In the footsteps of Philipp Melanchthon

 
Itinerary

1. Day
Arrival in Frankfurt am Main where you will be met by your tour leader. We will board our bus and transfer to Heidelberg, first stop on our tour where Philipp Melanchthon studied at the young age of 12. Here we will have a guided tour of the historical city center visiting the University and its detention cells and the magnificent Castle overlooking the Neckar River. We then check in to our hotel for one night.

2. Day
After breakfast, we board our bus and drive to the town of Bretten, where Melanchthon was born on February 16, 1497. Upon arrival, we will tour the splendid Melanchthonhaus, built by the town of Bretten as a memorial to their most famous son. Following the tour, we continue on to the medieval town of Maulbronn home to the Cistercian monastery, the best-preserved medieval monastery north of the Alps. As we tour the grounds, we will be able to get a detailed sense of the daily lives of the Cistercian monks from the 12th to 16th centuries. We then move on to the city of Pforzheim, the city of Gold, where the young Philipp Melanchthon studied Latin. Here we check in to our hotel for one night.

3. Day
This morning we begin our day with a visit of Pforzheim to include Church St. Michael, the city's landmark, the Pforzheim City Museum and the Reuchlinhaus. Following our tour of Pforzheim, we continue on to the town of Ötisheim where we will visit the German Waldensermuseum. We then drive to the world-famous University town of Tübingen, where Melanchthon was engaged as Professor of Greek at the age of twenty-one. Upon arrival, we will check in to our hotel for two nights.

4. Day
Tübingen: located on the Neckar River, this University town boasts a completely intact historical city center with half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets and quaint alleyways. We begin our day with a city tour "Humanism in Tübingen, Melanchthon, Reuchlin…Tübingen and its Humanists." After our tour of Tübingen, we take a short drive through the surrounding countryside to the idyllic Cistercian monastery in Bebenhausen. As we tour the abbey buildings and gardens, you will recognise why it is considered one of Germany's best- preserved medieval monasteries.

5. Day
Today we leave the State of Baden-Württemberg and drive to the Bavarian city of Augsburg where in 1530 Melanchthon wrote the "Augsburg Confession". We take a tour of the city visiting the "Fuggerei" a walled enclave dating from 1516, the Town Hall from 1620 built in the Renaissance style, the Cathedral and the Lutheran Church St. Anna with its Fugger Chapel and courtyard known as the "Lutherhöfle" or "Luther's little courtyard." In the late afternoon we check in to our hotel for one night.

6. Day
Leaving Augsburg and Bavaria, we travel 260 miles northward to the city of Erfurt, capital city of the Free State of Thuringia. Upon arrival, we take a tour of the old Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther entered as a novice in July of 1505. We then tour the Erfurt Cathedral "Mariendom" built in the gothic style and famous for its stained-glass windows where Luther in 1507 was ordained. We then take a city tour to include the Fish Market, Town Hall and "Krämerbrücke." After a short walk through the "Anger" (market place) with its Luther Memorial and Merchant's Church, we check in to our hotel for two nights.

7. Day
After breakfast, we drive to the city of Eisenach. Here we will visit the Church of St. George where St. Elisabeth was married and J.S. Bach was baptised followed by the Luther House where Luther lived as a pupil from 1498 to 1501 and where today a museum offers exhibits relating to the period, Luther's life and teachings. We then make our way to the famous Wartburg Castle overlooking the city. We will take a tour of the Palas or Great Hall, Art exhibition, the Elizabeth Hallway and the Luther Room where "Junker Jörg" (the Knight George) translated the New Testament from Greek into German. Following our tour of the castle, we will enjoy a delicious "Lutherschmaus" in the "Burgschänke."

8. Day
This morning we depart Eisenach and continue on to Eisleben, where Luther was born in 1483 and where he died in 1546. We will visit the house of his birth and death and St. Andrews Church where he preached his last sermon. We then head for the town of Wittenberg located on the Elbe River. It was here from 1518 that Melanchthon taught Greek, Theology and History and where he died on April 19, 1560. We will visit the Melanchthon House, built in the Renaissance style and where he lived with his family is now a museum with exhibits including the furnished room where he studied and later died. Recently renovated for the 500th anniversary of his birth, this museum offers a rare look into the life and works of this important humanist and reformer. We then check in to our hotel for one night.

9. Day
Wittenberg was from 1508, the main workplace of Martin Luther. We will visit Luther Hall, the Augustinian monastery where Luther lived as a monk and later, in 1525, as owner with his wife and family (Luther Hall is the largest museum of Reformation history in the world), the Market Square and Town Hall; guided tour of the "All Saints Church "Schlosskirche" famous site where Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Castle Church door sparking the beginning of the Reformation (it is here that Luther is buried along side his fellow reformer, Philipp Melanchthon); guided tour of St. Mary's Church, where Luther did the majority of his preaching. We head for Berlin where we check in to our hotel for one night.

10. Day
After checking out of our hotel, we board the bus and make our way to the Berlin airport for departure.

Program changes are possible for logistical reasons.