October 7th: Homeward Bound

Our last intrepid travelers are all headed home today, on a variety of different flights.
It's been an incredible 2+ weeks:  we stayed in five cities (six for those who continued to Berlin) in four countries, visited additional locations & one other country, attended 6 operas, & ate & drank some wonderful food & wine!
Thank you so much to everyone who made this tour possible & such a success including the Opera on the James committee - Susan, Gail, Cecelia, & Lamar.  Thank you also to the travelers - all successful tours require a great group of travelers who share experiences with open minds & humor, but also patience & understanding when there are occasional delays, roadworks, poor weather, etc.
We hope to see you all again soon on another Global Explorers tour!

October 6th: Berlin in Depth

Today we traveled by subway as we took in more of Berlin’s sights.

We began with a historical walking tour of central Berlin, with excellent local guide Jess, a transplanted Californian!  Starting at the Brandenburg Gate, our tour focused on Berlin's 20th century turmoil, stopping along the way to see the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, the location of Hitler's bunker, the former Luftwaffe headquarters, a section of the Berlin Wall, the former site of the Gestapo headquarters, & finally Checkpoint Charlie. 

After a short break our final 'group' stop was a visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, on the ‘Ku’damm’, one of the most famous avenues in Berlin & the center of life in post-war West Berlin.   

This afternoon was left free for travelers to enjoy Berlin at leisure, but with an evening performance of The Barber of Seville most of the group chose to return to the hotel to get ready for their final evening in Germany!

October 5th: Berlin - It's a Breeze!

Despite the horrible weather this morning - cold & wet - we spent it getting to know Berlin & visiting some important sights related to the incredible history of this city, which has been home to kings, dictators, Communists & more before once again becoming the capital of a reunited Germany.  

Our first stop was the 'Palace of Tears  the former crossing point between east & west Berlin that has been restored as a museum.

Next we visited the last fully-intact section of the wall & surrounding ‘no-man’s land’, at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center. 

After free time for lunch & to dry off we ended our day’s sightseeing with a visit to the Reichstag - Germany’s parliament building - whose modern glass dome offers wonderful views over the city.  

Whilst we were visiting the Reichstag it became very windy, but we didn't realize just how windy until later - when all Berlin's trains, S-bahns, U-Bahns, trams & even buses stopped running!!!  Stranded at the main train station without any means of transport we made a decision to change plans & ate a great dinner at an alternative restaurant.  

By the time we finished dinner the trams had just begun running again so we were able to make it back to our hotel.  We didn't realize how serious the storm was until later when we heard it had been named, Xavier, & made headlines all over Germany!

October 4th: Auf Wiedersehen! Ciao! Farewell! Or Onwards to Berlin...

Sadly it was time for many of our intrepid travelers to head home today.
Despite last nights late dinner everyone was up & ready for our 6:00am departure for Dresden Airport.  After saying farewell they traveled back to the USA via Frankfurt.

For a small group of our travelers the adventure continued though - with eight continuing onward to Berlin later in the morning.
On the way to Germany's capital we stopped in Potsdam, once the royal retreat of Prussia's kings & thus home to a collection of beautiful palaces.  We took a private tour of Frederick the Great's Sanssouci with our guide Petra, including walking the gardens.
After lunch we continued to Berlin, via the infamous Gleinike Bridge ('Bridge of Spies').
Following check-in at our 'Wall Street' themed hotel we took an evening stroll to the nearby Nikolaiviertel (Nicholas Quarter) for dinner in a typical Berlin pub - complete with huge portions of pork knuckle!

October 3rd: Dresden & Les Troyens - What a Finale! New Photos Added.

Our walking tour of Dresden this morning, led by expert local guide Claudia, focused on the very compact historic city center.

Prior to German unification in1871 Dresden, on the River Elbe, was the capital of independent Saxony, enjoying a long history as the royal residence of the Electors & Kings whose building & patronage led to the city’s nickname of ‘the Jewel Box’ due of its magnificent baroque & rococo city center.  The entire city center was destroyed in the controversial Allied bombings during World War II but after the war restoration work helped to reconstruct many parts of the historic inner city, including the Catholic Court Church, the Zwinger & the famous Semperoper.  Our tour visited all of these as well as the rebuilt Frauenkirche.

There was free time for lunch & sightseeing after our tour, during which most of the group took the opportunity to visit the Green Vault or the Zwinger’s Old Masters Gallery.

We regrouped later this afternoon for a matinee/early evening performance of our final opera - Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the Semperoper.

Following the five hour performance we celebrated with a farewell dinner this evening, with many memories to share at the end of our European adventure.