To Potsdam!

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This morning around 5am Jacquie left for the airport, leaving me all alone with the nasty Brits that were our new roommates. I packed up my things, went down for breakfast, and was out by 9am for the move to my new private room in a hostel in West Berlin. It was located near the huge shopping district and alongside all the fun shops and restaurants I had seen the day prior, so I was very pleased.

Since I felt we had really gotten the most out of our 5 days in the city I opted for a little day trip to Potsdam, the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg about a half-hour S-Bahn ride southwest of Berlin. The residence of the Prussian kings until 1918, the city is surrounded by a series of interconnected lakes and gardens and parks and palaces. The most notable of said palaces is Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany.

Getting off the train and walking outside of the station the city center was just alongside it. "Friendship Island" was under construction so I headed past and walked past both the old city hall and the Church of St. Nicholas, both very impressive structures. Continuing northward I found myself in historic city center, a hustling and bustling array of shops and restaurants and cute little buildings. Most interesting is perhaps the Dutch Quarter, a series of about 150 houses built of red bricks in the Dutch style. It was built between 1734 and 1742 to be used by Dutch artisans and craftsmen who had been invited to settle here by King Frederick Wilhelm I. Just west of this area is the Nauen Gate, built in 1755 and one of the first examples of the influence of English Gothic Revival architecture

Continuing northward I ventured into the "New Garden", planned out in the English style (whatever that means) and bordering "Holy Lake". A gothic library and two palaces, the Marble Palace and the Cecilienhof Palace, where the 1945 Potsdam Conference was held, are its most important structures.

Next it was up a hill to see the Belvedere on the Pfingstberg, a small palace built in the Italian style by Frederick Wilhelm IV. It seems as though these Prussians just loved building random palaces all over this city. Moving southward I passed through the Russian colony of Alexandrowka, complete with the lovely Orthodox Chapel of Alexander Newski.

Now heading westward I entered into Sanssouci Park. In 1744 King Frederick the Great ordered the construction of a residence here, where he could live "sans souci" (without worries), and so was built a massive park full of gardens and palaces and other structures. The most important building is the Sanssouci Palace itself, the Prussian Royalty's modest summer residence. The structure is very long and only consists of 12 major rooms, but the beautiful golden-yellow exterior is a sight to be seen.

Just beyond this palace is the Orangery Palace, built by Friedrich Wilhelm IV as a residence for foreign guests. Unfortunately it seems as though this palace has fallen into a bit of disarray and it under some refurbishment. The Belvedere and Dragon House are two additional structures nearby that serve as "decoration" in the gardens and were the only two ornamental buildings ever finished.

The absolutely massive "New Palace" was built between 1763 and 1769 to celebrate the end of the Seven Years' War, in which Prussia ousted Austria from its centuries-long role as the dominant power in German affairs. It is a much larger and grander palace than Sanssouci, having over 200 rooms and 400 statues as decoration. It served as a guest house for numerous royal visitors.

By this point I had been walking around for 5 hours and wanted to collapse, and of course I had no phone or watch so I had no clue what time it was. After walking another half hour back east toward the center, passing a few more sights like the Chinese House, I ended up back near the center ready to face my first restaurant meal alone.

For my late lunch/dinner I chose a restaurant off of the main street that had a few older people enjoying some food and drinks that looked rather nice. My German absolutely failed me in terms of the menu, so I ended up ordering something from whose description I understood only "...with.....sauce and buttered potatoes" Sounded great! Luckily what I ended up with was Tafelspitz, Austrian boiled beef with a horseradish sauce. Washed down with a liter of beer (na klar) and a side salad it was a lovely meal and I didn't mind being alone at all.

Absolutely exhausted I headed back toward the S-Bahn station and boarded my train back to Berlin. The rest of my evening consisted of resting up back at the "pension" and then going out for a bit of shopping on Berlin's most famous shopping street, Ku-Damm (short for Kurfürstendamm). I ended up with a new bag, some jeans, and a hoodie, none of which I have any room for. For an evening snack I was ghetto and picked up a salad and some pudding at a little grocery store and then headed home to pack for Vienna in the morning!

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Photos

Brandenburg Gate
Obvi not the same as the Berlin One