DAY    1            DEPARTURE FROM NORTH AMERICA
Enjoy full meal service on your scheduled wide-bodied flight to Frankfurt.

DAY    2            FRANKFURT - WORMS - HEIDELBERG (2 NIGHTS)
You will be met at the airport by your Casterbridge Tour Manager/Guide and transferred to your private coach, which will take us to our first stop at Worms, closely associated with Martin Luther. Here Luther appeared before the 'Diet of Worms' in 1521 and, on refusing to retract his beliefs, was banished from the Empire. We will visit the Romanesque Cathedral and view the Luther Monument before continuing to Heidelberg.

DAY    3            HEIDELBERG
Heidelberg is the heart of the Romanticism celebrated by German writers and one of Europe's intellectual centers. It was here that the Heidelberg Catechism, a profession of faith of the German Reformed Church, was drawn up and published in 1563. We will explore the Castle before exploring the Old Quarter.

DAY    4            HEIDELBERG - EISENACH - ERFURT (2 NIGHTS)
Today we will leave Heidelberg and travel to northern Germany and the city of Erfurt. En route we will stop in Eisenach to visit Lutherhaus where Martin Luther stayed as a schoolboy. We will visit Wartburg Castle where, in 1521, Luther came to complete his translation of the Bible into German. We then continue to Erfurt, the capital and largest city of Thuringia.

DAY    5            ERFURT
This morning will start with a walking tour of Erfurt, the city where Luther attended university. Martin was a member of the local Augustinian Monastery, and it was during this time that he began to question current practices within the Catholic Church. We will see the monastery and visit St. Mary's Cathedral where Luther was ordained.

DAY    6            ERFURT - WEIMAR - WITTENBERG (2 NIGHTS)
Beyond the borders of Europe, Weimar may be best known as the city where the German National Assembly met in 1919, in the aftermath of World War I, and drafted a constitution that created the Weimar Republic. It is actually much more famous as the cultural center of Germany. In 1775, Goethe, the greatest name in German literature, came here to reside. Bach had previously been court organist here, and later in the 19th century, Franz Liszt was musical director of Weimar's National Theater. We will travel the short distance to Weimar this morning and have a walking tour of the Old Town. Our tour will include visits to the Goethe National Museum, housed in a building where the poet lived from 1782 to 1832, and the Schillerhaus, where Schiller wrote his last works, including Wilhelm Tell. The city of Weimar has made great advances since the reunification of East and West Germany and was chosen the "European City of Culture" in 1999 by the European Union. Later this afternoon we will make our way to Wittenberg, forever associated with Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer.

DAY    7            "LUTHERSTADT" - WITTENBERG
Wittenberg was the center of the German Reformation and it was here that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in 1517. His ideas gained further prominence at Wittenberg's university, and then spread throughout Europe. Today we will visit the Lutherhalle Wittenberg which is housed in part of an Augustinian monastry where Luther lived. We will also visit the 14th century Parish Church where Luther preached and see the oak tree which marks the spot where Luther burnt the papal bull of excommunication in 1520.

DAY    8            WITTENBERG - BERLIN (2 NIGHTS)
This morning we travel to Berlin, where no single event was more symbolic of the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe than the dismantlement of the Berlin Wall that began in late 1989. The reunification of this divided city gave an unstoppable impetus to the waves of freedom that have transformed the political landscape throughout Eastern Europe. Our Walking Tour will follow the route of the Berlin Wall viewing numerous crosses and wreaths to remind us of the lives lost after the wall was built in 1961. We will visit the Brandenburg Gate and view the Reichstag, which was so instrumental in Hitler's rise to power. We will visit the Wall Museum before passing into former East Berlin to experience the changes taking place in this previously austere section of Berlin. We will view some magnificent 18th and 19th century structures along the Unter den Linden.

DAY    9            BERLIN
Our day will start with a visit to the Pergamon Museum, built between 1912 and 1930, its name comes from the famous Pergamon Altar, which holds a place of honor in the main hall. The museum houses one of the most famous collections of antiquities in all of Europe. This afternoon, we will visit the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. This vast Neo-Romanesque church was designed by Franz Schwechten and is one of the most famous landmarks in Berlin. The church was destroyed by bombs in 1943, rebuilt in 1963, and has incorporated the damaged front tower into the new design. Our final afternoon in Germany will be spent amidst the sparkle and glitter of Kurfurstendamm, Berlin's most famous shopping area.

DAY    10          DEPARTURE FROM BERLIN
Your enjoyable and rewarding tour will come to an end as your Casterbridge Tour Manager/Guide accompanies you to the airport for the return flight home.