October 30, 2007
Hesston College alumni and friends are invited to tour Europe May 30-June 12, 2008, as part of the college's Centennial celebration planned for 2009-2010. The tour is offered by the Hesston College Alumni Association and R & R Travel.
The tour will be co-led by Ken Rodgers, Hesston College music professor, and Dallas Stutzman, vice president for Alumni and Church Relations. Rodgers will already be in Europe, since he and fellow music professor Bradley Kauffman will co-direct the biennial European Chorale tour with about 35 students May 6-June 3.
The alumni and friends tour originates in Chicago, Ill. Amsterdam is the first stop, where participants will tour various sites in the city, hear two evening concerts by the college’s European Chorale, and worship with the Mennonite congregation in Haarlem.
The next destination is Friesland, highlighted by visits to the monument outside Witmarsum, the village of Menno Simons' birth, and to a hidden church at Pingjum.
While in Cologne, Germany, the group will tour the city and visit the largest Gothic cathedral in the country. Later, a stop in the Neuwied will connect tour members with the recent Mennonite story of the Umsiedler, the large number of Russian Mennonite immigrants who arrived in Germany during the 1980s.
Moving to France, alumni and friends will spend a day in Strasbourg, then see old castles and flower-lined streets in quaint villages in one of the most scenic areas of the region of Alsace.
Worship is planned Sunday, June 8, at Langnau, Switzerland, the oldest Mennonite congregation in the world. In the afternoon, the group will visit Trachselwald Castle, where Anabaptists were held prisoner.
After a day at the foot of Jungfrau mountain (Switzerland), a visit is planned to Trummelbach Falls, the largest accessible glacial waterfalls in the world.
Then the group travels to Lucerne, and finally Zurich, full of Anabaptist history.
Europe tour participants will travel by motor coach, with hotel accommodations modestly priced at quality three- and four-star hotels with private baths.
"This is a tremendous travel package for Hesston College alumni and friends not usually found in this combination," said Stutzman. "Alumni will see the sights in four scenic European countries, learn about Anabaptist and Mennonite history from a veteran faculty member, connect with Mennonite congregations on location, and experience music and cultural elements usually reserved for only European Chorale students."
The estimated cost (subject to change) is $3,595 per person to and from Chicago. Hotel breakfasts are included, as well as most dinners, and all taxes, tolls, and entry fees.
A deposit of $1,000 per person is due by November 15.
For more information, including a brochure, or for travel specific questions or arrangements, contact the Hesston College Alumni Relations Office toll-free at 866-437-7866 (or 866-HESSTON); locally at 620-327-8109; or e-mail: BrendaE@hesston.edu.
Hesston College Alumni