The artistic and historic treasures of Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg await you during private visits and excursions in the cultural capitals of Leipzig, Weimar, Dresden, Potsdam, and Berlin. Experience art, architecture, history, and music on this 14-day itinerary, custom-designed and enhanced by distinguished German art historians, including Dr. Michael Lingohr in Leipzig and Dr. Martin von Ostrowski in Berlin.

Highlights include visits to Leipzig’s Fine Arts Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art; Dresden’s Green Vault, with its incredible collection of jewels, including The Court of Delhi on the Birthday of the Grand Moghul Aureng-Zeb, an extraordinary composition of more than 130 gilded and enameled figurines; Goethe’s house, a Baroque mansion that was his home for 23 years; the library of Duchess Anna Amalia, patroness of Schiller, Herder, and Goethe; and magnificent Zwinger Palace, with its royal collection of Old Master paintings. Tour the Berggruen collection of more than 70 Picasso paintings; the Pergamon Museum with the altar of Zeus and Athena, dating from 150 B.C.; the Great Gallery, Germany’s oldest museum, housing works by Caravaggio, Van Dyck, and Rubens; and the Egyptian Museum, with the renowned bust of Nefertiti. Visit the landmarks of modern Berlin, including the New Jewish Museum and the Hamburger Bahnhof.

Other noteworthy visits include Sanssouci Palace, the lavish retreat of Frederick the Great; the Gemäldegalerie, containing the world’s largest collection of paintings by Rembrandt; Charlottenburg Castle, featuring the apartment of Frederick I and Sophie-Charlotte; and Schloss Cecilienhof, where the Potsdam Agreement was signed.

Musical highlights include a ballet in Dresden’s Semper Opera House, a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Thomaner Choir, and chamber music in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Your elegant hotels are the Hotel Fürstenhof, the former Fürstenhof Palace in the center of Leipzig; Gewandhaus Hotel Dresden, a former royal palace converted to a lavish hotel; and the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel in Berlin, situated near the city’s finest shops and restaurants.