Day 1: Wed, May 23: Düsseldorf Arrival
Arrive Düsseldorf airport.
Meet chartered bus and English speaking tour escort Lothar Moehlmann.
Transfer to your Düsseldorf hotel and check in.
Hotel Astra
Afternoon sightseeing in Düsseldorf.
Dinner.
Düsseldorf impresses with boundary-pushing architecture, zinging nightlife and an art scene to rival many higher-profile cities. It’s a posh and modern city that seems all buttoned-up business at first glance: banking, advertising, fashion and telecommunications are among the fields that have made North Rhine–Westphalia's capital one of Germany’s wealthiest cities. Yet all it takes is a few hours of bar-hopping around the Altstadt (the historical quarter along the Rhine) to realise that locals have no problem letting their hair down once they shed those Armani jackets.
Arrive Düsseldorf airport.
Meet chartered bus and English speaking tour escort Lothar Moehlmann.
Transfer to your Düsseldorf hotel and check in.
Hotel Astra
Afternoon sightseeing in Düsseldorf.
Dinner.
Breakfast at hotel.
Board bus and travel to the Minden/Hannover area (driving time approximately 3 hours).
Afternoon arrival (sightseeing stop in Münster, if desired - depends on the time your Minden hosts expect you there).
On arrival meet hosts, students stay in host families (full board).
*** arranged by CTI
Evening concert of the MSU Chorale hosted by the Minden Choir.
Dr. and Mrs Webb and OIK staff to stay at.
Hotel Kronprinz, Minden
Breakfast with hosts.
Day spent with hosts or sightseeing locally.
Afternoon or evening concert of the MSU Chorale hosted by the Hannover Girls' Choir (by arrangements of Concept Tours).
Return home with your hosts afterwards.
Breakfast at your hotel;
then board bus for transfer to the Rhine valley.
Morning sightseeing of Hamelin (if desired), home of the Pied Piper.
Built on the banks of the Weser, HAMELN glories in fine houses, of which the most typical belong to the Weser Renaissance (late 16C - early 17C) period.
Hameln gained fame as the home of the celebrated rat catcher immortalized by Goethe and by Robert Browning as the "Pied Piper".
Board bus and travel to the Rhine Valley (driving time approximately 5 hours).
Your hotel for the next three nights will be in the Mainz/Wiesbaden area.
Dinner and overnight at your hotel in the area:
Hotel Rheinlust, Boppard
Breakfast at your hotel.
In the morning enjoy a guided walking tour of Mainz:
MAINZ. Johannes Guttenberg invented printing in Mainz. The university bears his name. Visit the World Museum of Printing which houses the treasured Guttenberg Bible and the Romanesque Cathedral of St. Martin.
After lunch (on own) your bus will take you to Limburg on the Lahn river (driving time one hour), a charming old town with its cathedral St. George's dating back to the 13th century.
Prepare for tonight's concert, hosted by the Meannerchor Cantabile.
Dinner in town.
Evening concert of the MSU chorale,
afterwards return to your Boppard hotel for overnight.
Breakfast at your hotel.
Rhine valley sightseeing in the morning:
(shops will be closed today)
Travel along the Rhine Valley to Lorch where you will embark on a Rhine cruise taking you along the most scenic stretch of the river past the famous Loreley rock.
Afternoon activities depend on your concert arrangements for tonight.
Dinner; overnight either in Dreieich OR - if not Maulbronn concert - in the Rhine Valley (Boppard) for another night.
Breakfast at your hotel.
Board bus for transfer to Paris.