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Tour B: From Total War to Cold War - Germany 1943 to 1989 start/finish Berlin
Tour A: £ 575 ($1,144) per head for the on-ground arrangements in Germany: transport by coach (with professional interpreter onboard throughout), guiding, all entries, 2 nights accommodation in 2-star hotel in Berlin, 2 nights in 4-star hotel in Karlshagen, and 2 nights in 2-star hotel in Leipzig (sharing Double/Twin, with private shower & w.c. - Single supplement £100/$199), 6 breakfasts, and group meals on the second and third evenings.
Tour B: £ 520 ($1,035) per head for the on-ground arrangements in Germany: transport by coach (with professional interpreter onboard throughout), guiding, all entries, 3 nights accommodation in 2-star hotel in Leipzig, 2 nights in 2-star hotel in Berlin (sharing Double/Twin, with private shower & w.c. - Single supplement £110/$219), and 5 breakfasts.
Both tours combined: £ 875 ($1,741) per head for the on-ground arrangements in Germany: transport by coach (with professional interpreter onboard throughout), guiding, all entries, 4 nights accommodation in two different 2-star hotels in Berlin, 2 nights in 4-star hotel in Karlshagen, and 3 nights in 2-star hotel in Leipzig (sharing Double/Twin, with private shower & w.c. - Single supplement £160/$318), 9 breakfasts, and group meals on the second and third evenings.
NOT INCLUDED ON ANY: travel to/from Berlin, other meals, private insurance.
TO BOOK: email us to secure your place, and then post your desposit to us. Include all of the folowing information with the deposit, or print out and complete the form (printer-friendly version available here):
Saturday 4th October 2008:
check-in to hotel (near Potsdammerplatz) 5.00 to 7.00 p.m.
Make your own way to Berlin. Check-in at the hotel is between 17.00 and 18.45 - you will meet Dr Andrew Thomson, your Guide/Courier, at check-in. At 19.00 Andrew will be going with any who would like to join him to a restaurant nearby.
Sunday 5th:
Kummersdorf tour a.m. Berlin walking tour p.m.
The tour starts at 08.45 with travel by coach 1 hour to the early rocket-firing site at Kummersdorf in the woods 40 kms south of Berlin. We plan to visit the small museum and talk to the volunteers about the complex, its history and its preservation - a tour to the early rocket test stands should be possible (but cannot be guaranteed). Back to Berlin for a lunch break around the Gendarmenmarkt square, followed by a walking tour (2 kms) taking in the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the River Spree, the Holocaust Memorial, and the site of Hitler’s Bunker. 2nd night Berlin.
Provisional schedules, subject to change.
Minimum number for a tour 18, maximum 24.
For information on our other group tours in 2008 click here.
Above: Our group inspecting the test stands at Kummersdorf used by Wherner von Braun c. 1933 for his PhD research (before the 1937 move to Peenemünde by the Baltic Sea)
Monday 6th:
travel to Baltic a.m.; introductory Peenemünde tour p.m.
Leave at 08.45 for the three-and-a-half hour drive to the Baltic Sea, reaching the Peenemünde area - deep inside former East Germany (inaccessible until 1990) - around lunchtime. Tour of the overall complex, including the remains of the liquid oxygen plant, the sites that were hit by the British air raid of August 1943, traces of the R&D and housing sections (both officers'
Left: Peenemünde village today - the large structure is the power station, whose buildings house the excellent museum
IMPORTANT NOTE RE. FLIGHTS / TRAINS: our price does not include your flight or train travel to/from Berlin. Before you book you must wait for our confirmation that we have the required numbers for the tour - we will be in contact a.s.a.p.
The deposit is £ 75 per person (payable by cheque to "Dr Thomson's Tours" - I regret that we do not take credit cards). Payment of the balance will be due 8 weeks prior to the date of the tour. All payments go into our Trustee Account - no funds are released to us until after completion of the tour (as per the consumer protection measures under the EU Package Travel Regulations 1992).
Cancellation conditions (our full Booking Conditions will be sent with your Confirmation - if you are not happy with them then you have the option to cancel without charge within 7 days): on cancellation we will refund your purchase as follows: up to 8 weeks prior to the tour: 100%, less £ 5 p.p. admin charge 4 to 8 weeks prior: 67% 2 to 4 weeks: 34% 1- 14 days: 20% on the day: no refund.
but also the site of the first V1 launches). Then to the excellent Peenemünde Museum in the old power station buildings - 11.00 to 15.00 to enjoy the museum and the village itself (Soviet submarine, gift stands, snack bars, etc.), before returning to the hotel to have the balance of the afternoon free to enjoy this Baltic resort area.
Wednesday 8th:
travel to Leipzig - via German Military Aviation Museum Gatow
Leave Karlshagen 08.45, to western Berlin by lunchtime. At Tegel airport we will pick up participants in our Tour B, have a lunch stop, then take a long break to visit the German Military Aviation Museum at (former RAF) Gatow. Leave by 15.30: around two hours south to Leipzig (central hotel; 2 nights).
Thursday 9th:
Nordhausen (Dora camp) tour
Two hours to Nordhausen in the Harz area. Here we have a private 2-hour tour which includes going inside part of the tunnels complex where the V1s and V2s were assembled. Free time for the museum (lunch available) and for exploring the camp remains. Back on the coach we will pass the locations of sub-camps of the Mittelbau-Dora complex, and stop briefly on the old West/East German border to see the remains of the dismantled 'Iron Curtain'. 2nd night Leipzig.
Friday 10th:
return to Berlin ...... or: continue with TOUR B: “From Total War to Cold War - Germany 1943-1989”
Tour A concludes with a return to Berlin. Tour B continues in Leipzig for a third night
2008 exclusive group Germany tours:
two (overlapping) Germany tours in October 2008
Join us for either - or both !
Tour A: The developement of the V2: Berlin, Peenemünde, Kummersdorf & Nordhausen start/finish Berlin
1994: visit the Olympic Stadium clocktower (fine views) and the British Cemetery nearby. We conclude the tour by making drop-offs at Tegel Airport around 11.30, the Hauptbahnhof (main station) around 12.00, our hotel at 12.15, and Schonefeld airport around 13.00.
GERMANY - October 2008
Booking Form:
Name: .................................................. Telephone: ....................................
Address (+ postcode): .................................................................................
TOUR A:
TOUR B:
TOUR C:
Deposit required now: £ 75 ($150) x no. places: ...........
Total (£ or US$ cheque enclosed*): £ ($) ...........
Outside the UK or US? BANK TRANSFER details available on request
Dr Thomson's Tours, Bethany, 37 The Crescent, Canterbury CT2 7AW
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finalised according to participants’ travel]. We join participants on Tour A (Development of the V2) and visit the nearby German Military Aviation Museum at (former) RAF Gatow, then drive two hours south to Leipzig where we check-in to our central hotel for 3 nights.
Thursday 9th:
Nordhausen (Dora camp) tour [this day overlaps with TOUR A above]
Two hours to Nordhausen in the Harz area. Here we have a private 2-hour tour which includes going inside part of the tunnels complex where the V1s and V2s were assembled by slave labour. Free time for the museum (lunch available) and for exploring the camp remains. Back on the coach we will pass the locations of sub-camps of the Mittelbau-Dora complex, and stop briefly on the old West/East German border to see the remains of the dismantled 'Iron Curtain'.
Friday 10th:
Leipzig walking tour & free time a.m.; Colditz tour p.m.
Tour A participants (“Development of the V2”) leave us after breakfast. Dr Thomson will lead a guided walking tour of Leipzig (2 kms, 90 minutes) taking in the stories of
the fall of the town to the Americans in April 1945, and the 1989 street protests which led to the spectacular collapse of East Germany. Afterwards there is the option of visiting the Museum of Contemporary German History (excellent - English text sheet available) and/or enjoying free time & lunch. At 13.45 we leave for the 45 minute drive to Colditz for our guided tour of the famous Colditz Castle Prisoner of War camp.
3rd night Leipzig.
Saturday 11th:
to Berlin via Torgau & Zossen
A four hour ‘cross-country’ drive from Leipzig to Berlin across the heart of rural ‘East Germany’, making two significant stops: coffee time at Torgau to see the River Elbe and the site where Soviet and U.S. forces first met on 25 April 1945. And, after lunch, a visit to Zossen (1 hour south of Berlin) for a 2-hour guided tour of a fascinating complex spanning the WWII and Cold War stories: we will see the partly-destroyed buildings which housed Germany’s Army Operations HQ from 1939 to 1945, a 1940’s communication bunker, and a Soviet bunker from the 1980’s built to house East Germany’s air defence HQ. To our hotel in Berlin (in the former East Berlin) around 18.00: 2 nights
Sunday 12th:
Berlin: Stasi HQ; the Wall 1961-89; Airlift 1948-49 (Allied Museum); Holocaust Memorial
We start with a guided visit to the Stasi headquarters building. Then we do a tour which takes in the Allied Museum (looking at the Cold War years and the 1948
Looking at one of the ruined parts of the German Army operational HQ 1939-45 at Zossen, 1 hour south of Berlin.
Torgau on the River Elbe, where U.S. and Soviet forces met for the first time on 25 April 1945
Colditz Castle, 45 minutes east of Leipzig
Above: Andrew Thomson showing a surviving section of the Berlin wall to participants in our 2007 tour
Berlin Airlift), the Berlin Airlift memorial, the site of JFK's June 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, the Holocaust Memorial, and the Berlin Wall Memorial site on Bernauerstrasse: our short walking tour here includes part of the original wall and the sites of two tunnel escapes. Final night in Berlin. Option: fly back tonight (£45 reduction) - today’s tour ends at 17.00 at our hotel.
Monday 13th:
West Berlin tour a.m. - Olympic Stadium; British cemetery
A morning tour into former West Berlin to the area where British forces were based until
Wednesday 8th October:
Berlin to Gatow; travel to Leipzig
The tour starts with us picking you up at EITHER Tegel Airport at 12.15, OR at the Olympic Stadium S-Bahn [NOT U-Bahn] station at 13.30 [details to be
Tours A & B COMBINED:
start/finish Berlin
Saturday 4th October to Monday 13th -
9 night tour - see prices below
Remains of the V1 launch ramps at Peenemünde West
Spare V1 parts litter the inside of the tunnels at Nordhausen
The restored Reichstag building
housing and the camp for prisoners) - and the Baltic Sea itself. (Test Stand VII, the V2 launch site, is not open to the public for safety reasons). 2 nights in Karlshagen, a pleasant Baltic resort formerly part of the Peenemünde complex; evening meal included in price for both nights here.
Tuesday 7th:
Peenemünde West tour; Peenemünde Museum & village; free time
Two hour guided visit around Peenemünde West (in succession a base for the Luftwaffe, the USSR, and the East German Air Force -
