ITINERARY ENDEAVOUR COLLEGE
Saturday 13 April 2024
9:20 PM Depart Adelaide International Airport, Terminal M on Qatar Airways
Flight QR915 (Boeing 777-300ER)
Economy Class Seating
Flying Time: 13 hours 50 minutes Meals Served: Meal Status - Confirmed
Sunday 14 Apr Arrive Doha International Airport
4:40 AM
Sunday 14 April 2024
8:00 AM Depart Doha International Airport on Qatar Airways
Flight QR81
Economy Class Seating
Flying Time: 6 hours 5 minutes Meals Served: Meal Status - Confirmed 1:05 PM Arrive Berlin International Airport, Terminal 1
On our arrival in Berlin, we will be met by our waiting coach and transferred to the Holiday Inn Express Berlin City Centre, an IHG Hotel for 3 nights inclusive of breakfast daily
During your time in Berlin, you will have time to do independent Touring of Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Pergamum Museum Jewish Museum (9 min walk), Checkpoint Charlie (12 min walk) and Potsdamer Platz (15 min walk) are all close to your hotel.
Wednesday 17 April 2024
Rail from Berlin to Munich
Departure: 8:04 am - Berlin Hbf Arrival: 12:02 pm - Munich Hbf
Duration: 3h58 Train: ICE 1003
On our arrival in Munich, we will be met by our waiting coach and transferred to the Holiday Inn Munich - City Centre, an IHG Hotel for 3 nights inclusive of breakfast daily
Thursday 18 April 2024
EAGLE’S NEST (B)
Eagle's Nest day tour from Munich. Duration 10 hours. Berchtesgaden Town and Eagle's Nest Day Tour from Munich.
The impressive mountain scenery and the beautiful landscape of the Berchtesgadener Land will definitely fascinate you. A special bus and lift take you up to the Kehlsteinhaus at an altitude of 1,834m where you will be rewarded with spectacular views. Our guide will give a comprehensive summary of the historical events and answer any questions. Afterwards, we will have a short stop in the town of Berchtesgaden.
The return journey via the German alpine road shows you the impressive valleys of Bavaria. In the event of bad weather conditions (fog, ice, snow) which make a trip up to the Kehlsteinhaus impossible, we offer the visit of the Berchtesgaden salt mines as an alternative.
Friday 19 April 2024
DACHAU (B)
Dachau concentration camp. Duration 3½ hours
On this tour we escort you to the site by train. Our fully trained guide will take you round all areas of the memorial site, giving you an insight into the suffering of the prisoners and relating the story of the concentration camp system to historical developments during the time of the National Socialist regime. We guide you round the cells, barracks and gas chamber and explain the meaning behind the pictures and exhibits in the museum with thought-provoking accounts of prisoners' own experiences, from the setting up of the camp until their liberation by US-forces in 1945.
Saturday 20 April 2024
Today we will leave Munich and travel to Paris by train: Departure: 8:45 am - Munich Hbf Arrival: 2:05 pm - Paris Gare de l'Est 1 connection Duration: 5 hours and 20 minutes Train: ICE 690 - ICE 95
On our arrival in Paris, we will be met by our waiting coach and transferred to our central Paris hotel. This evening is at leisure.
OVERNIGHT: Ibis Tour Eiffel Cambronne, Paris
SUNDAY, 21 APRIL 2024 VERSAILLES & GIVERNY (B, L)
This morning we will travel to the Chateau of Versailles where a local guide will lead us on an escorted tour of the elaborate staterooms. A highlight will be the Hall of Mirrors, where the Versailles Treaty was signed, bringing WWI to an end. After lunch, we will travel to Giverny and visit Claude Monet's house and gardens. Claude Monet lived in his house at Giverny from 1883 to 1926. The house and gardens have been restored to the way they were when the great painter lived there. Many of his Japanese etchings are on show and the famous gardens reflected in many of his paintings can be visited. This evening is at leisure.
OVERNIGHT: Ibis Tour Eiffel Cambronne, Paris
MONDAY, 22 APRIL 2024 PARIS SIGHTSEEING (B)
Today we will explore the many wonderful sites that Paris has to offer. Our day begins with a tour of the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees and Notre Dame. This afternoon we will visit the famous Louvre, one of the world's most spectacular museums that was once a palace. We will end the day with a river cruise along the beautiful Seine River, a lovely way to see the sites of Paris from a different perspective. The remainder of the evening is at leisure.
OVERNIGHT: Ibis Tour Eiffel Cambronne, Paris
TUESDAY, 23 APRIL 2024 PARIS TO YPRES
(B, L, D)
Our tour in the footsteps of the Anzacs begins today. After breakfast we meet our battlefield Historian and depart Paris for Ypres, located just over the Belgian border. En route we will visit the very moving 1916 battlefield of Fromelles, where Australia lost 5533 men during its first action on the Western Front. Whilst here we will visit the Australian Memorial Park, VC Corner Cemetery (the only all-Australian cemetery in France) and see the site of the recently discovered Australian mass grave at Pheasant Wood. We will also visit the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery, where 250 soldiers exhumed from the mass grave were laid to rest in 2010. Upon arrival in the historic town of Ypres we will enjoy a walking tour around the rebuilt town. After an early dinner at a local restaurant, we will visit the Menin Gate, where the names of 54,000 missing British and Commonwealth soldiers are recorded, for the moving Last Post ceremony. The Ypres fire brigade has performed this bugle ceremony every day and in all-weather since 1928. The only interruption was during the four years of German occupation during the Second World War - the ceremony recommenced on the day the town was liberated. Two representatives will lay a wreath on behalf of our group.
NOTE: Restoration works will take place on the Menin Gate from March 2023 until March 2025 whereby the entire memorial and name panels will be covered by scaffolding. The Last Post Ceremony will continue to take place each evening on the bridge in front of the Menin Gate.
OVERNIGHT: Novotel or similar, Ypres
WEDNESDAY, 24 APRIL 2024 YPRES TO THE SOMME (B, L, D)
The Ypres Salient was a bulge in the front line that curved around Ypres for most of the war. More than a million men were killed or wounded trying to gain control of this small patch of ground. We will begin our day at the 5th Australian Division Memorial at Polygon Wood and the Buttes New British Cemetery where we will see the graves of Private Hunter and Sergeant Calder, the two Australian soldiers who featured in Mat McLachlan's documentary 'Lost in Flanders'. After this, we will visit the Passchendaele 1917 Museum. Here we will not only experience an overview of the five battles of Ypres via the many historical objects on display, but also get to experience recreated dugouts and trenches. Lunch is included at a local café before we depart Belgium and travel south to the battlefields of the Somme in France. Our next visit is to the location of the battlefield of Bullecourt, where Australia lost 10,000 men in two great battles in 1917. We will pay our respects to them at the Slouch Hat memorial in the centre of town and the Australian Memorial Park on the site of the German front line. We will then visit the village of Pozieres, the scene of the most costly battle in Australia's history. 23,000 men were killed or wounded in six weeks of fighting, and we will visit the scenes of their heroic sacrifice at the 1st Division Memorial and the Windmill. We will walk the battlefield with our Historian, gaining a better understanding of the fighting that led to more Australian casualties than any other battle in our history. We continue to our hotel in Amiens, where dinner is included this evening.
OVERNIGHT: Ibis Styles Amiens Centre or similar, Amiens
THURSDAY, 25 APRIL 2024 ANZAC DAY (B, L)
An ANZAC Day we will never forget! We have a very early start this morning as we drive to the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, which bears the names of almost 11,000 Australians missing in France. The memorial is set in the middle of one of Australia's most famous battlefields of the war. We will gather here with many other Australians to pay our respects to our 45,000 countrymen who were killed during fighting on the Western Front. As the sun rises over the imposing memorial to Australia's missing from France, the strains of the Last Post will echo across the countryside, peaceful now, but the scene of a monumental Australian victory on ANZAC Day 1918. After this moving ceremony we will enjoy a piece of Australia in the heart of the Somme - breakfast with the townspeople of Hamel. This town was liberated by Australian troops in July 1918, and we will be made very welcome by the local people. This very special breakfast is being conducted exclusively for Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours and is a wonderful highlight of the tour. Following breakfast we will visit the 1916 Somme battlefields, including the maze of trenches at Newfoundland Memorial Park. The Newfoundland Regiment was almost wiped out here on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. We will then drive past the Ulster Tower, modelled on Helen's Tower in Northern Ireland, before visiting the spectacular Thiepval Memorial, where the names of more than 72,000 British men missing from the Somme fighting are recorded. This afternoon we will return to our hotel for an evening at leisure after a long yet rewarding day.
OVERNIGHT: Ibis Styles Amiens Centre or similar, Amiens
FRIDAY, 26 APRIL 2024 THE SOMME (B, L)
After breakfasting this morning we will visit Adelaide Cemetery, where Australia's Unknown Soldier lay for 75 years before being returned to Australia in 1993. While here we will see the remarkable Victoria School with a sign that entreats the children of Villers-Bretonneux to 'Never Forget Australia'. We will return to the imposing Australian National Memorial at VillersBretonneux, and the highlight of the day will be a visit to the Sir John Monash Centre which tells Australia's story of the Western Front in the words of those who served. Set on the grounds of the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery in northern France, and adjacent to the Australian National Memorial, the Sir John Monash Centre is one of the key sites of the Australian Remembrance Trail along the Western Front and establishes a lasting international legacy of Australia's Centenary of Anzac 2014-2018. Lunch is included here and later in the afternoon we will visit the imposing Lochnagar Mine Crater, which was detonated beneath the German lines on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Even though erosion has reduced the size of the crater it is still enormous: more than 100 meters across and 30 meters deep. We will then visit the village of Pozieres, scene of the most costly battle in Australia's history. 23,000 men were killed or wounded in six weeks' fighting, and we will visit the scenes of their heroic sacrifice at the 1st Division Memorial and the Windmill. We will walk the battlefield with our historian, gaining a better understanding of the fighting that led to more Australian casualties than any other battle in our history. We will then return to our hotel where our evening is free.
OVERNIGHT: Ibis Styles Amiens Centre or similar, Amiens
Saturday 27 April 2024
THE SOMME TO PARIS (B)
Today we farewell our historian on the Somme and travel back to Paris Airport to meet our onward flight back to Australia.
9:30 AM Depart Paris - Charles De Gaulle International Airport, Terminal 1 on Qatar Airways
Flight QR42 (Boeing 777-300ER)
Economy Class Seating
Flying Time: 6 hours 20 minutes Meals Served: Meal Status - Confirmed
4:50 PM Arrive Doha International Airport
8:30 PM Depart Doha International Airport on Qatar Airways
Flight QR914 (Boeing 777-300ER)
Economy Class Seating
Flying Time: 12 hours 55 minutes Meals Served: Meal Status - Confirmed
Sunday 28 Apr Arrive Adelaide International Airport, Terminal M where you will be required to complete Customs and Immigration
3:55 PM
Welcome Home!
*Provisional Costings (*approximate figures based on current information)
• 12 students: $10,757
• 15 students: $10,257
• 20 students: $9,759