Programme C

8 DAYS

Programme:

Day 1.   Arrival in Prague
En route from the airport to your hotel we will give you an outline tour of Prague in your coach. After you had sufficient time for settling in and a bit of a rest, you will be served lunch at your hotel. During the remainder of your first day you will be shown the centre of Prague namely „ Staré Město“ (the Old Town) and „ Karlův most“ (Charles Bridge). We will then take you on a boat trip to the island Kampa, departing between 6 and 7 p.m.
After the boat trip we will stroll through „ Malá Strana“ (literally translated as "Lesser Quarter", which is the oldest part of Prague) to "Malostranské náměstí" (square) where we will have dinner at a wine bar „ U tří zlatých hvězd „ (at the Three Golden Stars) for 20 US dollars per person and return you to your hotel.

Day 2.   Whole day tour of Hradčany (Prague Castle) and „ Malá Strana“
We will first tour the castle and then „ Malá Strana“ (Lesser Quarter), taking a break for lunch at the public house „U sv. Tomáše“ (at St. Thomases). Dinner is back at the hotel, after which we will arrange, if you wish, an evening performance of your choice.

Day 3.   A day long tour of „Staré Město“ and completion of the tour of Hradčany
Inspection of "Staré Město" and "Židovské Město" (the Old Town and Jewish Quarter), lunch is at the historic restaurant U černého slunce (at the Black Sun). The afternoon will be used to complete the inspection of Hradčany (Prague Castle), which includes the Loreta (a treasury containing the famous monstrance "Prague sun") and „ Strahovská knihovna“ (library - containing an exceptionally beautiful hall). Dinner is at the hotel, which is followed by an optional coach tour of Prague by night including "Křižíkova fontána" (fountain).

Day 4.   Telč, Třebíč and the capital of Moravia - Brno
Early departure to Brno over „ Zelená hora“ (Green mountain) and dive on to Telč, where we inspect the old town square and castle. We will stop here for lunch at the restaurant U Zachariáše. Before arriving in Brno we stop at Třebíč famous for its Benedictine monastery. In Brno we do a panoramic tour of the city, have dinner and stay overnight at hotel Slovan.

Day 5.   Southern Moravia
First we visit Lednice to see the grandiose summer residence of the Lichtenstein princes. We will visit its park, which contains many fascinating buildings, that is regarded as one of the most beautiful parks in Europe. We then continue on to Valtice, which was an Austrian town annexed to Czechoslovakia after the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Here we will stop for lunch, inspect the old residence of the Lichtenstein family, in which they lived until 1945. We will then go for a wine tasting in a local wine cellar.
On our route back to Brno we will stop at Mikulov, where we will have a short tour of the castle and look round the town. This town is in a protected area of the region Pálava called "moravská Itálie" ("Moravian Italy"). We then travel past the artificial lakes Nové Mlýny and see the monasterial town of Rajhrad. Dinner and overnight stay in Brno.

Day 6.   Northern Moravia - Slavkov, Kroměříž, Olomouc
We travel to Slavkov where we will tour the baroque castle and see an exhibition about Napoleon.
Variant I - Kroměříž and Olomouc    Travel to Kroměříž "Moravian Athens" with its summer residence of princes "Olomouc archbishops" on the shores of river Morava. We will visit the gallery in the magnificent archbishop's castle, which contains beautiful examples of the Venetian School of Art and one of the most important paintings by Tizian - Apollo and Marsya. A free one hour lunch break in either Kroměříž or Olomouc.
Olomouc, a candidate city for UNESCO heritage listing, has the archbishop's residence and is a city of many beautiful historical monuments. We will inspect the "katedrála sv. Václava" (St. Wenceslas cathedral), the famous "Dolní and Horní radniční náměstí" (the Lower and Upper town hall square) with its beautiful fountains and the largest Czech "morový sloup" (memorial to the plague). We can see the largest organ in central Europe at "chrám sv. Mořice" (the cathedral of St. Moritz) and visit the old Roman castle of the last of the Přemyslide dynasty, where the young Václav III (Wenceslas III) was murdered. Dinner and overnight stay in Brno.
Variant II - for groups deeply interested in Napoleon Bonaparte and the three Caesars' war of 1805    We will take an in depth tour the baroque castle in Slavkov and see the exhibition about Napoleon Bonaparte. Lunch will be served in the field kitchens, which are in the historic building which housed the battle observation post and where both Napoleon Bonaparte and Caesar Franz Joseph I stayed. The food and drinks are served by soldiers in historical uniforms. After lunch we will inspect the field near Slavkov where the battle of the three Caesars took place on December 2nd 1805. Dinner and overnight stay in Brno.

Day 7.   Return to Prague
In the early hours of the morning we will return to Prague via “ Zelená hora“ (Green mountain) and Kutná hora. We will stop at “ Kutná hora“, which was the second largest regal town after Prague during the middle ages and is now on the UNESCO listing of world heritage memorials. We will tour the "velechrám sv. Barbory" (grand cathedral of St Barbara), "Vlašský dvůr" (Valachian court), klášter Voršilek“ (the Voršilky monastery) and the famous Kostnice. Dinner and overnight stay in Prague.

Day 8.   Last day
If you have sufficient time before your flight we would be delighted to further deepen your knowledge of Prague.