Your Holiday Itinerary

• Silver Service
• Executive Coach

7-Day Break

• Friday 6th November – Local departure by coach from your chosen local joining point, then onwards to Belgium for an overnight stay.
• Saturday 7th November - Mohne Dam (included). From Belgium en route to Berlin we call at the Ruhr Valley and see the huge Möhne Dam, which was heroically breached by the men and Lancasters of 617 Squadron in May 1943. You can walk on the top of the Dam and see the outline of the breach made by the ‘bouncing bombs’, dropped by the squadron under the leadership of Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC. From here we drive across the vast northern plain of Germany to the capital city of Berlin. B
• Sunday 8th November - Berlin Tour (included). Secrets of the Cold War Berlin (optional). This morning why not join our included sightseeing tour with your Specialist Historical Guide. We look at the building of the Berlin Wall, and the reasons for it being installed. In place for 28 years, 2 months and 28 days, the Wall had an enormous effect on the political, military and personal lives of thousands of people in Germany. We later visit the world-famous Checkpoint Charlie Museum to view the artefacts and pictures of that time. We will walk through the checkpoint to view the memorial site of Peter Fechter, a young man shot while trying to escape to the West. We will see the longest remaining section of the wall at the East Side Gallery, 1300 metres of this great barrier stand beside the Oberbaum Bridge, an official crossing point for Berliners. In the afternoon join our optional ‘Secrets of Cold War Berlin’ excursion. We will visit the Stasi (East German Secret Police) Headquarters at Normannenstrasse where a superb collection of artefacts explains the paranoid attitude of the State Secret Police during the Cold War. We will then move on to the Stasi prison at Hohenschönhausen. This was the centre used to imprison many of the people captured while trying to escape to the West. B
• Monday 9th November - 20th Anniversary Day in Berlin (included). Our coach will take us to the famous railway station or S-Bahnhof Bornholmer Strasse, where we join a walking tour to the Brandenburg Gate. It was at these two locations that the people of Berlin witnessed the night in which the ‘Wall’ came tumbling down. On November 9th, 1989, thousands of GDR citizens and East Berliners assembled, demanding entry into West Berlin at the station’s bridge and at 9.20pm, the Wall ‘fell’, as local guards opened the Checkpoint and people could pass freely into West Berlin. We will spend the rest of the day and the evening around the Gate, the symbol of Germany and its Capital. You’ll have free time to join the festivities. There will be huge celebrations, fireworks, etc. at the Festival of Freedom. The highlight of the event will be the multimedia staging of the symbolic fall of the Wall using a ‘domino’ effect. Truly a day to remember. B
• Tuesday 10th November - Leipzig (included). Leipzig sightseeing tour (optional). To the city of Leipzig. First documented in 1015, the city has been prominent in shaping the state of Saxony, and, of course, Germany, for many years. The University dates from 1409 and the German National Library from 1912. Heavily damaged during the Second World War, the city was taken by the American troops, but found itself in the Soviet Sector from 1945. The city was one of the main centres of public protests in the lead up to the fall of Communism and State control in Germany. With churches, public buildings, universities and shopping outlets, Leipzig is a very vibrant and exciting city. It also home to an important Stasi Museum, part of the public access to the once-secret world that controlled the world of every citizen in East Germany. Explore the city, or why not join our optional guided tour with your Specialist Historical Guide. We continue to Halle for an overnight stay. B
• Wednesday 11th November - Return to Belgium for an overnight stay. B
• Thursday 12th November - To Calais then return home. B

Included Meals: B=Breakfast