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. 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. 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
Day 4 – Allied Museum, Potsdam & Saxonhausen (included). This morning we head to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg to the north of Berlin. The camp was primarily used for political prisoners and 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 then head to the Allied Conference Centre in Potsdam, an afternoon dedicated to the Cold War. From the conference centre where Germany was divided, through the museum where we see the tunnel that helped the CIA to tap into the Soviet telephone system, we will get a feel for the Cold War period. This afternoon, we visit the Allied Museum, which tells a unique story. 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. However, the Western allies wanted to rebuild Germany based on the principles of democracy, whilst the Soviet Union considered its own social system to be the desirable model. Berlin
became the showplace of those conflicts which went down in history as the Cold War. B
Day 5 – Leipzig & Stasi Museum (included), Leipzig sightseeing tour (optional). 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

B=Breakfast Br=Brunch L=Lunch D=Dinner

Accommodation
In Berlin you’ll stay for three nights at the 3-star Ramada Globus Hotel, or similar. The hotel has a restaurant bar
and lift. All bedrooms offer T.V., and telephone. In Halle you’ll stay for one night at the 4-star Ramada Hotel Leipzig-Halle. Overnight stays in Belgium are in city-style hotels.

Extras
Optional Excursions.
Optional meal packages.
Single room supplement £129
Travel Insurance - from £39.95