Elegant Elbe

Arrive and check into your hotel before stepping out to explore. Following a decades-long postwar divide, experience how Germany’s reunified capital has undergone a spectacular renaissance, emerging as a vibrant hub for art, culture, and magnificent architecture. The metropolis continues to ride a wave of dynamic energy, making a stroll through its streets feel remarkably like wandering through a freshly curated museum. Having risen from the ashes of conflict, discover how many historic structures that once symbolized deep division now proudly represent unity. Among these landmarks, admire the Reichstag parliament building, which embodies modern transparency through its striking glass dome, while the renowned Museum Island serves as a magnificent celebration of human self-expression and boundless creativity.

Discover Berlin, widely considered one of Europe’s most cosmopolitan and forward-thinking capitals. Feel the sweeping transformation that took hold after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, a dramatic evolution powerfully symbolized by the Reichstag, Germany’s striking parliament building. As you explore the bustling city streets, encounter prominent wartime monuments everywhere, ranging from haunting remnants of the wall to the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. Uncover magnificent prewar treasures as well, including the elegant baroque Charlottenburg Palace and the historic thirteenth-century St. Nicholas Church. Straddling the picturesque Spree River, marvel at a major cultural center peppered with grand theaters and more than 170 diverse museums, many of which are conveniently situated on the renowned Museum Island.

​Included Excursion:
Panoramic Berlin
Witness Berlin’s resurgence, an intriguing blend of modern sophistication and sobering reminders of the past.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and begin your journey to your embarkation city. Potsdam straddles one of the Elbe’s main tributaries, the Havel River. It boasts a rich history that spans more than 1,000 years. From its humble beginning, Potsdam burgeoned into a royal city, hosting the residences of Prussian and German rulers until the early 1900s. A series of tumultuous events followed, but through it all, Potsdam maintained its prominent stature. And in 1990, with Germany’s reunification, Potsdam was named Brandenburg’s state capital. Today, the city’s regal past lives on in its 16 well-preserved palaces and three elegantly landscaped parks.

Embark your ship and settle into your stateroom. Wittenberg is an important center of culture and learning, known mostly as the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation. It was here that the Augustinian monk Martin Luther famously nailed his “95 Theses” against the selling of indulgences to the door of the palace church in 1517, launching the spread of a new religious movement throughout Europe. Wittenberg’s incredibly preserved Old Town was spared destruction during World War II, and so its charming houses remain as they have for centuries, with those in the market square huddled around the beloved statue of Luther.

​Included Excursion:
Sanssouci Palace & Potsdam Walk
Marvel at one of Germany’s most magnificent palaces, elegant in design and rich in history.

In a city so central to the Protestant Reformation, it is well worth taking a closer look at Wittenberg’s churches. The most famous is the Lutheran All Saints’ Church, built around 1340. It later became the official church of the University of Wittenberg and provided a pulpit for Martin Luther and his colleague Philipp Melanchthon to preach Protestantism. Luther and Melanchthon are both entombed within the church. The Town Church of St. Mary is renowned as the first to have celebrated mass in German rather than in Latin. Here, also, bread and wine were offered to worshippers for the first time, earning it a place as the “Mother Church of the Reformation.”

​Included Excursion:
Wittenberg Walking Tour
Stroll in the footsteps of Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation, during a walking tour of his city.

Surrounded by idyllic wine villages and set at a rocky spur on the Elbe, Meissen dates back more than a thousand years. The city is dominated by its 13th- and 14th-century Gothic cathedrals and Albrechtsburg Castle, perched on a low hill, considered one of the great achievements of German architecture. The introduction of porcelain here by Johann Friedrich Böttger in the early 18th century made Meissen world famous. Meissenware has been produced here ever since. Across the city, the chimes of the Gothic Church of Our Lady’s bells can be heard; they were the first church bells made of porcelain.

​Included Excursion:
Meissen Walking Tour & Porcelain Manufacturing
Visit the famous Meissen porcelain factory, where fine pieces are still made by hand despite the technology of today.

Dresden is awash in artistic treasures and baroque splendor. The city is blessed with water meadows and green parks near the center, giving it a wide-open feeling and making it easy to focus on the beautiful sandstone buildings that line the river. It took Dresden more than 50 years to rebuild after it was devastated during Allied bombing. Most agree it was certainly worth the wait. The city has been lovingly restored to its original glory, from the ornate Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) and grand Semper Opera House to the shining Zwinger Palace.

​Included Excursion:
Panoramic Dresden
Witness the baroque beauty of Dresden by motor coach and by foot after 50 years of restoration.

Sail through the magnificent, soaring rock formations of Saxon Switzerland. This spectacular region earned its name from two Swiss painters who were reminded of their home while visiting. You can witness some of the wildest cliff formations imaginable, with nicknames such as Catapult, Locomotive and Wolf’s Ravine. As you pass through, marvel at the Bastei, a 1,000-foot spectacle of tooth-like rocks connected by a footbridge. Sailing past these iconic monoliths is sure to be a highlight of your journey.

One of the oldest and most important spa resorts in Saxon Switzerland, the beautiful resort city of Bad Schandau has retained much of the splendor and charm of bygone ages. After iron-rich springs were discovered here in the mid-18th century, hotels and spa houses soon dotted the landscape. In 1920, the town (then Schandau) was awarded the right to use the prefix “Bad,” meaning “Spa.” For refugees and emigrants during World War II, this was a place of hope. Many were helped to safety by climbers who knew secret passes through the mountains and out of Germany.

​Included Excursion:
The Bastei
See the graceful path of the Elbe from the most dramatic lookout point.

After breakfast, disembark your ship and transfer to your destination. The Czech town of Děčín enjoys a pastoral setting amid green hills. The 13th-century king of Bohemia Ottokar II invited northern neighbors to settle here, forever giving the town a German flair. Though the 1945 Potsdam Agreement expelled postwar Germans, Děčín embraces its heritage in many of its architectural treasures, including its namesake castle and the 1906 buttercream- and azure-colored synagogue, the only surviving structure of its kind in the former Sudetenland. Děčín’s elegant beauty was inspiration for Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.

Arrive and check in to your hotel. Prague is known as the “City of a Hundred Spires” and it is easy to see why. The towering twin steeples of Týn Church and the beautiful baroque Church of St. Nicholas are among some of the city’s most notable. Best explored on foot, Prague’s Old Town is a maze of ancient cobblestone lanes with the Old Town Square at its core. Here, the medieval Astronomical Clock still chimes today and provides for its viewers a little theater with the “Walk of the Apostles” on the hour, every hour.

​Included Excursion:
Panoramic Prague
Step back in time in Prague, an incredible tapestry of remarkably preserved medieval brilliance.

Few cities embody the past as authentically as Prague, the Czech Republic’s atmospheric capital on the Vltava River that clings to its history with unwavering passion. Prague’s medieval architecture is its most prominent, but the city is also a rich repository of Romanesque, baroque and art nouveau buildings that stir the imagination. The city’s graceful, pedestrian-only Charles Bridge served as the coronation route of the kings of Bohemia across the river to Hradčany Castle and its rich complex of royal buildings.

Privileged Access: Lobkowicz Palace
See the stately residence of one of the region’s most avid patrons of the arts, and admire priceless artifacts.

Bid farewell to your fellow guests and journey home. Or spend more time exploring, perhaps joining one of the extensions.