Your Holiday Itinerary

• Silver Service

7-Day Break

• Day 1 – Local departure by coach from your chosen local joining point, then onwards to Belgium for an overnight stay.
• Day 2 – Möhne 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 northern plain of Germany to its capital Berlin, where we stay for three nights. B
• Day 3 – Berlin Tour (included); Secrets of Cold War Berlin (optional). This morning 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. 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 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.  B
• Day 4 – Allied Museum, Potsdam (included). This morning we head to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp to the north of Berlin. Primarily used for political prisoners it is now a memorial to the victims of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’. In August 1945, Soviet Special Camp No.7 moved here and it was used by Stalinist Soviet occupying forces for the detention of Nazi prisoners and collaborators. We dedicate the afternoon to the Cold War. In the summer of 1945, the troops of the USA, Great Britain and France marched into Berlin as victors. Along with their war ally, the Soviet Union, they planned to occupy the German Reich, and liberate it from National Socialism. Whilst the Western allies wanted to rebuild Germany based on the principles of democracy, the Soviet Union considered its own social system to be the desirable model. Berlin became the showplace of the conflicts, which went down in history as the Cold War. We begin at the Allied Conference Centre in Potsdam, where Germany’s fate was decided by the Allies before continuing to the Allied Museum. During our visit to the museum we will see the tunnel that helped the CIA tap into the Soviet telephone system and get a real feel for the Cold War period. B
• Day 5 – Leipzig and Stasi Museum (included). We leave Berlin and head to Leipzig. 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. We visit the Stasi Museum, part of the public access to the once-secret life that controlled the world of every citizen in East Germany. The museum occupies the original Stasi headquarters and has remained much as it was in the 70’s and 80’s so you will get a feel of what it must have been like when fully operational! History here is visible and palpable. After, you are free explore the city alone or join our optional guided tour with your Specialist Historical Guide. We continue to Halle for an overnight stay. B
• Day 6 –  Return to Belgium for an overnight stay. B
• Day 7 –  To Calais then return home. B

Included Meals: B=Breakfast

Please Note: Entrance fees to museums and places of interest are at extra cost.