Final-year school trip to Berlin: the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, Potsdam (Sanssouci, Cecilienhof) and Sachsenhausen (6 days)

Day 1: Departure from your school and arrival in Berlin

• Departure from your school early in the morning, at the agreed time, and daytime drive to Berlin (about 650 to 800 km, i.e. 7.5 to 9 hours excluding stops depending on the departure point).
• Our drivers drive for a maximum of 3 hours, then take a 30-minute break, day and night.
• Two drivers take turns at the wheel; lunch at your own expense at a motorway service area.
• Arrival in Berlin in the late afternoon and a first look at the Brandenburg Gate.
• Check-in at the accommodation for five nights, dinner and a quiet evening.

Day 2: Berlin of institutions and remembrance

• Visit to the glass dome of the Reichstag, seat of the Bundestag (free, on prior registration made by us).
• The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and its information centre (free admission).
• Lunch at your own expense, then a walk along Unter den Linden to Bebelplatz, site of the 1933 book burning, and Museum Island.
• Visit to the Topography of Terror, on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters (free admission).
• Dinner and supervised evening.

Day 3: On the trail of the Wall

• The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße, with its observation tower and a complete section of the border system (free admission).
• The Tränenpalast, the former border crossing at Friedrichstraße station (free admission).
• Checkpoint Charlie and visit to the Wall Museum (Mauermuseum – Haus am Checkpoint Charlie) (on request).
• Walk along the East Side Gallery, the longest surviving stretch of the Wall, covered in murals.
• Dinner and supervised evening.

Day 4: Potsdam, Sanssouci and Cecilienhof

• Drive to Potsdam (about 35 km, 45 min) and walk through Sanssouci Park, its vineyard terraces and the Orangery (free access to the park).
• Visit to Sanssouci Palace, summer residence of Frederick the Great (on request).
• Lunch at your own expense in the Dutch Quarter, with its 18th-century red-brick houses.
• Visit to Cecilienhof Palace, where the Potsdam Conference took place in 1945 (on request).
• Return to Berlin, dinner and supervised evening.

Day 5: Sachsenhausen and East Berlin

• Drive to Oranienburg (about 45 min) and visit to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum (free admission), with a guided tour (on request).
• Return to Berlin and lunch at your own expense.
• Visit to the DDR Museum, devoted to everyday life in East Germany (on request).
• Supervised free time on Alexanderplatz and trip up the TV Tower (on request).
• Dinner and last supervised evening.

Day 6: Return to Belgium

• Rooms vacated after breakfast and departure around 8 am.
• Daytime drive back to Belgium, with two drivers taking turns and regular stops.
• Lunch at your own expense on the way.
• Arrival at your school in the evening.