DOWN THE ELBE

May 13. PRAGUE: Arrive Palace Hotel in Prague. Visit Old Town and Jewish Quarter. Gawk at the 15th century astronomical clock tower. Reception and dinner at La Perle de Prague, atop Frank Gehry's "Dancing House."
May 14. PRAGUE: Morning at the castle: the Royal Palace, home of Bohemian royalty for 700 years. Cathedral of St Vitus, containing the 14th century tomb of St Wenceslas. Lunch at the Golden Pear. Visit the Veletrnzi Palace, part of the National Gallery, and the Mucha Museum.
May 15. PRAGUE: Drive to the Palace of Nelahozeves, ancestral home of the Lobkowicz's. The current owner is a Bostonian, who has raised the money to refurbish the castle when the property was returned by the post communist government. One of the great private art collections in Europe, including Canaletto and Bruegel.
May 16. PILLNITZ, DRESDEN: Marian's first lecture on boat, "The Museums of Dresden." Visit the baroque castle built for Augustus and Strong at Pillnitz. Dresden Boys' Choir plays for us at dinner. Dock within walking distance of city center.
May 17. DRESDEN: Zwinger Palace complex. Works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens at the palace museum. Porcelain collection at the Zwinger Palace. Visit the glass-domed Albertinum. Performance at the Semper Opera House after dinner.
May 18. DRESDEN/MEISSEN/TORGAU: Visit porcelain factory and museum in Meissen. Marian lectures on "Masterpieces of German painting." Stop in Torgau, where American and Russian armies met near the end of World War 2. Visit Schloss Hartenfels, a 10th century castle, for the opening of a special exhibition, "Saxony in the Europe of the Reformation Era." Dinner on board.
May 19. WITTENBERG/WORLITZ/MAGDEBURG: Tour Wittenbert, the home of Martin Luther. Visit St Marien Church, where Luther preached; contains a famous altarpiece by Lucas Cranach. Lunch at the 18th century castle in Worlitz. English style garden. Marian lectures once more on masterpieces of German paining. Sail to Magdeburg and dock.
May 20. MAGDEBURG: Visit monastery Unser Lieben Frauen and baroque town hall. Sail north after lunch on board. During tea, Marian lectures on "The Museums of Berlin." Mostly sailing this day.

May 21. POTSDAM: Visit rococo palace of Sans Souci, view Caravaggio's Incredulity of St Thomas in the Bildergalerie. Visit Cecilienhof, a Tudor-style country house used for the 1945 Potsdam Conference. Farewell reception and dinner given by the captain.

May22. Potsdam-Berlin. View Memorial Church and Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center. On Museum Insul visit Alte Nationalgalerie and Pergamon Museum with the great Pergamon Alter. Check into Four Seasons Hotel.

May 23. Egyptian Museum with bust of Nefertiti. Then to the Charlottenburg Palace and the royal apartments of Frederich the Great. German romantic paintings at the Schinkel Pavilion on the palace grounds. Great art from Van Eyck, Rubens and Rembrandt at the Gemaldegalerie.

May 24. Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Liebeskind. The road to nowhere, as demonstrated in the design of the gallery. Lunch near the top of the Reichstag, the dome of which is a great tourist attraction.

May 25. The Brucke Museum in the suburbs of Berlin. The earliest paintings of the Brucke Group, such as Gerhard Richter. Farewell dinner at the hotel.

May 26. Transfer to Tegel airport for the flight to New York.

Vital reading for the Berlin visit: BEFORE THE DELUGE by Otto Friedrich. Berlin in the twenties. Reading this book helps you to understand why the Germans turned to Hitler in the thirties--a devastating loss in WW I, followed by unending reparations to the Allies, a horrendous inflation, continued political instability, a sharp rise in gangs and crime, ending in a deep depression. Germans turned to an ogre who promised order out of chaos.