Final-year school trip to Poland: Gdańsk, Westerplatte, Malbork, Warsaw, Kraków, Wieliczka and Auschwitz-Birkenau (10 days)

Day 1: Departure from your school and overnight stop in Germany

• Departure from your school early in the morning, at the agreed time, and daytime drive via Cologne and Hanover (about 650 km from Brussels, 7 hours’ driving excluding breaks).
• 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.
• Free lunch during a motorway break.
• Overnight stop in the Magdeburg area, dinner and quiet evening.

Day 2: Drive to the Baltic and arrival in Gdańsk

• Departure after breakfast and drive via Berlin and Szczecin (about 650 km, 7½ hours excluding breaks), with two drivers taking turns.
• Free lunch during a break on the way.
• Arrival in Gdańsk in the late afternoon and check-in at the accommodation for two nights.
• Dinner, then supervised walk along the Royal Route: Długa Street, the Long Market, Neptune’s Fountain and the medieval crane on the Motława.

Day 3: Gdańsk, from Westerplatte to Solidarność

• Coach transfer to the Westerplatte peninsula, where the first shots of the Second World War were fired on 1 September 1939 (open-air site, free admission).
• Visit to the Museum of the Second World War (on request).
• Free lunch, then Gate No. 2 of the shipyard and the monument to the workers killed in 1970.
• Visit to the European Solidarity Centre, devoted to the Solidarność trade union and the fall of communism (on request).
• Dinner and supervised evening.

Day 4: Malbork Castle and arrival in Warsaw

• Check-out after breakfast and drive to Malbork (about 60 km, 1 hour).
• Visit to Malbork Castle, former seat of the Teutonic Knights and the largest brick fortress in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (on request).
• Free lunch, then drive to Warsaw (about 290 km, 3½ hours excluding breaks).
• Check-in at the accommodation in Warsaw for two nights, dinner and supervised evening.

Day 5: Warsaw, a city destroyed and rebuilt

• The Old Town, entirely rebuilt after 1945 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Market Square and the Barbican.
• Visit to the Royal Castle (on request).
• Free lunch, then visit to the Warsaw Rising Museum (on request).
• Walk in Łazienki Park, with the Chopin monument, then up to the terrace of the Palace of Culture and Science (on request).
• Dinner and supervised evening.

Day 6: Arrival in Kraków and Wawel Hill

• Check-out after breakfast and drive to Kraków (about 300 km, 3½ hours excluding breaks).
• Free lunch, then up Wawel Hill and visit to the cathedral and the Royal Castle (on request).
• The Main Market Square, the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and St Mary’s Basilica, where the trumpet call (hejnał) is heard every hour.
• Check-in at the accommodation in Kraków for three nights, dinner and supervised evening.

Day 7: The Wieliczka Salt Mine and Kazimierz

• Drive to Wieliczka (about 15 km) and visit to the salt mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its galleries, underground lakes and the Chapel of St Kinga carved out of salt (on request).
• Return to Kraków and free lunch.
• Walk through Kazimierz, the former Jewish quarter, its synagogues and its lanes.
• Visit to the Oskar Schindler’s Factory museum, devoted to Kraków under Nazi occupation (on request).
• Dinner and supervised evening.

Day 8: The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial

• Drive to Oświęcim (about 70 km, 1¼ hours).
• Visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, with a museum educator, compulsory for groups (on request).
• Free lunch (packed lunches recommended).
• Return to Kraków in the middle of the afternoon, discussion time with the teachers, then supervised free time.
• Dinner and last supervised evening in Poland.

Day 9: Drive to the overnight stop in Dresden

• Check-out after breakfast and departure around 7.30 am.
• Daytime drive via Katowice, Wrocław and Görlitz (about 560 km, 6½ hours excluding breaks), with two drivers taking turns.
• Free lunch during a break on the way.
• Arrival in Dresden in the late afternoon and short supervised walk past the Frauenkirche and the Zwinger, then along the Brühl Terrace.
• Overnight stop in the Dresden area, dinner and quiet evening.

Day 10: Return to your school

• Departure after breakfast and daytime drive via Erfurt and Cologne (about 780 km to Brussels, 9 hours’ driving excluding breaks), with regular breaks.
• Free lunch during a break on the way.
• Arrival at your school in the evening.