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Day 1: Upon arrival in London, you will be picked up at the airport and brought to the Marriott Hotel in Swindon. There will be an introduction to the tour and a video session introducing the witnesses that will meet the group the following day. Dinner at the hotel will follow.
Day 2: The group will travel to the Littlecote House, headquarters of the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment in England in 1944. You will see Colonel Robert Sink’s office and explore the historical collection on display. Local people will join the group to share their memories of this period. We then travel by bus to the English Channel and board the ferry that will take us to the Normandy Coast. Dinner will be taken on the ferry. We will disembark in Ouistreham and travel by bus to Hotel Mercure in Caen.
Day 3: The day will start with a visit to the town of Carentan and its Dead Man’s Corner Museum. After lunch in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, we pass by Brecourt Manor, site of Easy Company’s famous assault on German artillery, followed by a tour of Utah Beach and its museum. Dinner will be at the Hotel Mercure in Caen, where we will again spend the night.
Day 4: Our second day in Normandy will begin with a trip to the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer. After lunch in the coastal town of Arromanches-les-Bains, we visit the German battery in Longues-sur-Mer. We then tour the Kieffer Commando museum in Ouistreham, which commemorates the French contribution to the D-Day invasion. Dinner will be at the Taverne de Maitre Kanter with decorated French veterans and liberated civilians. After dinner, the group will return to the Hotel Mercure in Caen.
Day 5: After breakfast in Normandy, the coach will travel to the Netherlands to the city of Nijmegen. The Band of Brothers video will play on the bus, along with videos of the people to meet in Holland who have personal stories to tell about life under Nazi occupation and the famous battles to liberate the country. The group will spend the night at the Golden Tulip Valmonte hotel in Berg en Dal.
Day 6: The sixth day of our tour explores the bold attempt by the Allies to end the war quickly through Operation Market Garden. The morning features a brief drive along the famous dykes that figured in so many battles for control of the region. We are then given a tour of the Liberation Museum by people who lived under the Nazi occupation and witnessed the battles that led to the country’s liberation. In the evening we depart for Belgium’s Ardennes Forest. We will spend the night in the town of Bastogne at the Melba Hotel.
Day 7: In the morning we travel to the neighboring country of Luxembourg to take in the remarkable collection and displays of the National Military History Museum. We then return to Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne defended the besieged town during the Battle of the Bulge. We visit the Bastogne Historical Center and the Mardasson monument, which pays tribute to the Allied resolve during this critical period. Visits to Bois Jacques and E Company foxholes highlight the afternoon itinerary. We meet WWII witnesses for dinner at the Brasserie 1900.
Day 8: The eighth day of our tour involves travel to Bavaria. On the way, we stop in Hamm, Luxemburg for a visit to the American cemetery, the final resting place of many Easy Company soldiers as well as General Patton. In Landsberg the group will check into the Goggl Hotel.
Day 9: In the morning, we will have a guided tour of Landsberg and the remains of the concentration camps liberated by the American army. We will also visit a courthouse where several war criminals were tried for their association with the concentration camps. In the afternoon we will visit the infamous Dachau camp, which now features a full-scale museum detailing Nazi atrocities. We then travel to Berchtesgaden and spend the night at the Hotel Bavaria.
Day 10: The last full day of the trip involves a trip to Berchtesgaden, sight of Hitler’s Bavarian retreat, the Eagle’s Nest, which was captured by Easy Company at the end of World War II. We start with a visit to Dokumentation Obersalzberg, an exhibit prepared by the German Institute of Contemporary History set atop Hitler’s bunker complex. The farewell dinner in the evening will be attended by witnesses of the period. We will stay at Hotel Bavaria, where the closing celebration will take place.
Day 11: After saying goodbye, our guests will be brought by bus to either Salzburg or Munich for their return flights.
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