 apartments in 67 houses. Probably the most famous resident of the Fuggerei was the Master Mason Franz Mozart, the great-grandfather of the composer W. A. Mozart. After lunch on our own we continue to Munich , the capital of Bavaria and visit Nymphenburg Castle (view from outside). Overnight and dinner.

We tour the city highlighting the historic old city with its famous buildings and squares including the Marienplatz with the town hall and its “Glockenspiel” and the “Frauenkirche” (Church of our Lady) with its distinctive onion-topped towers. In the afternoon time at leisure. Overnight and Bavarian folkloric farewell dinner.

We transfer to the airport for our departure home.