Departure from the U.S.
August 23
ORIENTATION (Required for all students)
August 24 - 25
We will begin outside of London with
an intensive orientation that will help us to create a community of culturally aware traveling scholars. We'll
get acquainted with each other and learn the ground rules for ECHT, and our unique approach to study and
travel. There will also be essential introductions to each of the academic subject areas and the
interdisciplinary framework we will use throughout the program. Specific information on the location of the
orientation and instructions for arrival will be available after enrolling.
LONDON
August 26 -30
Our stay in LONDON will provide an excellent overview of what
lies ahead. The Tower of London will bring the Middle Ages
to life, while St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey will introduce
us to the first of many magnificent cathedrals and temples we'll see on the tour.
We will see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace,
and at the Houses of Parliament we will discuss the workings
of government. The British Museum is a vast storehouse of
treasures from every period of civilization; of special interest
to us will be the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens
and the Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to deciphering
ancient Egyptian writing. The National Gallery, one of the
great art collections of the world, will be the first of many
art museums we visit. Evenings will be spent at theater or
concert performances.
PARIS
August 31 - September 5
PARIS, one of
the oldest cities in western Europe, is considered to be the art capital of the world. You will be introduced
to PARIS through a cruise on the Seine. Our art professor will schedule visits to the Musee du Louvre ("Mona
Lisa," "Venus de Milo," Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" and many other priceless art treasures); the
Musee D'Orsay (the world's finest collection of Impressionist paintings), the Musee Rodin, and to the Centre
National d'Art et Culture Georges Pompidou (a fine collection of modern art). A discussion on Napoleon will
take place at Les Invalides, where he lies in the crypt of the Eglise du Dome, within the innermost of six
successive coffins. Your history professor will also guide you through the Musee de l'Armee where you will view
such fascinating artifacts as Napoleon's favorite horse and the room in which he died at St. Helena.
We will also visit Notre Dame, the Gothic chapel of Sainte
Chapelle and the nearby Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette,
Robespierre and many others spent their last days in prison
during the French Revolution. Tickets also will be provided
to chamber music concerts at Sainte Chapelle, Saint Severin,
or at the Church of Saint Julien le Pauvre.
We will make excursions outside of Paris to Versailles, the magnificent palace of Louis XIV with
its Le'Hameau, where Marie Antoinette and her friends used to play peasant, and to Chartres with its majestic
Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame des Chartres. We leave PARIS by overnight train for GERMANY.
The Rhine Valley
Rudesheim to Cologne
September 6 - 8
On the Rhine we will visit the romantic town of RUDESHEIM with its cobblestone streets. Here you may wish
to stop at an inn to sample the local wine to the sound of an ethnic band. At Rudesheim we will board a
steamer for a cruise on the Rhine River and glide past vineyard-covered hills and cliffs, including the Lorelei
Cliff from which, as Heinrich Heine relates, beautiful sirens lured weary sailors to the treacherous rocks.
We will spend the night in lodgings with an impressive view
overlooking the Rhine, in either a castle in BACHARACH, or
in another small town. From the Rhine Valley we will travel
by train to COLOGNE to visit the largest
Gothic cathedral in Europe, which still dominates the city's
skyline. From the Rhineland we will travel by train to HAMBURG.
HAMBURG/KIEL
September 9 - 10
We
spend the night in HAMBURG and then travel on to KIEL for an overnight ferry to OSLO.
OSLO
September 11 - 14
In OSLO we will visit the Folkmuseum, an open air museum with
peasant homes from different parts of Norway, the Viking Museum
with ships from the year 800 along with sledges and other
findings from the Oseberg site, and the Kon Tiki Museum with
Thor Heyerdahl's famous raft and boats. We also plan to visit
the National Gallery, which holds important works by Edward
Munch, and Vigeland Park with its many sculptures depicting
the life cycle by Vigeland, Norway's most famous sculptor.
From OSLO we will make an excursion by train and boat through
the beautiful mountains and fjords nearby.
STOCKHOLM
September 15 - 18
In STOCKHOLM we will stay at af
Chapman, a fully rigged 19th century sailing ship which is moored off the island of Skeppsholmen, five minutes
from the center of STOCKHOLM. Without doubt STOCKHOLM is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It has
been called the Venice of the North because it is built on fourteen islands surrounded by water so pure that
downtown swimmers are a common sight. While in STOCKHOLM we will visit the Royal Palace, where guards change
daily, and the Royal Armory. We will also view the fine collection of art at the National Museum, with numerous
works by Boucher, Fragonard, Hals, Dürer and Rembrandt. Evenings will be spent wandering through
STOCKHOLM's beautiful city parks, listening to street musicians or attending a concert at one of STOCKHOLM's
many night spots. From here we take an overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland where we will board a train for ST.
PETERSBURG, our first stop in Russia.
ST. PETERSBURG
September 19 - 25
Our visit to Russia will be a special experience. In addition to observing the vast wealth of Russian
history, art, and literature, we will also look at social, political, and economic conditions in post-Soviet
Russia. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great founded this city. In 1712 ST. PETERSBURG
(called Leningrad after the death of Lenin until the break up of the Soviet Union) became the new capital of
Russia. The magnificent palaces and governmental structures plus the many waterways give this city its special
charm. Here we will see one of the great art collections of the world, the Hermitage, part of which is located
in the Tsar's Winter Palace, which stretches for three large blocks along the Neva River. We will cross the
Neva to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress where the writers Dostoyevsky and Gorky, as well as others who were
considered revolutionary, were once imprisoned. We will go inside the Fortress Cathedral, where most all of
Peter's successors were buried.
Back on the Hermitage side of the Neva we will stop at
the Statue of Peter the Great, near which army officers
once amassed troops in an attempt to replace a Tsar, and
at St. Isaacs Cathedral, where some 60,000 people were rumored
to have died of mercury poisoning while gilding the dome.
In the outskirts
of the city, we will make a visit to Piskarevskoye Cemetery where many of the one million Leningraders who died
during WWII are buried. We will also make an excursion by train to the summer palace of Peterhof on the Gulf of
Finland. Begun by Peter the Great and completed by Empress Elizabeth, this palace, destroyed by the Nazis in
W.W.II, has been carefully restored along with its many beautiful fountains. You will also be able to
explore on your own, perhaps visiting the final home of Dostoyevsky or his grave site at the Alexander Nevsky
Monastery, or taking a second trip to the Hermitage. As in all major Russian cities, a wide selection of
evening entertainment will be available. From ST. PETERSBURG we will travel by overnight sleeper train to
MOSCOW.
MOSCOW
September 26 - 30
Our visit to MOSCOW, the capital of Russia, should be one
of the great highlights of our trip. Here we will visit the
walled Kremlin and some of its magnificent cathedrals which
date back to Russia's Middle Ages. Within its walls we will
tour the Armory, where valuable historical artifacts are kept.
There you will be able to see old weapons, jewelry, carriages,
crowns, and clothes, much of it used by the Tsars and Tsarinas.
Outside the Kremlin we will walk along the gigantic Red Square
and, if crowds permit, see the Mausoleum, where Lenin's body
is preserved. We will also visit the History Museum, which
includes a branch located in the picturesque St. Basil's Cathedral.
A stroll through the Alexandrovsky Gardens underneath the
Kremlin Walls will complete our tour of the Kremlin area.
We will also visit the Novodevichy Convent (and cemetery) where Peter the Great once
banished his sister and where many famous Russians such as Gogol are buried. We will see some of the finest
Russian art in existence at the wonderfully renovated Tretyakov Gallery.
At the Museum of the Revolution we will be able to see
photographs and memorabilia of Russia's revolutionary past.
You will also be free to tour MOSCOW's beautiful and efficient
metro on your way to exploring some interests of your own,
such as a visit to Gorky Park.
VLADIMIR/SUZDAL
October 1 - 2
These two cities date back to the 12th century when they played a major role in the shift of power and
influence from Kiev in the southwest to the northeast. They were much more important than Moscow until about
the 14th century. At VLADIMIR we will visit the ceremonial Golden Gate built in 1164 with its Military History
Exhibition, and the beautiful St. Dmitry and Assumption Cathedrals with frescoes by Andrei Rublyev from the
early 15th century. At SUZDAL we will see the Museum of Wooden Architecture and have a chance to wander through
this historic Russian town with its many churches and monasteries. From here we will travel by bus and
overnight sleeper train to WARSAW, Poland.
WARSAW
October 4
KRAKOW
October 5 - 8
KRAKOW, like PRAGUE, was spared the ravages of both World Wars. Thus we will
be able to admire, while visiting this city, seven hundred
years of continuous development. For centuries Poland's medieval
capital KRAKOW, aside from being the residence of Polish kings,
hosted the Jagellonian University, the second oldest university
in central Europe. We will visit the picturesque Market Square
and the nearby Old Town Hall, where one may ascend the winding
stairs to the summit for a view of the city. We will also
visit the Tombs of Poland's Kings in the Cathedral. Close
to the Royal Castle is what remains of the Jewish Ghetto.
There we will visit the 450 year-old Remuh Synagogue and the
Jewish Cemetery nearby. We also plan to make a visit to Auschwitz.
There between four and six million people lost their lives
at the hands of the Nazis. This concentration camp has been
rebuilt as a national memorial. Sections of it have been left
the way they were when Russians liberated the camp toward
the end of the war. From KRAKOW we will travel by overnight
train to BERLIN.
BERLIN
October 9 - 12
Our visit to BERLIN, the former capital of Brandenburg-Prussia and
capital of modern Germany, will give us a unique opportunity to see the historic changes in this city formerly
divided by the notorious Berlin Wall. We will visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and see documentation of
those who escaped from East Germany, as well as the last vestiges of the Berlin Wall. During our stay in BERLIN
we plan to visit the Reichstag Building, which is once again a house of the German Parliament, and the memorial
to those who attempted to cross the Berlin wall and failed. Our art professor also will guide us through
the many world-class museums of Berlin. We plan to see the Egyptian Museum, which houses a great collection of
Egyptian art, with the priceless bust of Nefertiti, the Nationalgalerie, BERLIN's museum for modern art, the
Gemaldegalerie in its new home, with its valuable collection of Italian, German, Dutch and Flemish art
including 26 Rembrandts, and the Pergamon Museum, with the Babylonian Ishtar Gate, the Roman Market Gate of
Miletus and the immense and majestic Pergamon Altar. We plan to visit Charlottenburg, the vast Rococo
palace which Frederick I built for his wife Sophia Charlotte, and, if time permits, the palace of Sans Souci
with its terraced gardens and espaliered trees. Evenings will be spent with the Berliner Philharmonische
Orchester, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, or strolling along the elegant Unter den Linden or Kurfurstendamm.
PRAGUE
October 13 - 15
In historic PRAGUE we will visit the Old City with its famous
square dominated by the Old Town Hall and the clock. We will
view the Jan Huss Monument and the Tyn Church, once a center
of the Hussite movement. You will have the opportunity to
visit the Jewish Quarter with its Synagogue. After crossing
Karluv Most, PRAGUE's magnificent bridge, we will walk past
the baroque Church of St. Nicholas, up to the Prazsky Hrad,
PRAGUE's castle, and to St. Vitus' Cathedral. There will also
be time to review our experiences and to catch up on course
assignments. We will leave for VIENNA by train.
VIENNA
October 16 - 19
In this wonderful city, the old imperial
capital of the Habsburg Monarchy, we will have an opportunity to attend a major musical event, such as an opera
at the Vienna State Opera, an operetta at the Volksoper or a symphonic concert at the Musikverein Saal or a
Strauss concert. A Visit is planned, led by our art professor, to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which
houses one of the finest art collections in the world. We will see there an entire room dedicated to Bruegel,
Vermeer's "Allegory of Painting" and Cellini's "Salt Cellar of Francis I." We will go to the Albertina, which
houses the world's largest collection of graphic art, with outstanding examples by Dürer, Michelangelo and
Rembrandt. On our short visit to the Naturhistorisches Museum we will see the "Venus of Willendorf," perhaps
the oldest work of art in the world. We will visit the Belvedere Palace, the former residence of Prince Eugene
of Savoy, and its art gallery, a showcase for Vienna's Secession movement with works by Klimt, Schiele and
Kokoschka.
Our history professor will take us on a visit of the gardens
of Schoenbrunn Palace, the Habsburgs' summer residence,
where Emperor Franz Joseph ruled over the vast lands of
the Habsburg Monarchy for 68 years, or the Hofburg, the
imperial residences, and the Schatzkammer, the imperial
treasury, which contains the crown of the Holy Roman Emperors.
SALZBURG/MUNICH
October 20 - 23
We will cross the picturesque Austrian countryside in an
express train and arrive in SALZBURG for lunch. During our stay in this city, we will visit Schloss Mirabell
with its Angel Staircase lined with smiling cherubs, and the Salzburg Dom, the first baroque cathedral north of
the Alps. We will of course also visit Hohensalzburg, SALZBURG's impressive castle with its torture chamber and
the Archbishop's own apartments. Along the way we will pass by Mozart's birthplace. A short train ride will
take us to MUNICH, the capital of Bavaria and cultural center of Germany. Our art professor will take us on
a tour of the Alte Pinakothek, famous for works by Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, and its large collection of
Dutch, French and Italian masters. We will also visit the Neue Pinakothek with works by 18th and 19th century
artists and the German Expressionists, the State Gallery of Modern Art with works by Courbet, Cezanne, Gauguin,
and van Gogh, and the Glyptothek with its fine collection of classical sculptures. There will be time to
make an optional trip Dachau on the outskirts of MUNICH, to visit the concentration camp which was established
there by Nazi Germany. Evenings will be spent attending musical events or at leisure. Next we will travel by
train over the scenic Alps to VENICE.
VENICE
October 24 - 27
Our first view of the city called "the bride of the sea" will be as we exit the train
station and stand at the edge of the Grand Canal. On a walking tour, we will cross a few of the more than 200
bridges that connect the archipelago of small islands that form the city. We will visit the Piazza San Marco,
called by Napoleon "The most beautiful drawing room in the world." We will tour the Basilica, the Ducal Palace
and see the 10th century Bell Tower. Our art profesor will guide us through the Galleria dell Accademia, with
its rich collection of Venetian paintings, including Bellini's "Madonna," Giorgione's "Tempest" and
Tintoretto's magnificent cycle depicting the life of St. Mark. Nearby, we will see the Scuola San Rocco with
Tintoretto's masterpieces in situ. We will also visit the Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, a magnificent canal-side
palazzo which houses outstanding works by many modern masters including Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Constantin
Brancusi, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollack. Evenings will be spent at leisure, exploring the hidden treasures
of the city as twilight edges into darkness, or just sitting at a cafe along the Canal watching gondolas glide
by.
FLORENCE
October 28 - November 1
FLORENCE, the cradle of the Renaissance, is an essential component of'
our study tour. Located in the center of Tuscany, it offers
art lovers a unique opportunity to study the accomplishments
of an age within the geographical confines where they were
produced. Our art professor will guide us through the Uffizi,
which includes the best of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo
Lippi, Botticelli, Michelangelo, da Vinci and Titian, along
with some superb examples of Northern art. We will visit
the Duomo and have an opportunity to climb up Brunelleschi's
structure for a panoramic view of the city. We will visit
the Baptistery and see Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise," and
the Museo Nazionale, the Bargello, with its magnificent
collection of Florentine sculpture including works by Donatello,
Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Cellini. We will also visit
the Palazzo Vecchio and the Galleria dell'Accademia, which
houses Michelangelo's "David" and a number of his other
works.
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No tour of FLORENCE would be complete without a look at
its famous churches. San Lorenzo holds the tomb of Lorenzo
il Magnifico and Michelangelo's Medici Chapel. We will visit
Santa Maria del Carmine with Masaccio's frescoes in its
Brancacci Chapel; Santa Maria Novella with Masaccio's "Holy
Trinity" and important frescos by Ghirlandaio; San Marco
with the Medici Library and Savonarola's cell; and Santa
Croce, where our historian will discuss famous Italians
who are buried there. Evenings will be spent at leisure,
at concerts or at a ballet at the Teatro Communale.
A day long excursion is planned for
PISA, where we will visit the Cathedral and the Leaning
Tower.
Daily itinerary for the Fall 2002 ECHT continued: 
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