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DAY
1 DEPARTURE FROM NORTH AMERICA
Enjoy
full meal service on your scheduled wide-bodied flight
to Vienna.
DAY
2 VIENNA (2 NIGHTS)
You will be met at the airport by your tour manager/guide
who will accompany you to your hotel in Vienna, capital of
Austria and for 600 years the glittering capital of the Hapsburg
Empire. Vienna has an incomparable musical heritage
and is the city of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Hayden, Brahms
and Johann Strauss. This afternoon we will take a Walking
Tour through
old Vienna, which will include the Hoher Markt,
where we will see Virgin Mary’s Wedding Fountain
and an Art Nouveau clock, the Altes Rathaus,
the former town hall, the old Chancellery of Bohemia,
the Clock Museum, and St. Peter’s
Church.
DAY
3 VIENNA
We begin this morning in the Old City with a visit to St.
Stephen's Cathedral, one of the greatest Gothic
structures in Europe. St. Stephen’s is rich in
woodcarvings, altars, sculptures, and paintings, including
one showing the scene of the double marriage between the
Hapsburg, Bohemian and Hungarian dynasties in 1515 that laid
the foundation of the Austrian Empire. We will continue to
the Hofburg Palace, a complex of imperial edifices
which grew with the empire, so that today the palace is
virtually a city within a city. Our visit will include the
Imperial Apartments; the Imperial Treasury,
featuring the crown jewels and an assortment of imperial
riches.
· Your First
Concert Performance will be today
DAY
4 VIENNA - PRAGUE (2 NIGHTS)
Today we arrive in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic
built on seven hills astride the great Vltava River. The
beauty of Prague is legendary; Goethe described the city as
“the most precious stone in the crown of this world.”
During our Walking Tour we will step back in time to
explore the tangle of quaint narrow streets surrounding the
castle and cross the ancient Charles Bridge to arrive
at the Old Town Square and view the historic
Town Hall, the famous astronomical clock and the
14th century Tyn Church.
DAY
5 PRAGUE
Our City Tour will take us through Wenceslas
Square, where the great demonstrations organized by the
civic forum movement brought down the Communist Government
in late 1989, and to the Gothic Gunpowder Tower,
Count Wallenstein’s Palace and National
Theatre before visiting Hradcany Castle and
St. Vitus Cathedral. Subject to timing, we will
visit the Smetana Museum which illustrates the life
and work of the famous Czech composer.
· Your Second
Concert Performance will be today
DAY
6 PRAGUE - THERIESENSTADT - DRESDEN AREA (2 NIGHTS)
Our travels today will take us to Theriesenstadt (or
Tereź́in), a fortress that the Nazis converted into a
concentration camp during their occupation. Referred to as
the “Paradise Ghetto,” Theriesenstadt was used as a transit
camp en route to harsher camps. While Theriesenstadt will
not be remembered for mass exterminations, it was the site
of a cruel deception. On June 23, 1944, three foreigners
came to view the camp to see if rumors of Nazi prison camps
were true. SS chief Heinrich Himmler staged an elaborate
“beautification” of the camp to fool his visitors. His plan
worked so well that the Nazis made a film of the camp, A
Town Presented to the Jews from the Fuehrer. Later we
continue on to the Dresden area for the night.
DAY
7 DRESDEN
Today we tour Dresden, a city that was almost totally
destroyed by bombs in 1945. It has been painstakingly
rebuilt as a modern city. Many of the palaces and galleries
in its historic center have been meticulously restored, so
that today it can once again justify its old title "The
Florence of the Elbe." We will visit the famous Zwinger
Museum and view the Semper Opera House
where both Weber and Wagner conducted.
· Your Third
Concert Performance will be today
DAY
8 DEPARTURE FROM BERLIN
Your enjoyable and rewarding
tour will come to an end as your tour manager/guide accompanies
you to the airport for the return flight home.
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