Thursday, July 11: Depart for Munich. United offers non-stop service from Houston that arrives in Munich at about 10 AM; they also have one-stop connections via Frankfurt, Chicago, Dulles, or Newark, all of which arrive earlier in the day; other Star Alliance carriers provide service with one stop, also arriving mid-morning. Whatever airline and route you choose, you will need to be at the Munich airport arrivals area on Friday, July 12^th by shortly after 10 AM.
 
Friday, July 12: Morning arrivals in Munich. We will gather outside baggage claim in time to meet the passengers on flights scheduled to arrive at about 10 AM. We will depart by private coach, stopping for lunch before making our way to our Bregenz hotel. Assuming a timely departure, we will reach Bregenz in plenty of time for those who are interested in attending this evening’s optional concert in Hohenems, featuring the Apollon Musagète Quartet.
 
Saturday, July 13: This morning, we get acquainted with the lake resort, Bregenz, including its medieval Upper Town. After lunch, we take a short train ride to Hohenems for a late afternoon concert by pianist Dejan Lazić in an all-Schubert program. Afterward, we will visit the Jewish Quarter. 

You then have the choice of staying on in Hohenems for an optional evening performance by tenor Ian Bostrich and the Oberon Piano Trio of music by Schubert, Haydn, and Beethoven, or returning to Bregenz by train.
 
Sunday, July 14: Today’s concert at the Schubertiade is a matinee comprised of string trios by Mozart, Beethoven, and (not surprisingly) Schubert. Afterward, we’ll have lunch and then tour the Renaissance palace of Hohenems, seat of the counts of Ems, still privately owned by the Waldburg-Zeil family. It is in this palace that the Nibelungenlied manuscripts which inspired and informed Wagner’s Ring Cycle were discovered. We will also visit the Nibelungen Museum and the Schubert Museum; the latter traces the great Viennese composer’s life and work, in rooms that were built shortly before his birth. There will also be free time when you can to take a stroll through Hohenems' Old Town.
 
 Monday, July 15: You might want to relax with a free day in Bregenz. Our hotel is perfectly located in a park-like setting close to Lake Constance’s beach and marina. Alternatively, you can choose to join us for an optional day trip to nearby Liechtenstein, focusing on the rich storehouse of art and architecture that graces the principality’s capital city, Vaduz. Our visit will conclude at the Cathedral with a brief concert played on its renowned Josef Gabriel Rheinberger Organ.
 
Tuesday, July 16: Today, we visit the medieval lakeside town of Konstanz, including the Council of Constance building, the cathedral, and the old Niederburg district. Following lunch, we continue to Mainau or "Flower Island," which boasts more than 200 varieties of rhododendron and azalea, almost 20,000 dahlias and 30,000 rose bushes, enhanced by palm, bougainvillea, hundreds of deciduous and coniferous trees, a greenhouse, sculptures, fountains, and an amazing butterfly garden.
 
Wednesday July 17: Our excursion today takes us to Meersburg, once a residence for the prince-bishops of Konstanz, with its vineyard-covered hills surrounding a picturesque cluster of castles and other medieval architecture. We continue to Birnau and then relax over a nice lunch in Überlingen. The remainder of the afternoon is spent in the historic town of Lindau with its beautiful medieval merchant residences displaying Baroque, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture.
 
Thursday, July 18: Today, you might want to enjoy a quiet day in Bregenz or join us for an optional excursion to St. Gallen to visit the Old Town, cathedral, and Abbey Library, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lunch is included. Tonight brings the first of two operas offered at the Bregenz Festival this year, Rossini’s Tancredi, in a new production for the festival’s indoor Festspielhaus; it's available as an option.
 
Friday, July 19: This morning, we tour the Festspielhaus and the unique Seebühne – the world’s largest lake stage. Get a behind the scenes look at this year’s new production of Weber’s Der Freischütz, which we attend this evening. We’ll all get together beforehand for dinner at the hotel.
 
Saturday, July 20: We bid farewell to our home for the past week, the Grand Hotel Bregenz, heading north into Germany on our way to Prien am Chiemsee where we’ll spend the next three nights, relaxing at our lakeside hotel and attending performances at the Herrenchiemsee Baroque Festival. We will stop along the way to visit the most “livable” of Mad King Ludwig’s many palaces, Linderhof, with its striking garden pavilions and Wagner Grotto. We’ll also make a lunch stop, arriving at our hotel in time for you to get settled and take the ferry (it leaves from a dock just steps from the hotel) to Herren Island for the evening concert in the palace’s Hall of Mirrors. Tickets to one performance at the Herrenchiemsee Baroque Festival are included in the price of the tour; additional performances (as available) will be at extra cost.
 
Sunday, July 21: Today is free for you to enjoy the lake itself, with only another concert at the Palace this evening on the agenda.
 
Monday, July 22: This morning, we tour the Herreninsel, the island site of Ludwig’s “New Palace.” Never completed, Herrenchiemsee Palace was only inhabited by the king for nine or ten nights before he mysteriously died of drowning at age 40. The island is also the site of a previous royal home, the Old Palace Herrenchiemsee, a former Augustinian monastery. Lunch follows at the hotel. We anticipate a third concert at the palace this evening.
 
Tuesday, July 23: Morning departure for Munich, with stops to tour the new Isarphilarmonie, located in an old industrial area of the city, and for our farewell lunch. From that point, those remaining for the Munich extension will check in at “our hotel in Munich,” the traditional and always-welcoming Platzl, perfectly located for our purposes, just steps away from the Bavarian State Opera. Those returning to the States tomorrow will continue to a hotel at the Munich Airport, making tomorrow’s departure as convenient as possible.

THE OPTIONAL MUNICH EXTENSION

The optional extension in Munich is open-ended and comprises only hotel arrangements and performance tickets for the events of your choice. Of course, you are free to book your own seats online, if you prefer, avoiding the small service we add to those we book for you. If you choose to stay longer or head home sooner, the price will be adjusted by the actual cost of your room for those nights.

The 4 nights we have planned for the extension provide the opportunity for you to see four different operas: Parsifal with Nina Stemme, Tosca with Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann (new production), Tannhauser with Klaus Florian Vogt, and La Fanciulla del West, a new production conducted by Houston Symphony music director Juraj Valčuha. Additional performances those same evenings at the Cuvilliés Theater and Prinzregentheater have already been announced and more are promised in other venues.
 
If you wish to participate in the extension, just indicate that on your reservation form; you can decide about the exact length of your stay and which performances you wish to attend when we have more complete information.