WWII Battlefields

Day 1:  Saturday, June 1        Depart the USA
Meet your Rupiper Tour Manager and your fellow travelers at the International Airport in Newark, NJ for your transatlantic flight to Paris, France.
Meals: In-flight Meal Service

Day 2:  Sunday, June 2           Arrive in Paris, France
Welcome to the City of Lights!  Transfer into the heart of Paris where you begin a unique sightseeing experience onboard a luxurious glass encased boat.  Cruise along the Seine River and appreciate sights of Paris’ world-famous monuments through unobstructed floor-to-ceiling windows while savoring delicious French cuisine.  By midafternoon we are checking into our hotel, located near the Arc de Triomphe.  The balance of the day is yours to spend as you wish, but if you desire to explore the city on your own and need help with your plans, our European our guide will gladly assist you.
Meals: In-flight Meal Service, Welcome Luncheon Cruise incl. Beverages

Day 3:  Monday, June 3         Paris / Normandy
This morning’s excursion includes a drive along Champs-Élysée and past famous sights, such as the Place du Trocadéro, the Eiffel Tower, the Place de la Concorde, the Opera House, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Palais du Louvre, and the Pont Alexandre III, which is considered the most beautiful bridge in Paris.  We also walk under the prominent Arc de Triomphe and visit the Basilique du Sacré Coeur on top of Montmartre.  Along the way to Normandy, we briefly stop outside the Chateau de la Roche-Guyon, which was German Field Marshal Rommel’s headquarters during the Normandy Invasion.  Late afternoon we arrive in Deauville-Touques, our home for the next four nights.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner incl. Beverages

Day 4-6:  Tuesday, June 4 through Thursday, June 6           Normandy

This week, everyone in Normandy will be out celebrating the Anniversary of June 6th 1944, which was the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime eighty years ago!  The schedule of events is not published at this time but we strive to include as many of the popular activities as possible.  The following description is a guideline for guaranteed included sites and visits.

The Caen-Normandy Memorial Centre for History and Peace dedicated to the Battle of Normandy. The exhibitions at the museum chronicle the twelve weeks of desperate fighting following June 6th of 1944.  This exposé helps you to better understand the important role the Battle of Normandy played in Europe’s liberation. Conclude with a delicious buffet lunch at the restaurant on site. 

The Pegasus Bridge Memorial, which is dedicated to the British 6th Airborne Division.  The original Bénouville Bridge, renamed Pegasus Bridge after the liberation, is on display in the park of the museum along with a Bailey bridge and a full-size replica of a wartime Horsa glider.

We see the shoreline of Sword, Juno, and Gold Beaches and from above the town of Arromanches-les-Bains we overlook the bay with the remaining Phoenixes of the Mulberry “B” Harbour, a portable temporary harbor developed by the British to facilitate rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches.

View a film, shown at the Arromanche 360° Circular Cinema, which vividly recounts the story of the landings on Normandy. Exceptional archive footages collected from around the world tells the story of the 100 days of the Battle of Normandy as a tribute to the men of all nations who fell and to the 20,000 civilians killed during the liberation of Western Europe.

Near Longues-sur-Mer you see the only German battery in Normandy with the guns still in place.

Enjoy a guided tour of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Colleville-sur-Mer, situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel.  The cemetery contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, and on the Wall of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed the 1,557 names of our missing soldiers.

Walk on Omaha Beach, the spot where many of our troops first stepped foot on Normandy. Stop at the Signal Monument and enjoy a hot lunch in a café in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.

Visit Pointe-du-Hoc where Col. James Rudder’s 2nd Ranger Battalion climbed the treacherous cliffs that infamous day of June 6th 1944.  The area has remained unchanged for 76 years – you still see the huge craters and the bombed out bunkers where the German gun positions were placed.  This site really tells a story!

On Utah Beach, the westernmost of the landing beaches, we visit the Utah Beach Landing Museum.

Sainte-Mère-Église, the first village liberated by the 82nd Airborne on June 6, 1944. Step into the church where the famous paratrooper John Steele’s parachute was hung-up on the steeple, and visit the Airborne Museum, which is dedicated to American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.  For the 70th anniversary of D-Day a new museum wing named “Operation Neptune” was inaugurated in the presence of 19 of our participating WWII veterans.
Meals: Daily Breakfast, 2 Hot Luncheons and 1 Dinner including Beverages

Day 7:  Friday, June 7             Normandy / Reims
We say farewell to Normandy and journey to Reims, which was greatly damaged by German bombardment and a subsequent fire in 1914 during World War I.  Visit the magnificently restored cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned, and also visit the school building which acted as Eisenhower’s Headquarters during the latter part of WWII.  See the map room still furnished as it was on May 8, 1945, when General Eisenhower and the Allies received the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht.  Tonight you are free to explore the beautiful city of Reims.
Meals: Breakfast

Day 8:  Saturday, June 8        Reims, France / Luxembourg
The Battle of the Bulge is commonly associated with Bastogne and Belgium, but much of the action also took place in Luxembourg.  Luxembourg City was Omar Bradley’s 21st Army Group Headquarters, as well as General Patton’s 3rd Army Headquarters.  During our visit at the Luxembourg American Military you hear the bell carillon playing our National Anthem as we gather at General Patton’s grave who is buried there along with over 5,000 of his fallen troops. This afternoon we visit a museum which features countless pieces of war memorabilia and life-size dioramas, staging the field life and harsh conditions the soldiers faced during the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944.  The displays let you vividly imagine the chill and fatigue our men endured.  We overnight in Luxembourg City.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner incl. Beverage

Day 9:  Sunday, June 9           Luxembourg / Battle of the Bulge Sites / Aachen, Germany
Our special step-on guide will lead us along the roads and through the villages, showing us the battlefields so prominently known as the Battle of the Bulge.  Included sites are McAuliffe Square in Bastogne with its M4 Sherman tank that belonged to the 11^th Armored “Thunderbolt” Division, the star-shaped Mardasson Monument, and the monument erected by Tom Hanks, Producer of the epic mini-series “Band of Brothers,” in tribute to “Easy Company” of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.  We will walk among the “Dragon’s Teeth,” the anti-tank defense on the Siegfried Line and see the remnants of the foxholes dug by the “Band of Brothers.” Near Malmedy we visit the sites of the massacres on Belgian civilians and 84 American POW’s committed by members of Peiper’s Kampfgruppe.  Also on the agenda is Hoffalize with its German Panther tank, La Gleize and the spot where a bridge was blasted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers on December 18, 1944, trapping Peiper and his men in the deep valley of the Amblève, and Stavelot with the only King Tiger tank left in Belgium. Our day ends in Aachen, Germany.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner incl. Beverages

Day 10:  Monday, June 10     Aachen / Remagen Bridge / Nuremberg, Germany
This morning, we visit the site of the Ludendorf Bridge, frequently called the Bridge at Remagen during World War II.  The U.S. 9^th Armored Division seized the bridge on March 7-8, 1945, establishing a bridgehead on the Rhine River.  In an ensuing battle, the bridge was severely damaged and collapsed into the Rhine on March 17, 1945.  See the remaining bridge abutments and walk around the back of the abutment and on the remaining portion of the original railroad track that traversed the Rhine.  Sit back and enjoy the scenic drive along the Rhine River via Koblenz and Bacharach to Nuremberg.
Meals:  Breakfast, Dinner incl. Beverage

Day 11:  Tuesday, June 11      Nuremberg / Dachau / Munich, Germany
A local guide joins us this morning for a short city orientation tour including a stop at the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Trials, a series of military tribunals, were held by the Allied forces after World War II.  Just outside Nuremberg our guide will show us the unfinished Congress Hall, the Great Road, and the Zeppelin Field, all while explaining the functions and intended effect of National Socialist architecture and the stage-management of the Party Rally events.  We continue on to Dachau for a visit of the Concentration Camp Memorial.  The Dachau concentration camp was opened in 1933 and was liberated by American Forces on April 29, 1945.  We walk up the “Path of Arrival”, and visit the rebuilt barracks and the remains of the crematory.  After this sobering visit we make our way to our hotel just a few miles south of Munich.
Meals:  Breakfast, Dinner incl. Beverages

Day 12:  Wednesday, June 12            Eagle’s Nest / Munich, Germany
Today’s journey takes us to Berchtesgaden, located in the southern-most part of Germany, where we ascend to the Eagle’s Nest.  The chalet type building, which sits literally on top of the Kehlstein Mountain, was part of the sprawling Obersalzberg complex built by the Nazis.  The premises, except for the Kehlsteinhaus on the summit, were heavily damaged by an Allied air raid in April 1945.  The remains were set on fire by retreating SS troops and later eradicated by the Bavarian government.  There is time to walk up to the mountain top or relax on the restaurant’s terrace, relishing the spectacular view.  Late afternoon we make our way into Munich.  During WWII the city suffered heavy damage from 71 air raids, and almost half of its residents evacuated into the countryside.  Munich’s city center was completely rebuilt preserving its pre-war appearance and its population grew to almost 1.5 million.  We conclude our day with a typical Bavarian dinner at the famous Hofbräuhaus.
Meals:  Breakfast, Dinner incl. Beverage

Day 13:  Thursday, June 13    Munich, Germany /Return to the USA
A local guide joins us this morning for a short city orientation tour with a stop at the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Trials, a series of military tribunals, were held by the Allied forces after World War II.  Just outside Nuremberg our guide will show us the unfinished Congress Hall, the Great Road, and the Zeppelin Field, all while explaining the functions and intended effect of National Socialist architecture and the stage-management of the Party Rally events.  We continue on to Dachau for a visit of the Concentration Camp Memorial.  The Dachau concentration camp was opened in 1933 and was liberated by American Forces on April 29, 1945.  We walk up the “Path of Arrival”, and visit the rebuilt barracks and the remains of the crematory.  After this sobering visit we make our way to our hotel just a few miles south of Munich.
Meals:  Breakfast, Dinner, Beverages

Day 12:                              Eagle’s Nest / Munich, Germany
Today’s journey takes us to Berchtesgaden, located in the southern-most part of Germany, where we ascend to the Eagle’s Nest.  The chalet type building, which sits literally on top of the Kehlstein Mountain, was part of the sprawling Obersalzberg complex built by the Nazis.  The premises, except for the Kehlsteinhaus on the summit, were heavily damaged by an Allied air raid in April 1945.  The remains were set on fire by retreating SS troops and later eradicated by the Bavarian government.  There is time to walk up to the mountain top or relax on the restaurant’s terrace, relishing the spectacular view.  Late afternoon we make our way into Munich.  During WWII the city suffered heavy damage from 71 air raids, and almost half of its residents evacuated into the countryside.  Munich’s city center was completely rebuilt preserving its pre-war appearance and its population grew to almost 1.5 million.  We conclude our day with a typical Bavarian dinner at the famous Hofbräuhaus.
Meals:  Breakfast, Dinner, Beverage

Day 13:                          Munich, Germany /Return to the USA
Early morning transfer to the Munich Franz-Josef-Strauss International Airport for our direct flight back to the U.S.  Our early afternoon arrival time in Newark, NJ gives you ample time to connect to your flight home.
Meals:  Breakfast, In-flight Meal Service 

Rupiper Tours reserves the right to make minor adjustments to the itinerary if necessary.