Itinerary:
Day 1: Depart for Budapest.
Day
2: Embark the M.S. Amadeus Princess and enjoy a welcome toast and dinner. (R,D)
Day 3: Begin your morning tour in Pest, whose elegant limestone Parliament Building rises beside the river. Pass through Heroes’ Square and cross the imposing Chain Bridge linking low-lying Pest to the hillier Buda side of the Danube. On Castle Hill, visit the Gothic Matthias Church, built in the 1200s and the neo-Romanesque Fishermen’s Bastion. Depart in the afternoon and cruise up the Danube River. (B,L,D)
Day 4: Vienna owes its present appearance to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef, who created the Ringstrasse that showcases some of the city’s finest landmarks—the Austrian National Opera, the University, the Bergtheater and the Town Hall. The focal point of Vienna is the Stephansdom, the great 13th-century cathedral renowned for the zigzagged tiles that adorn its roof. Late this evening cruise upstream to Melk. (B,L,D)
Day 5: Rising above a bend of the Danube River, Melk Abbey glows in mustard-yellow hues from the top of a high granite bluff. Tour the abbey and resume your cruise after lunch. This evening attend the captain’s farewell reception. (B,L,R,D)
Day 6: Disembark in Passau and transfer to Prague. Relax in an atmosphere of 19th century elegance as you travel across the rolling, wooded German and Czech countryside. Upon arrival in Prague, transfer to the deluxe Hotel Le Palais. (B,L)
Day 7: Stroll down the narrow streets and lanes of Prague’s Staré Mesto (Old Town), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and view the Orloj, the ornate 15th-century Astronomical Clock. Continue through the historic Josefov (Jewish) Quarter to visit the Gothic Old-New Synagogue, Europe’s oldest Jewish house of worship, and see the Moorish-styled Spanish Synagogue, famed for its gilded interior. You have the afternoon free. (B)
Day 8: Drive to the Hradany Quarter for a guided tour of the majestic Prague Castle. Walk through the castle’s courtyards; visit stately St. Vitus Cathedral, a masterpiece of Late Gothic architecture; and stroll past the picturesque cottages of the Golden Lane, where jewelers and goldsmiths once lived and worked. Your afternoon is at leisure. (B)
Day 9: Board the train and enjoy a scenic passage across the northern Czech Republic and southern Poland. Arrive in Kraków late this afternoon and transfer to the deluxe Kraków Sheraton Hotel for dinner on your own and an evening at leisure. (B,L)
Day 10: Kraków is the only major Polish city to have emerged from World War II unscathed, and its Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tour the old Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz. Continue to the complex of Wáwel Hill, which includes the Royal Castle and the Cathedral of Sts. Stanislaus and Waclaw. Walk in the Tynek Glówny, or “Main Market Square,” an enormous plaza surrounded by ornate houses and towering spires. Pass by the residence of John Paul II while he was Archbishop of Kraków. You have the afternoon free. Alternatively, you may join the optional excursion to the Auschwitz-Birkenau, a memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. This evening enjoy the farewell reception and dinner. (B,L,R,D)
Day 11: Transfer to the U.S.
Optional extension to Warsaw.
|
