Germany - Northern Half with Luxury & Style (11 Days): A Sample Itinerary

ID #: DT-G-11-7-26-10-RAIJ

DavidTravel Itinerary Highlights include:

Explore the sights and sounds of Northern Germany on this incomparable journey through some of its most fascinating cities. Witness the reunited city of Berlin through its fine museums, grand churches and cathedrals, and some of the finest restaurants in the world. Ride the “Rasender Roland,” a narrow-gauge steam railway that ends in the small, neo-classical town of Putbus. And discover Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s famous red light district where The Beatles started their career.

• Enjoy lunch at Cecilienhof Palace, built about 1913 in the style of an English country manor

• Visit the Pergamon Museum, with its reconstructions of Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus and the Ishtar Gate, using pieces from the original ancient sites

• Delight in a horse-drawn carriage tour around the island of  Hiddensee, followed by a delicious lunch of local specialties in the charming village of Kloster

• View the Speicherstadt, the 100-year-old warehouse district on the harbor, the fish market, the Town Hall and the old Elbe tunnel

Overview:

Occupying a prime position in the heart of Europe – both literally and figuratively – today’s Germany is an endlessly engaging destination: a land of high culture, frothy beer, half-timbered villages and dynamic cityscapes. Anyone expecting a homogenous country conforming to rigid Teutonic stereotypes is in for a surprise. Germany has shaken off the shackles of its inglorious past to stand as a country of remarkable diversity, as notable for its avant-garde architecture as for its horizon-wide countryside vistas.

Tourists will encounter a heady mix of untamed nature, fine arts and youthful creativity. The capital, Berlin, has a reputation (forged by the legendary “Roaring Twenties”) as a hip and hedonistic community where almost anything goes. In contrast, the quiet academic surroundings of historic university cities like Heidelberg and Freiburg convey a peacefulness quite at odds with the atmosphere of the capital.