Awaken in Dresden, nicknamed "Florence on the Elbe," and embark on a tour just after breakfast. Drive through the 19th-century residential area to the Dresden Castle complex; enter the Green Vault to see a comprehensive collection of the Saxon monarchs' crown jewels.

Continue on foot to see Zwinger Palace, Semper Opera House and the Frauenkirche, the great testimony to Lutheran Protestantism, with its distinctive bell-shaped dome that survived World War II bombings but collapsed the following day, and was later rebuilt.

MEALS: B, D

After an early breakfast, we will arrive in Meissen where we'll stop in at the Meissenware factory, producers of fine porcelain since the early 1700s. During the Reformation, the town council closed all cloisters in 1523.

Citizens of Torgau destroyed the paintings and statues of saints in the churches and stormed the Franciscan monastery during the period of iconoclasm under the direction of Andreas Karlstadt. After Luther had driven Karlstadt from Saxony in 1524, he enforced the expulsion of Karlstadt's followers in Torgau in 1529.

We will visit the grave site of the beloved Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther, who is buried in St. Marien, Torgau. We will also learn of the Torgauer Artikel, a draft of the Augsburg Confession composed by Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen and Jonas in the electoral superindenture in 1530 (Wintergrün). The Lutheran Formula of Concord was written in Torgau in 1576.

MEALS: B, D

Today, we will travel via luxury coaches to Dessau, which was the last of the principalities to adopt the Reformation when Prince George III officially professed the Lutheran doctrine in 1534. Prior to then, the Catholic widow and regent princess, Margaret of Münsterberg, had resisted the reform movement with all of her strength.

In 1525 she founded the 'League of Dessau' (Dessauer Bund), an alliance of Catholic rulers who stood against the proliferation of Luther's teachings. As a preacher, Martin Luther paid frequent visits to St. Mary's church in Dessau. In 1545, Luther ordained George III of Anhalt-Dessau as Bishop of Merseburg, whereby the latter became the only German prince to serve as an official member of the Lutheran clergy.

Our final journey takes us to a town rich with Lutheran heritage: Magdeburg. Martin Luther attended school in Magdeburg, where he was exposed to the teachings of the Brethren of the Common Life.

In 1524, he was called to Magdeburg, where he preached and caused the city's defection from Catholicism. The Protestant Reformation had quickly found adherents in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy. The rule of the archbishop was replaced by that of various administrators belonging to Protestant dynasties.

In the following years Magdeburg gained a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and became the first major city to publish the writings of Luther.

HOTEL: Luxury Accommodations
MEALS: B, D

The Museum Island was a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique ensemble of buildings and cultural artefacts. The opening of the Altes Museum in 1830 made historically significant collections and art accessible to the general public for the first time. The museum collection includes the original Ishtar Gate, the Processional Way, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the bust of Nefertiti.

HOTEL: Luxury Accommodations
MEALS: B, D