München (Munich) where we naturally enjoy the world famous Oktoberfest, the world’s largest beer festival where last year revelers drank more than 5 million liters of beer, ate 780,000 chicken and 75 oxen roasted on the spit. We ate and drank our share in 2000 and 2001. This is actually a giant state fair type of activity with many places to view and buy items made by local craftsmen. The first Oktoberfest was in 1810 during a wedding of Prinz Ludwig (later King Ludwig I of Bavaria) and the Princess Therese from Sachsen-Hildburghausen. It is right in the center of München!

There will be German & Austrian veterans of WW II joining us all along the way & others will be with us on the bus. Our deluxe motor coach will take us through the Bavarian and Austrian countryside filled with magical sights and history:

We’ll see the famous Feldherrenhalle where the putsch took place and we will be on the very spot where the shots rang out! We see other famous buildings in Munich as well.

Obersalzberg and the Eagles Nest!

This year we have added something new – several days on the Obersalzberg! We stay in the hotel where Hitler’s own guard lived when he was on the mountain (photo above); we enjoy lunch there AND we go into the secret tunnels/bunkers that ran beneath this hotel and connected with others; and we visit the famed Eagles Nest high atop Kehlstein Mountain.

Entrance to a bunker located outside the hotel plus a bunker entrance in the cellar of our hotel.

Our group will tour this beautiful ‘tea house’ high atop Kehlstein Mountain, built by Martin Bormann as a gift to Adolf Hitler for his 50th birthday – and Hitler hated the place so much that he refused to go there after the first time. We take the time to have a snack or a lunch there, take a drink and relax on the terrace overlooking other mountains and valleys as far as the eye can see. The view is breathtaking!

Wine and Eagles

The ancient wine ceremony in the town of Dinkelsbühl where the young wine girl comes out with the ceremonial wine jug and gives a taste to our group leader in the same manner a girl did in the Thirty Years War. When we see that our group leader and the wine girl don’t drop over dead from poison, all take a drink and enjoy the town then we have lunch in a four centuries old Bishop’s cellar.

Nürnberg!

This is also the city of the trials after the war and we are IN Room 600 of the “Palace of Justice”

We enjoy a social evening with the German Veterans Group of Nürnberg!

Special Museum

We visit a very special museum, built in a former air raid bunker. We have the place to ourselves for a very special tour.

This huge stone sits atop the top of Ulrich’s Mountain and it commands the entire area for the Ulrichsbergfest.

Klagenfurt – Ulrichsbergfest!

This area enjoys a major celebration in honor of all who served in World War II. Imagine yourself atop the tallest mountain in the area with a ruined cathedral and a huge cross at the very summit, thousands of veterans and others seated in the clearing – the banners flying, rifle shots in memorial of those who did not return…it is impossible to put this feeling into words. Our SHARKHUNTERS Group was there in 1990, 2000 and 2001 - it was absolutely unforgettable.

We will again participate in the Ulrichsbergfest.

We visit the ruined cathedral a memorial to the soldiers of all nations who did not return; we are part of the ceremony that includes the massing of the flags and the Austrian Army Band plays “ich hatte ein Kameraden” meaning “once I had a comrade”; the German version of ‘Taps’, played in memory of the missing men.

We also enjoy an afternoon lunch with hundreds of veterans of all branches of the Wehrmacht as well as veterans of other countries such as Italy, France, Belgium etc.

Your low tour price includes:
All transportation by deluxe motorcoach;
All hotels and accommodations;
All entry to places featured in this brochure;
All meetings with the veterans
and much more

Only $1,295 per person

“Patrols” Probably Much Higher in Cost

As our Members know, we do our best to keep the costs down on our “Patrols” to historically interesting places and they are so low that other tour operators have criticized us for being “too low” in our prices. We try to keep them as inexpensive as possible, so that more people can join us for these history journeys. It appears that prices will go up drastically next year, so if you wanted to visit Germany and Austria, now is the time to do it.

Why are prices anticipated to increase and SHARPLY next year? The European countries have all gone to the Euro as their currency, discarding the Deutsch Mark, the Austrian Schilling, the French Franc etc. and in the change over, prices are going up drastically. While we will, in all probability, go to Germany and Austria again in 2004 and onward, do not expect the cost of the tour to be anywhere near what it is now for the two 2003 “Patrols” there. Join us this year and save money.