Ayelet Tours Traveling University
Tour to Prague & Poland
Led by Professor Stephen Berk
June 14-24, 2020


Tour Rates & Dates:

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Tour Overview:

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INCLUDED:

3 nights Kings Court Hotel, Prague
4 nights Sheraton Hotel, Krakow
2 nights Hotel Bristol, Warsaw
All touring and sightseeing in a deluxe air-conditioned vehicle with an expert English-speaking guide
Lectures throughout by scholar-in-residence Professor Stephen Berk
Breakfast daily
5 dinners, including Shabbat dinner in Krakow
Internal flight from Prague to Krakow
First class train from Krakow to Warsaw
Entrance fees as per itinerary
Porterage

NOT INCLUDED:

Roundrip airfare, taxes and fuel surcharges
Border taxes and visas
Tips to guides, drivers and dining room waiters ($18 per person, per day; pre-collected)
Meals not listed above
Items of a personal nature
Travel insurance (recommended - group policy available)


Tour Itinerary:

Day 1: Sunday, June 14, 2020: DEPARTURE

• We depart on our overnight flights to Prague.

Day 2: Monday, June 15, 2020: ARRIVAL IN PRAGUE


• Arrive in Prague, the Czech capital, also known as "the City of One Thousand Spires" with its Baroque churches, promenades, parks and ancient city walls.
• Transfer on own to the hotel (private transfers available at additional cost).
• This afternoon, we meet our local guide in the hotel lobby and enjoy a tour of Golden Prague, including the 1,000-year-old Hradcany Castle and St. Vitus' Cathedral, the Charles Bridge and the Astronomical Clock.
• We return to our hotel with time to check in and freshen up.
• Tonight, we enjoy an orientation lecture and welcome dinner with Professor Stephen Berk.

Overnight in Prague

Day 3: Tuesday, June 16, 2020: JEWISH PRAGUE


• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Morning lecture with Professor Berk at the State Jewish Museum.
• We enjoy a sightseeing tour of Jewish interest sites, with a visit to the Old City to view the Josefov, Prague's Jewish town with its Old Town Hall, the Alt-Neu Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue, the Maisel Synagogue, and the Jewish cemetery.
• Evening at leisure and dinner on own.

Overnight in Prague

Day 4: Wednesday, June 17, 2020: TEREZIN


• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Today, we travel to Terezin, the former "model" Nazi concentration camp. We enjoy a lecture with Professor Berk before visiting the prison fortress and the Jewish cemetery, the hidden synagogue and the museum filled with the artwork of former prisoners. We stop by the memorial monument and pass through the town itself. We'll also hear stories and see photos of some of the great rabbis imprisoned here, including Leo Baeck and Regina Jonas, the first woman ordained a rabbi.
• We return to Prague for an evening at leisure and dinner on own.

Overnight in Prague

Day 5: Thursday, June 18, 2020: PRAGUE TO KRAKOW

• Breakfast and check out of our hotel.
• This morning, we fly to Krakow.
• Upon arrival, we enjoy an excursion to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. The Salt Mines are over 700 years old and is one of the largest and oldest working salt mines in Europe. It is on the UNESCO list of the 12 most priceless monuments of the world. An elevator will descend to the first level of the mine where we will be able to see the 180-foot chapel made out of salt rock and lit with salt-crystal chandeliers. There are many other chambers carved out of a huge block of salt, underground museums and even tennis and volleyball courts.
• This afternoon, we check into our hotel with time to freshen up.
• We enjoy dinner together this evening.

Overnight in Krakow

Day 6: Friday, June 19, 2020: AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU


• Breakfast at our hotel.
• We begin our day with a lecture by Professor Stephen Berk.
• This morning, we travel to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous Nazi concentration camp, where many Jews and others perished in WWII. Here, we see the museum and pay tribute to the victims.
• We return to Krakow, where the remainder of the day is at leisure with time to freshen up.
• This evening, we enjoy Shabbat services
• at the Isaacs Synagogue, followed by Shabbat dinner with guest speaker Jonathan Ornstein, Executive Director of the Krakow JCC, who updates us on the many exciting projects they have undertaken in what is now a growing and flourishing Jewish community in the heart of Galicia.

Overnight in Krakow

Day 7: Saturday, June 20, 2020: SHABBAT SHALOM!


• Breakfast at our hotel.
• In the morning, we invite you to join us for optional Shabbat services.
• The afternoon is at leisure to explore this beautiful city at your own pace.
• Dinner on own this evening.

Overnight in Krakow

Day 8: Sunday, June 21, 2020: DISCOVERING KRAKOW


• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Morning lecture with Professor Berk.
• Today, we drive by Wawel Castle, St. Mary's Church, the Renaissance Cloth Hall and other ancient landmarks.
• We continue with a Jewish heritage walking tour that includes the Old Jewish District known as Kazimierz, where we see the Old Synagogue (a massive fortress-like building erected in the 15th and 16th centuries), the "Temple," and the Remuh Synagogue.
• Next, we visit the Little Museum at the Drug Store inside the Jewish Ghetto, Schindler's Factory, and the Plaszow Concentration Camp.
• Evening at leisure and dinner on own.

Overnight in Krakow

DAY 9: Monday, June 22, 2020: KRAKOW TO WARSAW


• Breakfast and check out of our hotel.
• This morning, we travel by train to Warsaw.
• Upon arrival, we drive through the Warsaw Zoo, where we visit the zookeeper's house owned by the couple that saved many Jews during the Holocaust, now memorialized in the movie “The Zookeeper's Wife”.
• Lunch on own.
• This afternoon, we explore the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (POLIN).
• We continue to our hotel for check in and time to freshen up.
• Tonight, we meet with members of Beit Polska or Etz Chaim, one of the progressive congregations in Warsaw and learn more about the Judaism alive in today's Poland.
• We enjoy a special farewell dinner with professor Berk this evening.

Overnight in Warsaw

DAY 10: Tuesday, June 23, 2020: EXPLORING WARSAW


• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Morning lecture with Professor Berk before he departs this morning.
• Today, we enjoy a city tour of Warsaw including Chopin's Monument, the Royal Castle, the Jewish Historical Society, and walk to Old Town Market Square and Lazienki Park.
• This afternoon, our sightseeing tour encompasses the Nozyk Synagogue (the only surviving synagogue in Warsaw, founded in 1900), the Warsaw Ghetto, the Jewish Resistance Bunker at Mila 18, the Stawski Street buildings (where the SS had their headquarters) and the Gesia Cemetery (established in 1806, containing the graves of about 250,000 people and known as the largest cemetery in Poland).
• Tonight, we treated to an elegant Chopin concert before enjoying dinner together.

Overnight in Warsaw

DAY 11: Wednesday, June 24, 2020: DEPARTURE


• Breakfast and check out of our hotel.
• We transfer to the airport for our flights home.


The Memories Last Forever!!
itinerary subject to change