Sans Souci - No Worries

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We woke up this morning in Dresden to thick fog, and not looking forward to leaving the comforts of Hotel Bayerischer Hof. Still, it was time to move on, and we needed to drop in our Ford Focus at Berlin’s Tegel Airport by six pm. But where to. Colditz Castle or Potsdam. I have already experienced a reasonable amount of WWII history on this holiday, and Kim had indicated she wanted to return to Potsdam, so we headed for Potsdam.



The fog did not lift at all during our drive to Potsdam. We headed straight for Sans Souci Palace, which was not open for visitors on our last visit in 2013. Sans Souci was the summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. Sans Souci though was constructed in a more Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart. Sans Souci is a French phrase, which translates as "without concerns", meaning "without worries" or "carefree", symbolising that the palace was a place for relaxation rather than a seat of power.



The palace and grounds were still shrouded in fog when we commenced our timed tour of the palace. Sans Souci is small, with the principal block being a narrow single-storey structure of just ten rooms, including a service passage and staff rooms behind them. The main rooms face the garden, looking southwards, while the servant’s quarters in the row behind are on the north side of the building.



Frederick cared little about etiquette and fashion, however, he wanted to be surrounded by beautiful objects and works of art. He arranged his private apartments according to his personal taste and needs, often ignoring the current trends and fashions. These "self-compositions" in Rococo art led to the term "Frederician Rococo”. There is an artwork called Die Tafelrunde by Adolph von Menzel, which is in effect a photograph of an occasion in the oval domed "Marble Hall", which is the principal reception room of the palace. On the left side of the painting in the purple coat, sits Voltaire. The other guests are Casanova, Marquis d’Argens, La Mettrie, the Keiths, Von Rothenburg, Von Stille and Francesco Algarotti.



After finishing our timed tour of the palace, we headed out into the still fog shrouded gardens. The panoramic vista of the garden of Sans Souci is the result of Frederick the Great's decision to create a terraced vineyard on the south slope. On the partitions of the supporting walls, the brickwork is pierced by 168 glazed niches. Trellised vines from Portugal, Italy, France, and also from nearby Neuruppin, were planted against the brickwork, while figs grew in the niches. Below the hill, a Baroque ornamental garden, modeled on the parterre at Versailles, was constructed in 1745. Frederick had several temples and follies erected in the same rococo style as the palace itself. Some were small houses which compensated for the lack of reception rooms in the palace itself.



We walked through the gardens, visiting the Orangerie, Roman Baths and the Chinese House, which were on Kim’s must see list. From there we headed to the New Palace, principally to see whether four years had seen any improvements to the tired exterior of this once grand palace (Potsdam was located in East Germany for the duration of the Cold War). After walking around the New Palace, we concluded that although there were significant works underway to restore the palace to it’s former glory, it would take a few years to restore this glory.



Leaving Sans Souci, we had one more stopover in Potsdam. To visit Gleniecke Bridge. During the Cold War, this portion of the Havel River formed the border between West Berlin and East Germany, with the bridge being used several times for the exchange of captured spies, thus becoming known as the Bridge of Spies.



The bridge was closed to East German citizens after the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. Only allied military personnel and foreign diplomats were allowed to access the bridge at any time.



Of all the checkpoints between West Berlin and East Berlin, as well as those between West Berlin and the GDR, the Glienicke Bridge had the uniqueness of being the only such checkpoint of not only having a Soviet presence, but also of being under full Soviet control. All other checkpoints were under East German control, and had no Soviet presence.



It was interesting to see this non descript bridge under very different circumstances than in the recent Hollywood movie, Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks. Despite it being late in the day, fog was still blanketing the bridge, making for an eerie scene.



After photographing the Bridge of Spies, we crossed over the bridge and headed for Tegel Airport. We had arranged to stay at the convenient but more expensive Mercure Hotel at Tegel Airport, as we have an early flight to St Petersburg via Brussels tomorrow morning. The hotels services included free airport transfers, which we took advantage of. Our stay at Mercure was well worth the peace of mind to arrive on time for our flight into Russia.

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