Celtic Lands Voyage with Faculty Host Penn Professor Rebecca Bushnell
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presents CCelticeltic LLandsands SCOTLAND ◆ IRELAND ◆ WALES ◆ FRANCE ◆ ENGLAND Cruising aboard the Five-Star M.S. LE BOORÉALRÉAL 7700TTHH ANNNIVERSARYNIVERSARY DD-D-DAAYY REEMEMBEREDMEMBERED FFeaturingeaturing GGuestuest SSpeakerspeakers DWWIGHTIGHT DAAVIDVID EIISENHOWERSENHOWER IIII SSeniorenior RResearchesearch FFellow,ellow, UUniversityniversity ooff PPennsylvaniaennsylvania aandnd CEELIALIA SAANDYSNDYS SSirir WWinstoninston CChurchill’shurchill’s GGranddaughterranddaughter aandnd BBiographeriographer aandnd wwithith PPennenn FFacultyaculty HHostost PProfessorrofessor RRebeccaebecca BBushnellushnell May 28 to June 7, 2014 ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ Dear Penn Alumni and Friends, We extend a special invitation to you to join us for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the historic D-Day landings during this Celtic Lands voyage with faculty host Penn Professor Rebecca Bushnell. By exclusive arrangement, walk the hallowed beaches of Normandy, France, with Dwight David Eisenhower II, grandson of General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Penn Senior Fellow and Professor. You will also meet Celia Sandys, granddaughter of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, both of whom will join us for a portion of the cruise to lecture and share their personal insights about two of the most infl uential fi gures of the 20th century and on the D-Day landings. Our comprehensive Celtic Lands itinerary focuses on the Celtic people. Their immeasurable contributions to the culture of Europe’s civilizations are surrounded in mystery, legend and folklore, and rooted in the wealth of art, science and mythology spanning from Ireland’s Age of Heroes through King Arthur and his knights. With your fellow Penn alumni, experience the ancient legacy of the Celts and their enduring infl uence while cruising aboard the exclusively chartered, Five-Star, small ship M.S. LE BORÉAL. You will explore cities, villages and islands that abound with living Celtic heritage, calling at ports accessible only to a small ship. Admire the austere beauty of Scotland’s Highlands and cruise among its misty, legend-haunted Inner Hebridean Islands. Call on Northern Ireland’s seldom-visited port of Belfast, once home to the RMS TITANIC. Our voyage continues through the Irish Sea to follow in the footsteps of medieval and modern princes in North Wales; and later view the treasures of Celtic heritage in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Then, cruise the Celtic Sea and the English Channel en route to France’s Normandy beaches. After disembarking in the south of England, by special arrangement, visit historic Southwick House, Portsmouth. It was here, in General Eisenhower’s headquarters, in 1944, that the top-secret Allied D-Day operations were planned and just getting underway at this very time of year. This extraordinary 70th anniversary D-Day commemoration and exclusive travel offering is an excellent value and is not available to the general public. Capacity is limited, so we encourage you to reserve now while Early Booking Savings and space are available! With warm regards from Penn, For more information about this tour, call Thomas P. Gohagan & Company at (800) 922-3088 and ask for the passenger services coordinator handling the program. Emilie C. K. LaRosa Assistant Director, Alumni Education and Alumni Travel Penn Alumni Relations [email protected] Penn Alumni Travel is proud to offer valuable trips and programs to alumni and friends through a number of partnerships. Any revenue that may be generated from Penn Alumni Travel above our program expenses supports Penn Alumni programming. Visit us at www.alumni.upenn.edu/travel. The Celts, whose civilization spanned two thousand years, had no written history, no written language and no prevailing ethnic unity. They never built an empire nor founded a centralized state, yet at the height of their power, in the third century B.C., the Celts’ domain extended from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea and from the Mediterranean Sea to the North Sea. Today, the Celts are most associated with the heritage, cultural identity and national consciousness of Ireland, although their roots run deep in England, Wales, Scotland and Normandy, where Celtic dialects were the original languages. U.S./Glasgow, Scotland Portree/Dunvegan, Isle of Skye Wednesday and Thursday, May 28 and 29 Saturday, May 31 Depart from the U.S. On arrival in Glasgow, Skye, dubbed “the Winged Island” after embark the Five-Star M.S. LE BORÉAL. its birdlike shape, is the largest and one Join your travel companions for dinner of the most scenic of the Inner Hebrides. on board this evening. Visit Dunvegan Castle, the seat of the powerful Clan MacLeod since 1270, built atop a Isle of Iona/ rocky promontory overlooking the sea. Tobermory, Isle of Mull Tour Dunvegan’s richly appointed public Friday, May 30 rooms and view the Fairy Flag, a silken Go ashore at the Hebridean Isle of banner that legend claims had the power to Iona, birthplace of Scottish Christianity. save the clan from defeat on three occasions. In 563 A.D., the Irish monk Columba View the castle’s lush gardens, ablaze with founded a monastery here, where scribes azaleas and rhododendrons. would spend their entire lives painstakingly This afternoon, back on board, Celia Sandys copying and illuminating religious tracts will present a lecture about her legendary and transcribing ancient Celtic sagas into grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill. written form, preserving a record of oral bardic tradition. In later years, Iona became Belfast, Northern Ireland the burial place of Scotland’s kings, including Sunday, June 1 Duncan and Macbeth. At Iona Abbey, stroll Béal Feirsde (“the mouth of the crossing”) was through the serene, restored monastery and fi rst noted in history as the site of a 666 A.D. see the churchyard’s intricate Celtic crosses. battle between Ireland’s ancient peoples. After free time, ferry across the But it is the city’s main shipbuilding company, Sound of Iona to the neighboring port of Harland and Wolff, which built the well-known Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, where vividly RMS TITANIC, that propelled Belfast onto the painted houses are nestled between the global stage in the early 20th century. Today, hills and the harbor. Visit the 13th-century this capital city is the economic engine of Duart Castle, the ancestral home of the Northern Ireland and a center for the arts, Clan Maclean, and have lunch in the castle’s higher education and business. tea room. The city tour of Belfast features This evening, attend the Captain’s Donegall Square, the central home of the Welcome Reception and dinner. Baroque Revival-style City Hall; the 19th-century Cover: Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull, built in the 13th century, is the seat of Scotland’s Clan Maclean. Photo this page: The seaside town of Arromanches served as part of the D-Day landing area code-named Gold Beach and became an assembly point for one of the Mulberry Harbor sites. PORTREE UNESCO Isle of Skye World Heritage Site Cruise Itinerary TOBERMORY Air Routing IONA Isle of Mull Land Routing Isle of Iona GLASGOW EDINBURGH SCOTLAND BELFAST North Sea IRELAND Irish DUBLIN Sea HOLYHEAD ENGLAND WALES LONDON Celtic Sea PORTSMOUTH nnel sh Cha Engli The traditional way of life in the Scottish Isles remains unchanged in the colorful Normandy fishing port of Tobermory, where brightly painted houses overlook the Sound of Mull. Beaches CAEN Utah BeachPointe du Hoc OmahaGold Beach Beach FRANCE ARROMANCHES En route to the ship, view the beautiful, BAYEUX glacier‑sculpted peaks and valleys of the Snowdonia Mountains in the distance. Albert Memorial Clock in Queen’s Square; Dublin, Ireland the Scottish baronial Belfast Castle; and Stormont, Tuesday, June 3 the Edwardian Parliament Buildings that are Built astride the River Liffey, Ireland’s historic home to the Northern Ireland Assembly. capital has retained its rich heritage of This afternoon, visit the RMS TITANIC Georgian architecture while confidently playing museum, located on the slipway where the a major role in the New Europe. Enjoy an ship was launched. overview tour of the city; stroll through the stately quadrangles of Trinity College and Holyhead, Wales/ view the incandescent illuminations of the Caernarfon Castle ninth‑century Book of Kells; and visit the Monday, June 2 13th‑century St. Patrick’s Cathedral of Ireland, From Holyhead, travel across the Isle of where St. Patrick purportedly baptized Anglesey and over the Menai Strait to converts to Christianity. North Wales, one of the cradles of Celtic culture. The afternoon is at leisure. Walk along Here, the people hold fast to the old ways and colorful Grafton Street, savor a pint of Welsh remains their mother tongue. Guinness in a typical neighborhood pub or Visit beautiful Bodnant Garden, one of visit the treasures of Celtic heritage in the th the finest examples of 19 ‑century Victorian National Museum of Ireland. landscape artistry. Enjoy lunch in a local Enjoy traditional Irish music and dance restaurant and listen to a stirring private aboard the ship this evening. choir performance of Welsh hymns. Cruising the Celtic Sea/ English Channel Wednesday, June 4 Enjoy educational lectures today, including Professor David Eisenhower’s “Triumph and Tragedy,” while cruising the Celtic Sea and English Channel. Caen/Normandy Beaches Thursday, June 5 Travel through the scenic countryside to the historic Normandy beaches. In the company of David Eisenhower, walk where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, and visit the American Military Cemetery at St. Laurent, overlooking Omaha Beach. At Pointe du Hoc, envision the brave American rangers who scaled 200‑foot heights Skye’s rolling moors have captivated generations of to capture German gun emplacements. visitors to Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. See remnants of the floating artificial harbor code‑named “Mulberry,” constructed Tour the imposing Caernarfon Castle, to support Allied landings at Gold Beach, an impregnable 13th‑century fortress built followed by an opportunity to see either the by Edward I of England as a defense against D‑Day Museum or the famous, 230‑foot‑long the marauding Welsh.