ART BEYOND BORDERS

Arrival in Vienna and transfer to the hotel. In the evening, we will enjoy a ride on the famous giant Ferris wheel, located in the Prater amusement park, and a welcome dinner in one of the typical wine taverns in the districts of Neusitft am Walde, Nußdorf or Grinzing.

Return to the hotel and overnight.

Always associated with the imperial palaces and Sisi, Vienna is also the birthplace of the “Secession”, one of the most important artistic movements of the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, which laid the foundations of Austrian modernism. Among its members are Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. On our city tour we will visit the Belvedere Palace, now the National Art Gallery. Among its treasures you can see the masterpiece of Viennese Art Nouveau, the painting “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt. Then we will go to the Secession building, where we will admire another of the key works of Austrian art, “The Beethoven Frieze”, in which Klimt also put images to the 9th Symphony of the composer Ludwig von Beethoven. On the way we will see other modernist works such as the Pavilion and the Otto Wagner Houses, as well as the most outstanding buildings of the city, such as the Opera House, the Hofburg or Winter Palace, the Museum of Fine Arts and its twin Museum of Natural History, the Parliament, the Town Hall or the Votive Church, among others. We will end the visit tasting one of the most Viennese customs: a cup of coffee accompanied by the famous Sacher cake. In the afternoon we will enjoy a private visit to the Leopold Museum, the jewel of the renovated museum district, which houses the largest private collection of works by Egon Shiele and Oskar Kokoschka, among other artists of Austrian modernism. Free evening.

In the morning we will visit the Ephesos Museum, established at the end of the 19th century to house the archaeological remains found in the city of Ephesos in present-day Turkey. Among its treasures are “The Amazons of the Altar of Artemis”, the “Monument to the Partisans” and the bronze statue of an athlete. This visit will connect us with the second part of the trip in Turkey.

Afternoon at leisure to finish enjoying Vienna. 

Breakfast at the hotel and at the appointed time, transfer to the airport to board the flight to Istanbul.

Arrival and transfer to the hotel.

Full day tour of the city that acts as a bridge between East and West. Among its jewels we will visit the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, a masterpiece of Byzantine art and converted into a mosque again in August 2020; the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, noted for its 6 minarets and better known as the “blue mosque” for the decoration in blue, white and green tiles; the Topkapi and Dolmabahçe Palaces; the subway cistern; the Galatea Bridge and Taksim Square.

Stop for lunch (included) during the visit.

Free evening. 

Free day to enjoy Istanbul in its splendor. We recommend visiting the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar, or embark on a boat trip on the Bosphorus

After breakfast departure to Pergamon, the main cultural center of the Hellenic period. We will visit the archaeological park where the famous Pergamon Altar, which can be visited in Berlin, was found. It highlights the acropolis, with ruins of what were the library, the theater, several palaces and the place where the Altar of Zeus was erected. Leaving Pergamon we will also see the ruins of the Asclepion, a building dedicated to the god of medicine and that would become a renowned medical school. Continuation to Izmir.

Arrival and accommodation. 

Today we will go on an excursion to Ephesus, one of the main cities of Ancient Greece and home to one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Artemis. Occupied over the centuries by the Hellenic, Roman and Byzantine cultures, it has reached our days with a cultural treasure difficult to surpass. We will visit the ruins of these civilizations, including the Library of Celsus, the Great Theater, the Odeon, the agora, the Roman basilica, several baths and public latrines, temples dedicated to Domitian, Hadrian and Serapis, the Trajan fountain and the pritaneum, seat of the magistrates. On the outskirts of Ephesus we will also visit the Basilica of St. John, where St. John supposedly wrote his gospel; and the House of the Virgin Mary, where according to tradition she arrived after the crucifixion and lived until her ascension.

Return to Izmir and overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel and at the appointed time, transfer to the airport to board the flight to Dubai, with a stopover in Istanbul.

Arrival in Dubai and overnight. 

Departure to discover the capital of one of the 7 emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Founded in the second half of the 18th century, Dubai was a fishing town until it became the international metropolis it is today. During the guided tour we will see this contrast between the traditional part, with the Jumeirah Mosque of 1979, the palace of Sheikh Sheikh Mohammed and the Al-Fahidi fort; and the modern part in which stands out above all the Burj Khalifa Tower, inaugurated in 2010 as the tallest building in the world with more than 800m. The architecture is the most visible art of Dubai; to the examples already mentioned we can add the Palm Jumeirah Island, an artificial archipelago created in front of the coast where there are private residences and some of the most luxurious and well-known hotels; the Opera House; the Dubai Creek, where the spice market is located, and the Madinat Theater. Afternoon at leisure to tour some of the famous shopping malls, relax on the beaches and admire the spectacle of light and color in the Palm Fountains, the largest in the world, with 1,335m², jets up to 105m high and illuminated by 3,000 LED bulbs.

Today we will go on an excursion to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi has experienced rapid growth since the 1980s, resulting in imposing modern architecture, with skyscrapers such as the Capital Plaza or the Scheich-Zayid Mosque, contrasting with traditional buildings such as the Qasr al-Husn fort and palatial residences. Upon arrival we will take a guided tour to see the skyline on the coast and its main attractions. We will also visit the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, opened in 2017 as a franchise of the famous Parisian museum. With this facility, the city positions itself as the cultural destination of the Emirates. Its collection spans art from Antiquity to the 21st century, with works by Picasso, Magritte and Gauguin among them, on loan from major Parisian museums (Louvre, Orsay and George Pompidou).

Free time for lunch and individual walks.

In the afternoon, return to Dubai.

Overnight in Dubai. 

Breakfast at the hotel and at the appointed time, transfer to the Airport.