Trip should have been 7 days, not 6, even though that'd would have pushed price up a bit. The itinerary itself was good as were the excellent hotels but the journey back was horrendous, firstly because of the extremely early start on last day (5.30 am) compounded by horrendously delayed trains connections (not Great Rail Journeys fault of course) but when several of us (at least 6) who were reallocated seats on a later train, only to find they were already occupied, our Tour Manager just sat in his seat, it was the Eurostar lady who kindly took care to find us empty seats in another carriage. The return journey should have been broken overnight at eg Cologne (Koln) as it was on the way out. The day trips were great, but the day to Quedlinburg (beautiful town, excellent local guide) ended far too soon, we'd no free time, (just a short time on arrival for lunch) then straight back to Wernigerode when there was no rush whatsoever, we could have had a couple hours after the Guide's tour to explore the quaint shops etc and still have loads time to be back for dinner at 7.30pm. To sum up, a very enjoyable trip, just return journey horrendous, that's why most of us said it should have been done over 2 days making the trip 7 days instead of 6. And more free time in Quedlingburg. Finally, have to say the Tour Manager was a bit disappointing imo to be honest, yes he did 'what it said on the tin' by organising each day, but that was it. I know Tour Managers are not Guides, but heavens above they normally (in my experience both with GRJ previously and several other escorted hols) give a little bit of local info and so on. Nice guy - yes, but, well, I've said what I've said (that's my opinion) hate to be critical...
