Guided Travel with European Contemporary History Tours.

July 7 - Participants fly on Delta ticket provided by ECHT from airport nearest to their respective homes through Atlanta to Amsterdam; dinner and breakfast on plane.

2004 July 8, Thursday map reference 1.

Welcome at airport by Cor Suijk. Brief tour by private coach of the Amsterdam region, followed by a group lunch and a meeting with a contemporary and close friend of Anne Frank.

Photograph collection of the Eltebe coach we use throughout the Tour .

The Anne Frank House in the center of Amsterdam where you may (optional) visit the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family. Here they were safe for a long time. This is also the place where Anne wrote her famous diary. The permanent exhibition shows a part of the original diary. A tour through the house is certainly a moving experience. Other points of interest, contained in brochure (with city map) will be provided by ECHT in every town visited.	THE NETHERLANDS, also known as Holland. Where you now stand on dry land, there once was water. A large part of the Netherlands is below sea level, all safeguarded by the famous dikes. In order to keep the land dry, you'll see many windmills, canals, small lakes and streams. The farthest distance to travel in this small country is about 190 miles. In Amsterdam, a truly multicultural city, we start with a boat cruise through the canals of Amsterdam, a town built in and on the water.	Early afternoon check-in at Hotel de Witte Bergen
2004 July 9 - Friday. map reference 2.
With a video on the bus, we go to Camp Westerbork in the Northern part of The Netherlands. Westerbork was the departure place for the train to Auschwitz. Walking the lanes of this serene place, one still feels the grief of those humans, who were prisoners at Westerbork. Also Anne Frank was described here before her transport to the death final Camp. At Westerbork, we will see a movie reliving its sad history, visit an expo and memorial, with its bent up railroad tracks .... no train will ever depart again. We leave Holland an with a video and presentation on the bus to Camp Bergen-Belsen in Germany. Burnt down camp after the war because of diseases risk. 2004	GERMANY. A country with many historic buildings, beautiful landscapes and art treasures. Although it has one of the best highway systems with no speed limits on its "autobahns" our bus will also drive along scenic routes . Bergen Belsen memorial Camp Bergen-Belsen was established in 1940 by the army as a P.O.W. camp for captured French and Belgian soldiers. The camp was handed over to the SS and became a detention place for Jews, initially intended to exchange them for Germans held prison abroad. In March 1944, Bergen-Belsen became a regular concentration camp, holding thousands of prisoners including the now-famous Anne Frank. Graveyard Stone for Anne and Margot. During April 1945 the camp was liberated by British troops. In 1946 a Jewish memorial was unveiled followed by the erection of a Soviet memorial for prisoners of war. In 1947 the British government ordered an obelisk and a memorial wall.	Along the route in Germany.
		The TRYP HOTEL of Celle. Group dinner thereafter, leisure.

2004 July 10 Saturday map reference 3.

A visit to the Wannsee Villa where the extermination of all Jews was decided.

Schloss Charlottenburg 1695-1699 Build for Sophie Charlotte , style from baroque to biedermeier

Former East Germany.
From Celle we drive to Berlin and cross the border that for a long time was formed by the river Elbe. We leave what has been previously known as West Germany and make a stop at the border.

BERLIN :
Guided bus tour of the city, after which we drop off those who want to visit the Jewish Museum or the Wall Museum etc.

Berlin is a sophisticated central European metropolis and again Germany's capital. It has a western area with real nightlife, parks and woodlands. The eastern part of Berlin has old townhouses and many restaurants.

Two nights we will stay in the "Hotel Hamburg"

2004 July 11, Sunday map reference 3.

Synagogue in Berlin

Reichstag
It was built according to the plans of Paul Wallot from 1884 to 1894, just like the Palace of the Reichstagspräsident. The buildings are linked by a tunnel through which in 1933 the arsonist Marinus van der Lubbe went to the Reichstag building. It was severely damaged by the fire as well as the fighting in and around Berlin in WWII and was reconstructed from 1961 till 1972.

In 1990 the constituent Bundestag of the reunited Germany assembled here for the first time. In summer 1995, the Reichstag building was wrapped up by Christo. Afterwards the core part of the building was completely removed in order to be newly reconstructed, based on the plans of the British architect Norman Foster, with a new cupola on the German Bundestag. The Bundestag has met here since September 1999 in Berlin. The cupola and the roof restaurant have already become tourist attractions and are open till 10 p.m.

2004
Full day in Berlin to see the sites with the help of our city brochure. Coach will provide a drop-off service at 9 am & 2 pm. Our escorts are available for advice and, if wanted, for personal company. In the evening, a group dinner and a presentation.
Suggested places to visit:
The Wannsee Villa.
Well known is the Brandenburg Tor, the gate that today (since 1989) is the symbol of unity, former glory of the nazi's.

Kurfürstendamm
The so-called "show-window of the west" with its expensive shops and elegant restaurants is worth a stroll at any time, past posh boutiques, cozy cafés, well-arranged bookstores, crazy paraphernalia shops. However culture also gets its fair share - there are well-known galleries, auction houses, museums and, of course, the church Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche.

Gendarmenmarkt
The Gendarmenmarkt is the most beautiful square in Berlin, some people even claim in Europe. The old Schauspielhaus rests with dignity in its center, flanked on the left and right by the German and the French Domes, respectively.
Potsdamer Platz
This square was formerly famous all over Europe for its teeming traffic. After the war it was just a derelict strip of land with the wall on it, but now it features i.e. the modern Daimler and Sony skyscrapers and has been readily accepted by the Berlin inhabitants, although opinions are divided in terms of its architecture. A little city of its own has come into being there, with malls, shops, restaurants, musical theatre, casino and quite a number of cinemas.

Berlin former Checkpoint Charlie - Friedrichsstrasse.
Friedrichsstadtpassagen
The most elegant shops are open here. Together with the Quarter 206 and the galleries Lafayette, they constitute an ideal shopping area with luxurious shops, cafés and delicacy stores.

Second night in Hotel Hamburg.

The videos shown on the bus partly pertain to the Holocaust sites we will visit shortly before we are visiting them. For the other part they contain information regarding the cities we are approaching. One video concerns the life of Miep Gies, Anne Frank's helper.

Please take note that the backgrounds of the Hotel information differs slightly in color.

Pictures are merely a way to give an impression of what we will actually see on the trip. Hotels in particular always give pictures of their most beautiful rooms.

EUROPEAN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY TOURS 2004
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