Berlin - Potsdam Palace Day
Sunday Feb 26
Looked out this morning and dime sized snow flakes were floating down amidst the more normal sized snow flakes. Quite beautiful. We had breakfast and after bundling up,
we went out into the arctic and headed for the UBahn and then the Sbahn for Potsdam – site of the postwar conference than divided Germany and Berlin. But, for us it is the home of the two palaces we will visit, the first and foremost is the Sanssouci.
http://www.geog.fu-berlin.de/eurocis/whl/c532sanss.shtml
When we arrived in Potsdam, about 25 minutes, it was cold(er) and snowing. After a few false starts at the train station we got our bus to the palace and sat back in the mostly warm and very modern (Honolulu could learn a thing or two) bus and headed off. As you know, anything immediately surrounding Berlin was in East Germany. Potsdam is one of those places you can see the renewal going on but at the same time some of the destruction and the remnants of soviet rule. As cold as we were I was struck by the numbers of kids in shorts, knit hats, woolen sweaters, boots/shoes who were buy playing soccer and basketball….OUTSIDE!!
The first site at King Friedrich II’s palace was a windmill
that was actually turning every once in awhile. Actually, the area is called the Sanssouci Park with the palace being only one small part. There is another place that is part of the park, but that is later. We then worked out the timing to take the tour and this left us an hour to waddle thru the (warm) museum shop, walk around the palace and take pictures, 
etc. It is pretty stark in the winter but one can easily see how beautiful the grounds would be in the spring, summer and fall. However, having said that, as with most of the places we have been, the grounds were still beautiful in their haunting winter black and white. It snowed again while we were waiting, this time quite hard with little white pellets.
The tour started, in German, but we had English crib sheets. The interiors rooms were mostly rococo which make heavy use of gold gilded cherubs and fruits and vines and vegetables and is quite ornate to say the least. One of the rooms had been decorated for Voltaire for the couple of years he lived there…quite odd. The palace was almost as cold inside as out.
After the tour we walked down the long sloping hill in front of the palace and then took the long walk
over to the New Palace. http://www.geog.fu-berlin.de/eurocis/whl/c532newpalace.shtml
We walked thru the park, huge, on feet now frozen talking to each others frigid ears. We would see sights as we walked and go there and take pictures, one such place was a gilded tea house,
and then continue on. We kept seeing people and the occasional stasi agents who had been tailing us on and off since our arrival in Berlin and our wandering across the old borders. Finally, we arrived at the New Palace
, totally frozen, just in time for frau “bigger than a pro middle linebacker” yelling at us “schnell, schnell” as we were the last ones there for the final tour of the day. Actually, I had not decided if I would take the tour, but her voice and size, soon I was running to get thru the door. Again, an all German language tour with English crib sheets in a palace almost as cold as outside. This palace was not all rococo but had added some weird touches – the grotto room, adorned with shells, kagillions of them; a classic checked marble floor room big enough for a roller skating rink – reminiscent of the Newport, RI mansions.
Finally we were out of the palace and more or less not a sole was around with no hints as to where town was, taxi, bus, etc. I decided we should go left (of course it was correct) and soon found us on a short strip of lonely road between the palace and some apts of the east German era, yuck. It was getting dark and toward that time of night that if you were not indoors the stasi or the werewolves would get you. We could hear them rustling in the trees and brush nearby. We found a bus kiosk and reading the times (fear teaches one German really fast) we could see that our lives had a mere 15 minutes before all would be lost. As it got fainter and fainter, in the distance we could see our #695 bus coming down the lane. With a final snub to the stasi and werewolves we jumped on the bus – only to find many eyes staring at us. The dangers were everywhere. I sat quickly in the handicapped seat hoping werewolves and stasi would NOT want me and I pretended to not know my sister, who was on her own. 15 minutes later we were delivered to the rail station, had a coffee, and jumped on the train for the long ride back to Berlin.
After getting off at the Europa Center we headed for a Bavarian restaurant I been eyeballing for a couple of days. Here we had dinner – I had one Regensberger sausage, three nurnberger sausage, one meat loaf (pork), fried potatoes all on a bed of creamed sauerkraut.
Then it was back to the room and getting warm.
Looked out this morning and dime sized snow flakes were floating down amidst the more normal sized snow flakes. Quite beautiful. We had breakfast and after bundling up,
we went out into the arctic and headed for the UBahn and then the Sbahn for Potsdam – site of the postwar conference than divided Germany and Berlin. But, for us it is the home of the two palaces we will visit, the first and foremost is the Sanssouci.http://www.geog.fu-berlin.de/eurocis/whl/c532sanss.shtml
When we arrived in Potsdam, about 25 minutes, it was cold(er) and snowing. After a few false starts at the train station we got our bus to the palace and sat back in the mostly warm and very modern (Honolulu could learn a thing or two) bus and headed off. As you know, anything immediately surrounding Berlin was in East Germany. Potsdam is one of those places you can see the renewal going on but at the same time some of the destruction and the remnants of soviet rule. As cold as we were I was struck by the numbers of kids in shorts, knit hats, woolen sweaters, boots/shoes who were buy playing soccer and basketball….OUTSIDE!!
The first site at King Friedrich II’s palace was a windmill
that was actually turning every once in awhile. Actually, the area is called the Sanssouci Park with the palace being only one small part. There is another place that is part of the park, but that is later. We then worked out the timing to take the tour and this left us an hour to waddle thru the (warm) museum shop, walk around the palace and take pictures, 
etc. It is pretty stark in the winter but one can easily see how beautiful the grounds would be in the spring, summer and fall. However, having said that, as with most of the places we have been, the grounds were still beautiful in their haunting winter black and white. It snowed again while we were waiting, this time quite hard with little white pellets.The tour started, in German, but we had English crib sheets. The interiors rooms were mostly rococo which make heavy use of gold gilded cherubs and fruits and vines and vegetables and is quite ornate to say the least. One of the rooms had been decorated for Voltaire for the couple of years he lived there…quite odd. The palace was almost as cold inside as out.
After the tour we walked down the long sloping hill in front of the palace and then took the long walk
over to the New Palace. http://www.geog.fu-berlin.de/eurocis/whl/c532newpalace.shtmlWe walked thru the park, huge, on feet now frozen talking to each others frigid ears. We would see sights as we walked and go there and take pictures, one such place was a gilded tea house,
and then continue on. We kept seeing people and the occasional stasi agents who had been tailing us on and off since our arrival in Berlin and our wandering across the old borders. Finally, we arrived at the New Palace
, totally frozen, just in time for frau “bigger than a pro middle linebacker” yelling at us “schnell, schnell” as we were the last ones there for the final tour of the day. Actually, I had not decided if I would take the tour, but her voice and size, soon I was running to get thru the door. Again, an all German language tour with English crib sheets in a palace almost as cold as outside. This palace was not all rococo but had added some weird touches – the grotto room, adorned with shells, kagillions of them; a classic checked marble floor room big enough for a roller skating rink – reminiscent of the Newport, RI mansions.
Finally we were out of the palace and more or less not a sole was around with no hints as to where town was, taxi, bus, etc. I decided we should go left (of course it was correct) and soon found us on a short strip of lonely road between the palace and some apts of the east German era, yuck. It was getting dark and toward that time of night that if you were not indoors the stasi or the werewolves would get you. We could hear them rustling in the trees and brush nearby. We found a bus kiosk and reading the times (fear teaches one German really fast) we could see that our lives had a mere 15 minutes before all would be lost. As it got fainter and fainter, in the distance we could see our #695 bus coming down the lane. With a final snub to the stasi and werewolves we jumped on the bus – only to find many eyes staring at us. The dangers were everywhere. I sat quickly in the handicapped seat hoping werewolves and stasi would NOT want me and I pretended to not know my sister, who was on her own. 15 minutes later we were delivered to the rail station, had a coffee, and jumped on the train for the long ride back to Berlin.
After getting off at the Europa Center we headed for a Bavarian restaurant I been eyeballing for a couple of days. Here we had dinner – I had one Regensberger sausage, three nurnberger sausage, one meat loaf (pork), fried potatoes all on a bed of creamed sauerkraut.
Then it was back to the room and getting warm.
posted by Drue at
6:52 AM
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