TOUR ITINERARY

 

May 8 Overnight flight to London

Day 1
Arrive in London in at approximately 9 AM; we will take a brief tour of London and visit the Imperial War Museum, checking into our hotel after 2pm.

Day 2 
We begin our tour today by touring an airfield and museum north of London that was used by the RAF to defend London during the blitz and from where long-range bombers took off to bomb Germany. Following our visit to the airfield we will visit the famous Churchill War Room just a few minutes walk from the Parliament Building followed by a short drive to Winchester, England where we spend the night.
 

 

Day 3

This morning we will visit the Bovington Tank Museum and then proceed to Portsmouth.  There we will visit the D-Day Museum and board the 3:00 ferry to Caen, France.  We will be following the same path taken by the troop and supply ships on their way to the Normandy Beaches.  Upon arrival at the Port of Caen about 9:30 pm, we will proceed to our hotel.

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Day 4

After breakfast we are met by our guide at our hotel to begin our tour of significant places and events of the Normandy Invasion.

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Day 5:

Today is a continuation  exploring the beaches and villages associated with the Normandy Invasion and visits to the American Cemetery and D-Day Museum.

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Day 6:

We will board our coach this morning to drive to Oradour sur Glane.  This will be our longest coach ride at about 7 hours, with 3 stops, including a lunch stop.  Oradour is an entire village that serves as a memorial to the cruelty and barbarism of the Third Reich. It is not included in any other WWII tour.  

 

For more information about this village and what happened here, click on the following link:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/oradour

 

After our visit to Oradour we continue to Limoges where we will spend the night.

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Day 7

This morning we take an early train from Limoges to Paris where we will be met by our coach.  We will take a brief tour of Paris as it relates to the war and then continue to Bastogne, Belgium, the focal point of the Battle of the Bulge.  On our way we will make a vey brief stop at Chateau Thierry, the sight of a very important battle during World War I.

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Day 8

Today features a visit into the town of Bastogne, a visit to the Battle Museum (very interesting!) and a guided tour of various locations where close quarter fighting occurred, led by Henri Mignon, a witness to the Battle of the Bulge.  Tonight we will have a provided dinner and a short talk followed by a question and answer session with Henri.

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Day 9

This morning we will travel by coach to Cologne, Germany on the shore of the Rhine River, where we board a high- speed train to Berlin.  On our way to Cologne we will stop at Malmedy, Belgium where 84 American Servicemen were massacred by elements of the Waffen-SS.

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Day 10

​Most of Berlin was destroyed during the war; today we will visit the site of SS Headquarters, the Reichstag, Hitler’s Bunker, the Brandenburg Gate, which still stands, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum (very moving), visit the Berlin Wall, Check Point Charley, and Bridge of Spies.

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Day 11

Today we will travel to Munich where we will tour Dachau, the Nazi’s first concentration camp and visit Olympic Park where we will visit the site of the 1972 terror attack by the Palestinian Black September on the Israeli team.

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Day 12

Our tour continues today as we travel north to Nuremberg.

We will be led by a local guide which will include the parade grounds where Hitler staged his iconic, mass rallies, the courthouse where the Nuremberg Trials occurred, as well as other sites of pre-war Nuremberg.

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Day 13

​Today we travel south to Bertschesgarden, the site of Hitler’s Bavarian retreat and Eagle’s Nest. 

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Day 14

This morning we board our plane for the flight back to Charlotte.