December 21st was my last day in Berlin and I planned to spend most of it outside of the city. I had breakfast in my room again from my grocery store run and then headed out. Turns out it was raining so after a block I turned around and went back for my umbrella.
First up, and just a couple of blocks from my hotel, was Checkpoint Charlie. Of course the original Checkpoint Charlie is gone, but a reconstructed version exists.
I walked to the Topography of Terror next. It wasn't open yet, and I decided not to wait for it, but it does have another surviving section of the Wall.
I took the U-bahn to the Zoo stop and changed to a regional train out to Potsdam. From Potsdam train station, I took a bus to Sanssouci Palace.
Sanssouci Palace was the summer home of Frederick the Great. This one, unlike the other palatial buildings around Potsdam, was his actual residence.
In each room you can see the attempt at bringing the outdoors inside. Lots of florals, vines, animals, birds, and even spiderwebs. See the spiderweb in the center of the ceiling?
Sanssouci Palace is actually quite small considering who it's resident was.
The back overlooking extensive gardens.
My next destination was the New Palace. Instead of taking the bus I decided to walk through the park. It was about a 30 minute walk.
A nice view of the palace as you approach from this direction
The New Palace was built by Frederick the Great from 1763-1769. It's much larger at over 200 rooms. Frederick rarely stayed here, but other Prussian kings and German emperors lived here.
While Sanssouci had a self guided audio tour, the New Palace required you to stay with a tour group. They had us download the app before we left with our group and then we discovered why. Those of us who spoke English had to listen to the audio on the app, while the rest of the group got the tour by a tour guide in German. I wouldn't have minded so much except our app would give us 45 seconds of info and then the guide would speak for 5 minutes. So it felt like we were just standing around watching their tour. It was absolutely terrible and I'm irritated again just writing about it!
We started in the Grotto Hall. The marble walls are covered in over 250,000 seashells, semiprecious stones, and fossils.
This is the Tamerlane Room. It is the first antechamber in the royal apartments. The Red Army occupied the palace at the end of the Second World War, and a soldier left an inscription in red graffiti on the wall. The man called for the deaths of the German aggressors. For decades, this statement was concealed and was only uncovered again in 2012.
Many of the artworks were transported to the Soviet Union by the Red Army and today large black and white photographs of the art take their place.
This room was very similar to the decor in Sanssouci. I liked the light fixture.
Floral motif in the floors here too
These buildings are across from the New Palace and while they are part of Potsdam University today, they were the kitchen and other servant buildings back in the day.
Once the never-ending tour was over, I walked to a bus stop to go back into Potsdam.
This is in the Alter Markt. I walked around their small Christmas market there. This is Nikolaikirche (destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1981)
I took a tram to the train station and then a train back into Berlin and to my favorite market. I did a little bit more shopping there and had dinner.
There were people on stilts that night.
I went back to the hotel to pack up because I had an early train out the next morning. I had also walked a lot so I was ready to ice my knee. I walked up to the bar at the hotel and the bartender saw me coming and said "you need your ice?". Yep, that's me!
Comments