EUROPEAN CHARM WITH LONDON EXTENSION - 2010

15 days incl. travel, or 14 days from Amsterdam to London (HBT)

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Vacation Overview

See some of Europe’s most famous cities and picturesque towns. Begin in Amsterdam with guided sightseeing, a canal cruise, and a visit to a major diamond center. Heading southeast, enter Germany, pausing in magnificent Cologne to visit its twin-spired gothic cathedral. Next, cruise down the Rhine past lush vineyards and castle-dotted river banks to beautiful Heidelberg and medieval Rothenburg. Spend two nights in Bavarian Munich, then off to King Ludwig’s fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle and the Passion Play village of Oberammergau. Travel through the majestic Alps via Innsbruck to Venice, where a guided walking tour includes St. Mark’s Basilica, Doges’ Palace, and the Bridge of Sighs. Stop in Italian-speaking Lugano before arriving in Lucerne to admire its Lion Monument and Chapel Bridge. Spend a night in Montreux, and in Lausanne, board the high-speed TGV train to Paris. Guided sightseeing in the “City of Light” features Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, and a bird’s-eye view of the city from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. Continue by Eurostar train to London, and stay two nights and get a city tour with Local Guide in London that features a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral and time to watch the Changing of the Guard (if held).

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Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story Notre Dame Cathedral

Europe’s most famous cathedral, whose twin Gothic towers loom above France’s most beloved river, the Seine, actually owes a lot of its international success to the author Victor Hugo. Back in 1831, when Hugo wrote his classic novel about a hunchbacked bell-ringer at Notre Dame who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy, the medieval cathedral had fallen on hard times. During the Revolution in 1789, it had been seized, looted of its treasures and converted into an atheistic “Temple of Reason.” Even worse, after the monarchy was restored in 1815, Notre Dame was used as riverside warehouse – its once-splendid glass windows now dimmed and its facades decaying pathetically above the Île de la Cité. But Parisian’s indifference to their landmark ended suddenly in 1831, when Victor Hugo published his romantic novel the “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” (called “Notre-Dame de Paris” in French). The book was an international bestseller and lured armies of tourists to Paris in search of its Gothic cathedral setting. Hugo used this groundswell of public interest to lobby the French government for renovations of his beloved Notre Dame. From 1845 to 1864, repairs were indeed carried out – the clogged medieval streets nearby were cleared, revealing the marvelous edifice we see today.