Trotting to Thuringia - Self-Drive Vacation

Whether traveling to Germany for the quaint towns, the outstanding natural beauty, the cultural heritage or to follow the Luther trail, Trotting to Thuringia puts you right in the center of it all. Stay in fabulous hotels, eat true German cuisine and enjoy the state of Thuringia.

Your Trotting to Thuringia - Self-Drive Vacation includes:

• 2 Nights Accommodations in Weimar 
• 2 Nights Accommodations in Eisenach 
•  4 Day economy automatic car rental 
•  Breakfast Daily
  
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Forage For Wild Food - Experiences to Savor on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way

Out at the very edge of Europe, the Wild Atlantic Way stretches 1500 miles along Ireland's western seaboard. From Malin Head in Co Donegal to Kinsale in Co Cork, through regions like Connemara, Galway Bay and Kerry, it's the longest defined coastal drive in the world!

Here is just one of the experiences to savor on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way:

Forage for wild food along the Killala shoreline: Spend an afternoon with Denis Quinn of Wild Atlantic Cultural Tours - foraging for food out along the shoreline under the huge skies of north Mayo. As the wild Atlantic booms and seabirds swirl and swoop, Denis will guide you expertly across Killala Bay, crossing mudflats, scrambling over rocks, gathering edible seaweeds, rooting around in rockpools and spooning cockles, mussels, clams and winkles from the vast expanse of soft sand uncovered at low tide.

Visit Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way with Celtic Tours World Vacations

Museum Island in Berlin

The Museum Island in Berlin is the northern tip of the Spree Island - and it is also a magnificent work of art itself, involving five world-renowned museums gathered in an extraordinary ensemble. The many outstanding exhibits include the Nefertitit and the Pergamon frieze.

Since 1999, the museum complex in the city center of Berlin has been the only architectural and cultural ensemble that is considered part of UNESCO world heritage. At the southern part of the island, near the Schlossbrücke bridge and the Berlin Cathedral, the Altes Museum (Old Museum) can be found, which is located nearby the Lustgarten. In the northern part, there is the New Museum as well as the Alte Nationalgalerie. On the Kupfergraben side of the island can be found the Pergamon Museum. And last but not least there is the Bode- Museum.

Pergamonmuseum
The three-winged Pergamonmuseum by Alfred Messel has about one million visitors per year and thus is the most visited museum in Berlin. Currently, preparations are underway for reconstruction work. Permanent exhibits in the museum such as the Pergamon frieze and the Market Gate of Miletus have already been restored.

Bode-Museum
After six years of restoration work, the Bode Museum reopened in 2006. The museum houses an extensive collection of sculptures and treasures of the Museum of Byzantine Art and the Numismatic Collection. In the summer, the shore on the other side is a popular place for young people to meet each other and hang out.

Neues Museum
In 1841, Friedrich August Stüler started building the Neues Museum (New Museum). He used steam power and industrially fabricated support structures, which was a structural engineering sensation at the time. During the war, the museum was destroyed, and laid in ruins until 1999. Only then did the reconstruction work begin, which ended up lasting for ten years. Since reopening in 2009, the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History have once again found a place to display their treasures in the museum. The showpiece of the New Museum is the bust of Nefertiti.

Alte Nationalgalerie
Like an ancient temple, the museum Alte Nationalgalerie along with its stairway rises above the Museum Island. The model that inspired the architect Friedrich August Stiller was the Acropolis of Athens. It was the first museum to be renovated here and has been open to the public since 2001. Built between 1867 and 1876 the museum Alte Nationalgalerie features works of Classicism, Romanticism, the Biedermeier era, Impressionism and early Modernism.

Altes Museum
The architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed a neoclassical building for Altes Museum (Old Museum) with a rotunda, dome and portico in 1830. It was thus the first public museum in Prussia. After being destroyed in the war and being rebuilt in the 1960s, the Altes Museum is undergoing renovation work. The museum's permanent exhibition entitled “New Antiquity in the Old Museum" (collection of classical antiquities and gold treasury) presents Greek and Roman art and sculptures.

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Top 9 Berlin Museums

Berlin is a city of art, artists and museums. More than 170 museums, including those on the famous museum island, put the treasures of the world on public display. Culturally minded visitors from all corners of the globe come to Berlin to see performances by leading orchestras – such as the internationally celebrated Berlin Philharmonic – and to attend ballets and operas at the three major opera houses. A multitude of theaters specializing in plays, variety, revue and cabaret offer stage entertainment in all its forms.

With over 170 museums in Berlin it is hard to choose which ones to see. In addition to Museum Island, here are the top 9 most popular museums in Berlin, Germany:

1. Deutsches Historisches Museum (German History Museum)
The German History Museum is the official national history museum of the Federal Republic of Germany. The museum’s objective is to present German history from its beginnings to the present day in terms of its international impact as well as its regional diversity.

2. Jewish Museum Berlin
The Jewish Museum is quite possibly one of the most exciting examples of contemporary architecture in Berlin. Opened on 9 September 2001, the form and style of the museum reflect a complex concept consisting of ciphers, codes and philosophical themes.

3. Gemäldegalerie (Masterpieces of occidential art)
The gallery at the Kulturforum at Potsdamer Platz shows masterpieces of old occidental art. It is home to one of the most important collections of European painters from the 13th to 18th centuries world-wide, and comprises approx. 2,700 masterpieces of all epochs of Italian art between the 14th and 18th centuries, Dutch painings of the 15th to 16th centuries, and old German masters of the late gothic and renaissance eras. In rooms suffused with daylight, world-famous paintings like Jan Vermeer’s ‘Young lady with string of pearls’ and one of the world’s largest collections of Rembrandt’s works beckon the visitor, as do paintings by van Eyck, Bruegel, Dürer, Raffael, Tizian, Caravaggio and Rubens.

4. Museum für Naturkunde (World's biggest dinosaur skeleton)
Visitors are greeted in the entrance area by the head of a giant dinosaur that appears to be looking through the wall. The dinosaur exhibition has recently been completely redesigned: the interactive multimedia display now shows life as it was 150 million years ago in Tendaguru, East Africa.

5. Martin-Gropius-Bau (International art in historical building)
The Martin-Gropius-Bau is Berlin's main exhibition hall and is one of the world’s leading exhibition venues. The building, which until 1989 was directly located at the Berlin Wall and once housed the Museum of Decorative Arts, is named after the man who built it, the great uncle of the famous Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius.

6. Deutsches Technikmuseum (Technology: on land, on water and in the air)
The German Technology Museum (Deutsches Technikmuseum) offers a comprehensive insight into technical cultural history in Germany. With its 26,000 sqm of floor space, the Technical Museum is one of the largest in Europe and carries on the tradition of other famous technology museums, which used to welcome visitors in Berlin before World War II.

7. Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum of Contemporary Art (Art in the train station)
The Hamburger Bahnhof is the former rail station for trains running between the capital and the hanseatic city of Hamburg. Its station building houses the museum for contemporary art, which belongs to the Nationalgalerie and counts as one of the world’s most successful exhibition spaces for contemporary art. Here, works can be found by artists such as Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring as well as many innovative contemporary artists.

8. DDR Museum - FDJ, stasi, trabants, pre-fabricated high-rises – experience every-day life as it was in the old GDR in this unique museum
The GDR museum is one of the newest and most visited in Berlin. For a good reason: it is the only museum that deals exclusively with life in the former German Democratic Republic, while at the same time offering an objective perspective of the topics ‘stasi’ and ‘wall’, as well as various aspects of every-day life during that period.

9. Mauermuseum - Haus am Checkpoint Charlie (The Berlin Wall - history and events)
Today, the house at Checkpoint Charlie shows an almost incomprehensible number of original means and tools that people used in their escape out of the "DDR": from the hot-air balloon to the Trebant up to the chairlift.

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Berlin, the German Capital

Berlin, the German capital, is renowned for its exceptional variety of attractions, its flourishing cultural scene and a way of life that's both fast-paced and relaxed.

Contrasts between historical buildings and modern architecture, between the traditional and the modern are what set the city apart from the rest. The sights of Berlin – from the Brandenburg Gate to the Federal Chancellery – tell the story of an entire nation. Germany's capital is home to all the major goverment buildings, most notably the historic Reichstag, seat of the German parliament.

Berlin is a city of art, artists and museums. More than 170 museums, including those on the famous museum island, put the treasures of the world on public display. Culturally minded visitors from all corners of the globe come to Berlin to see performances by leading orchestras – such as the internationally celebrated Berlin Philharmonic – and to attend ballets and operas at the three major opera houses. A multitude of theatres specialising in plays, variety, revue and cabaret offer stage entertainment in all its forms.

The famous Kurfürstendamm, grand old Friedrichstrasse and the independent boutiques in and around the Hackesche Höfe offer endless scope for shopping.

Nowadays, people look to Berlin for the latest trends in lifestyle, music and art. Inspired by this outpouring of creativity, growing numbers of artists are arriving in the city from around the world, making it one of Europe's most exciting destinations.

A feature of Berlin, aside from its exuberance, is the way it continuously reinvents itself.

But Berlin also has a relaxed vibe and lots of open spaces for a breath of fresh air. No city in Germany is greener than Berlin with its forests, lakes and sprawling parks. This laid-back way of life can be found throughout the city. When the weather gets warmer, life in Berlin moves outdoors to the beach bars, pavement cafés and open-air cinemas and theatres – perfect for enjoying the sunshine and the balmy summer nights.

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Bavarian Alps and the Bodensee - Self-Drive Vacation in Germany

Relax and enjoy the natural and scenic beauty of Southern Germany on this spectacular self-drive journey through the Bavarian Alps to Lake Constance (the Bodensee) and onto Munich. This Germany vacation offers a relaxing pace for you to explore fairytale castles, festive beer halls and the beautiful city of Munich.

Your Bavarian Alps and the Bodensee - Self-Drive Vacation includes:

• 2 Nights Accommodations in Fussen
• 2 Nights Accommodations in Friedrichshafen
• 2 Nights Accommodations in Munich
• 6 Day economy automatic car rental
• Breakfast Daily
  
  
  
  Travel to Germany with Celtic Tours World Vacations

Ceide Fields - Experiences to Savor on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way

Out at the very edged of Europe, the Wild Atlantic Way stretched 1500 miles alond Ireland's western seaboard. From Malin Head in Co Donegal to Kinsale in Co Cork, through regions like Connemara, Galway Bay and Kerry, it's the longest defined coastal drive in the world!

Here is just one of the experiences to savor on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way:

Probe the peat at Ceide Fields: An award-winning architect designed pyramid built into the clifftop, high above the Atlantic, houses the Visitor Center for Ceide Fields.This is the largest Stone Age monument in the world, set in a vast prehistoric landscape of bog, dramatic cliffs and coastline. Preserved beneath  the wild blanket bog are 5000 year old stone walled fields, dwellings and megalithic tombs. Take the guided tour and use the archaeologists probe, sliding down the peat till you feel it striking stone placed there 5000 years ago. This is the largest of thousands archaeological sites along the Wild Atlantic Way - hundreds in this part of North Mayo alone, including standing stones, ring forts, stone circles and court tombs.


Travel to Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way with Celtic Tours World Vacations.