Stonehenge

Flight to U.K./ ORIENTATION

Days 1-3

We will begin with an intensive orientation outside of London in Salisbury, 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 the academic subject areas and the interdisciplinary framework we will use throughout the program. We plan to visit the site of Stonehenge as well as sites within Salisbury. Specific instructions for arrival will be available after enrolling.

Class in London

Trafalgar Square Lions, London

Holbein, The French Ambassadors, National Gallery

Louvre and Pyramide, Paris, France

The Group at the Bateau Mouche, Paris

Monet's "Waterlilies" in the Musee D'Orsay

PARIS

Days 9-13

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 at one of the following venues: Sainte Chapelle, Saint Severin, or at the Church of Saint Julien le Pauvre.

At the palace of Versailles

Chartres and Versailles

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, Notre Dame des Chartres.

THE RHINE VALLEY
Rudesheim to Cologne

Days 14-15

On the Rhine we will visit the romantic town of RUDESHEIM with its cobblestone streets. Here you may wish to stop at an inn and 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 a castle with an impressive view overlooking the Rhine, in BACHARACH. From the Rhine Valley we will travel by train to COLOGNE to visit the Cathedral which dominates the city in all its Gothic splendor.

Below: Bacharach Castle, our home in the Rhine River Valley

~Photo courtesy Carla Rood, WECHT 2008

Van Gogh, Bedroom

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Days 16-18

We will travel by train to Amsterdam-the political and cultural capital of the Netherlands, where our historian will take us on a walking tour of the city. We'll be sure to visit the Ann Frank House.

Our art professor will take us on a guided tour of the van Gogh Museum where we will discover the artist's work from earliest years to his last painting. We'll be sure to see works of the many Dutch masters in the Rijksmuseum-including such artists as Rembrandt and Vermeer.

BERLIN

Days 19-23

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 once again houses the German Parliament.

Our art professor also will guide us through the many world-class museums of Berlin. We hope 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.

The Berlin Wall

If time permits, we may visit Charlottenburg, the vast Rococo palace which Frederick I built for his wife Sophia Charlotte, or the palace of Sans Souci with its terraced gardens and espaliered trees. Evenings will be spent at concerts with the Berliner Philharmonische Orchester, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, or strolling along the elegant Unter den Linden or Kurfurstendamm.

PRAGUE

Days 24-26

We will have an early morning departure for PRAGUE. In historic Prague we will visit the Old City with its famous square dominated by the Old Town Hall and the clock. We'll see the Jan Huss Monument and the Tyn Church, once a center of the Hussite movement. There will be an 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.

Baroque style, Prague

VIENNA

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, 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, and Vermeer's "Allegory of Painting".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 may 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.

Venus of Willendorf

Concert in Vienna

MUNICH, the capital of Bavaria, is a 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.

We also plan to travel to Dachau on the outskirts of MUNICH, to visit the concentration camp which was established there by Nazi Germany. Evenings will be spent finishing coursework or at leisure.

We will complete the Western European Cultural History Tour in MUNICH. A last program supper will give us an opportunity to say goodbye to our friends. The next day, we will return home.

Day 36

End of Program, Return Flight Home