Concerts & Castles!

A Magical Journey to

with Stephanie Elkins

August 21-Sept 1, 2015 seen from Calton Hill

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS: Join WPR’s Stephanie Elkins, popular host of Morning Classics • Prime tickets to six performances at the Edinburgh Festival, including the London Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, an opera, and the and Simply Folk for a magical grand festival finale of Fireworks to orchestral accompaniment musical journey to bonnie Scotland. The highlight is the 68th annual • Optional performance of the Royal Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh International Festival, arguably the world’s best arts festival, • Private concert of Scottish folk music in the Highlands in one of Europe’s most beautiful capitals. You will hear performances • Private guided tours of major sites in Edinburgh and the Highlands, by the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the San including Culloden Battlefield, Eilean Donan Castle, Cawdor Castle, Francisco Symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas, an all-Beethoven Dumferline , Holyrood Palace, National Portrait Gallery recital by Rudolf Buchbinder, and much more, climaxed by a grand and others Fireworks display over Edinburgh Castle to orchestral accompaniment. • Commentary by WPR’s Stephanie Elkins on all the music you will hear

From its famed castles and abbeys • Deluxe accommodations in Edinburgh and the Highlands to its stunning landscape of • Private motorcoach transportation to activities in the itinerary mountains, glens, lochs and moors, • Plenty of free time to attend other performances or pursue your Scotland has beguiled the romantic own interests traveler for centuries. Scotland’s colorful and dramatic history, particularly its long battle for independence from is STEPHANIE ELKINS is the host and producer of Simply Folk and Morning Classics. rich with colorful figures: William She has been a music host on WPR since 2007, Wallace, “Braveheart”; ; Mary, Queen of Scots; including co-hosting The Midday with Norman Bonnie Prince Charlie, not to mention its great writers from Robert Gilliland. In addition to her on-air duties, Burns to Robert Louis Stevenson. We’ll trace the lives of many of these Stephanie served as WPR’s interim marketing while visiting several of the country’s most notable monuments. director in 2009 and 2010. She started in public

Our first four nights are in a lovely 19th century manor in the Scottish radio at WDIY-FM in Allentown/Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and before joining WPR she hosted Musica Antiqua for 10 years at WORT-FM in Madison. Stephanie Highlands, the Coul House Hotel, in the village of Contin. There we earned a bachelor of arts in political science and French from the University of will visit evocative castles and quaint villages while passing through Rhode Island. She did two years of graduate work in applied economics at the some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, as well as listen University of Central Florida and studied at the Sorbonne in France for a year. to a private concert of Scottish folk music. All the while we will lodge Stephanie is also a vocalist and guitarist. in deluxe accommodations and sample Scottish and a cosmopolitan cuisine in some of Britain’s finest restaurants. Stephanie’s TOUR COST: $5,565 per person, ground only, based on double occupancy. commentary completes a trip you won’t want to miss! Tour limited to 25 participants. The WPR Scotland tour is organized by THE GRAND TOUR Travel Company, Peterborough, New Hampshire

Daily Itinerary

Friday, August 21 Parliament and Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle. There night throughout the city. You have the option tonight The optional group flight on United departs Chicago we tour the castle and also take in an amazing falconry of prime seats at the enormously popular Royal Edinburgh O’Hare non-stop, arriving in Edinburgh the next day. display! Lunch on your own in Dornoch, an attractive town Military Tattoo. With the Edinburgh Castle as backdrop, known for its championship golf course. Our final evening this is a spectacular evening of music, ceremony, theatre SATURDAY, AUGUST 22 at Coul House features a private concert of traditional and dance. FÀILTE! [WELCOME]! Scottish folk music before dinner. Arrival at Edinburgh Airport and private motorcoach SUNDAY, AUGUST 30 ROBERT THE BRUCE transfer to the Highlands of Scotland. We pass through WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26 AND MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS lovely Perthshire and over the Cairngorms mountains, EDINBURGH AND BEETHOVEN Our excursion out of Edinburgh takes us first to the with lunch en route in Blair Atoll, before we arrive at the We bid soraidh (farewell) to the Highlands and head south medieval Benedictine Abbey of Dumfermline, one of manorial Coul House Hotel, near Inverness. Tonight we to Edinburgh. We check in to The George, a deluxe 4-star Scotland’s most important cultural sites. Founded in the celebrate our arrival with a welcome dinner at the hotel. hotel in the city’s New Town, which occupies a classical 12th century but then sacked in 1560, the Abbey was Robert Adam designed building of the 18th century. allowed to fall into disrepair. Today some of the SUNDAY, AUGUST 23 The hotel is centrally located on George Street, Edinburgh’s infrastructure of both the Abbey and attached Palace SHADES OF MACBETH most elegant address for boutique shops and fancy clubs. remains, including the tomb of Robert the Bruce, a Scottish Breakfast daily at both hotels. Today we make our first Our arrival is in time to take in our first performance at king and hero buried here in 1329. Priory excursion in the late morning first to Culloden Battlefield. the Edinburgh International Festival: the last three sonatas is situated on one of three islands in Lake and The last pitched battle on British soil, on April 16th, 1746, of Beethoven, all masterpieces of the piano literature, served as refuge for the four-year old Mary, Queen of at Culloden was the decisive battle between the Jacobite performed by one of their greatest interpreters, Rudolf Scots, after the disastrous defeat of the Scots army at forces of Charles Edward Stuart with several Buchbinder. Evening free and dinner on your own. Pinkie Cleugh. Lunch is near the dock of our boat out to clans and government loyalists, with the resounding loss the island. Back in Edinburgh, Valery Gergiev leads the of the former. After lunch nearby, we proceed to medieval THURSDAY, AUGUST 27 London Symphony Orchestra, perhaps Britain’s best, Cawdor Castle, forever linked to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, THE ROYAL MILE in two great orchestral showpieces: Bartok’s Concerto for which we will tour and visit its lovely gardens. Dinner is Our private guided tour of Edinburgh’s Old Town begins Orchestra and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. at the Abstract, a fine restaurant in the Glenmoriston where the city itself began—on Castle Rock. The Edinburgh Hotel in Inverness along the River Ness. Castle is a former medieval fortress, Renaissance palace, MONDAY, AUGUST 31 and Army barracks and is still garrisoned. We will explore FIREWORKS FAREWELL! the upper part of the Royal Mile, the heart of the Today is free in Edinburgh to do your final sight-seeing city’s fabled past with its romantic “wynds” and “closes” and shopping or just relax. Tonight our farewell dinner branching off the old thoroughfare. After lunch at a takes place at a classic French bistro near the hotel. typical Scottish restaurant, your afternoon is free. Then you have a premium seat in Princes Garden for the Tonight you will attend one of the finest of all operas, to Festival-closing, spectacular Fireworks over Edinburgh be announced soon, performed by one of Europe’s best Castle, accompanied by the renowned Scottish Chamber theatres in a wonderfully idiosyncratic production. Orchestra.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 THE QUEEN’S PALACE & MTT The tour ends after breakfast before the group flight A morning private tour, exclusive to the group, takes us departs Edinburgh non-stop for Chicago. back to the Royal Mile. Holyrood Palace is a longtime Coul House favorite royal residence—the Queen resides here when Itinerary subject to change. MONDAY, AUGUST 24 she visits Edinburgh. Then back to our neighborhood, Meals in bold are included in the price of the tour. THE SPECTACULAR WEST a visit to the excellent National Portrait Gallery will You don’t have to believe in the existence of the Loch acquaint you with many of Scotland’s most famous TOUR REGISTRATION Ness monster to enjoy the waters of the beautiful lake. figures. Lunch is atop the chic Harvey Nichols department We’ll board the Jacobite Queen this morning for a leisurely store in their fine restaurant. Your afternoon is free before TOUR COST: $5,565 per person, ground only, ride and disembark at Uruquart Castle. Then, it’s on to an evening Festival performance by the San Francisco double occupancy. Single supplement: $995 lunch near the misty Isle of Skye and the rocky peaks Symphony. Michael Tilson Thomas, celebrating his 30th Optional group flight on United: $1,580 of the Black Cuillens. Famed Eilean Donan Castle is one year as Music Director, leads the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s DEPOSIT: $1000 per person first come, first served of Scotland’s most iconic and romantic images, known 5th Symphony and the Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4 Balance deadline is June 5, 2015. After that date, around the world. It stands at a point where three sea with the fabulous Yuja Wang as soloist. call for availability. lochs meet and is surrounded by majestic scenery. On the way home, we’ll stop for an optional tour of the whiskey SATURDAY, AUGUST 29 Contact The Grand Tour, 800-727-2955 or distillery of Glen Ord and see how Scotland’s most famous SONGS AND THE TATTOO [email protected] to reserve your place on the export is made. Dinner on your own and evening free. Two of the world’s most powerful musicians come tour with a credit card deposit, or send a check for the together for a special morning recital. Baritone Matthias deposit amount to: WPR Scotland Tour, The Grand Tour, PO Box 274, Peterborough, NH 03458. Registration TUESDAY, AUGUST 25 Goerne, considered of the world’s finest lieder singers, materials can be downloaded from www.wpr.org/travel LOCH NESS, FALCONS, AND FOLK MUSIC joins the Russian phenom Daniil Trifinov at the piano

Fairyland Dunrobin Castle has been the family seat of in songs by Berg, Schumann, Wolf, Shostakovich, and QUESTIONS? the Sutherland clan for 700 years. Begun in the 14th Brahms. The rest of your day is free to enjoy other Festival Contact Elizabeth Truchon at The Grand Tour at century Dunrobin was enlarged in the 19th in the French performances or dive into events at the vast Festival Fringe 800-727-2995 or [email protected] chateau style by Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of which features more than 500 performances day and