From London to Berlin, 1939 – 1945

Duration: 9 days

Highlights: GROUP TOUR. London, Cabinet War Rooms, visit to the Guards Museum, Normandy, Berlin

With 2015 marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, this tour incorporates some of the war’s most significant related sites in London, Normandy and Berlin. From the Cabinet War Rooms in London to the D-Day beaches in Normandy and on to Berlin, your expert Tour Director and specialist local guides enhance your understanding of this momentous period in history.

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Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrive in London. Cabinet War Rooms and Guards Museum

Transfer from the airport to the heart of London and in the company of the Director, visit the Cabinet War Rooms; the wartime bunker beneath Westminster where Churchill’s government met over 100 times from 1940 – 1945. The tour includes the adjacent Churchill Museum and finishes with a private lunch. Walk the short distance along Whitehall, past Downing Street to your hotel. Before dining independently enjoy a private after-hours visit to the Guards Museum.

Overnight: The Kensington Hotel/ Milestone

Meal Plan: L

 

Day 2 - American Cemetery, Imperial War Museum (Duxford) and American Air Museum 

Depart to Cambridge, stopping en route to visit the American Cemetery and Memorial at Madingley. Afterwards have a light lunch at the Eagle pub in Cambridge with its famous RAF ceiling. Later you will be welcomed by the Director to the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, set within the grounds of the famous former wartime airfield. The impressive American Air Museum stands as a memorial to the 500,000 American airmen who flew from British bases during the war and to the 30,000 who died. This evening enjoy an after-hours private visit to the Household Cavalry Museum in the company of the Director before dining independently.

Overnight: The Kensington Hotel/ Milestone

Meal Plan: B,L

 

Day 3 - Southwick House and D-Day Museum. Ferry to Normandy

In advance of arrival in Normandy, drive to Portsmouth for a visit to Southwick House, HQ for Allied commanders in the months before Operation Overlord. Here you will see the famous wall maps before visiting the D-Day Museum. After lunch take a ferry to Ouistreham (dining aboard independently) and on arrival transfer privately to your hotel in Port-en-Bessin.                

Overnight: Mercure Omaha Beach/ Chateau de la Chenevière

Meal Plan: B,L

 

Day 4 - American D-Day Sites and Wreath-Laying Ceremony

After breakfast meet your guide, a former general in the British Army, for a full day exploring the principal D-Day sites of the American sector. First drive to Pointe du Hoc, stormed on June 6, 1944, by U.S. Army Rangers. Afterwards proceed to Omaha Beach, the most heavily contested of all the D-Day landing zones. After lunch at leisure you will see the beautiful and evocative American Cemetery and Memorial where a wreath-laying ceremony will be held.

Overnight: Mercure Omaha Beach/ Chateau de la Chenevière

Meal Plan: B,D

 

Day 5 - Normandy and the D-Day Beaches

Today drive to La Cambe where you will visit the German military cemetery containing the graves of more than 21,000 soldiers. Then head northward into the Cotentin Peninsula to visit Utah Beach, the westernmost of the five landing areas. Afterwards in St-Mère-Église visit the Airborne Troops Museum, which documents the parachute drop by the 82nd Airborne Division at the beginning of the D-Day operations (the museum includes one of the Waco gliders used). This afternoon you will see the Bayeux Tapestry, an impressive embroidered scroll of 58 panels depicting William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066.

Overnight: Mercure Omaha Beach/ Chateau de la Chenevière

Meal Plan: B,L,D

 

Day 6 - Rommel’s HQ and Berlin

After breakfast drive to the imposing Château de la Roche-Guyon. Standing against a chalk cliff that dominates a loop in the Seine, the château became the HQ of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in February 1944 as he prepared to counter the expected Allied invasion. After a private visit continue to Charles de Gaulle Airport for a late-afternoon flight to Berlin. Upon arrival you will be transferred to your hotel.

Overnight: Melia Berlin Hotel/ Kempinski Adlon Hotel

Meal Plan: B,D

 

Day 7 - Berlin’s Remnants of the Third Reich

Today’s tour will highlight some of the main sites associated with the Third Reich, beginning at the city’s neoclassical triumphal arch, the Brandenburg Gate, used by the Nazis as a party symbol in frequent torch-lit rallies; only a hundred yards away, you will see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Later visit the Bendlerblock for a guided visit of the German Resistance Memorial Centre and the commemorative courtyard where Claus von Stauffenberg and others were shot in 1944. Lunch today will be in the Bundestag’s restaurant, located within the rebuilt Reichstag, whose dramatic glass dome symbolizes the reunification of Germany. This afternoon you will visit Bebelplatz, where the Nazis burned thousands of books and conclude with the Topography of Terror; an indoor and outdoor museum in what was formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, a sinister address associated with the Third Reich’s security apparatus.                

Overnight: Melia Berlin Hotel/ Kempinski Adlon Hotel

Meal Plan: B,L

 

Day 8 - Sachsenhausen, Wannsee and Berlin

Today drive north to visit the former concentration camp of Sachsenhausen. Later visit the former industrialist’s villa, where the Wannsee Conference was held on 20th January 1942, chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Reich Security Main Office. The meeting approved a protocol drawn up by Adolf Eichmann for the Final Solution: the extermination of European Jewry, documented by the exhibition at the villa. Afterwards at Grunewald station you will see a memorial commemorating the deportation of the Jews by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. 

On returning to the city centre visit the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, where only the bell tower remains. The adjoining Memorial Church and Tower contain thousands of brilliant blue panels of stained glass from Chartres; the church was consecrated on the same day in 1962 as the new Coventry Cathedral in England, also a victim of wartime bombing.

Overnight: Melia Berlin Hotel/ Kempinski Adlon Hotel

Meal Plan: B,L,D

 

Day 9 - Depart Berlin

This morning you will transfer privately to the Berlin airport for your flight home.

 

Meal Plan: B

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