Today is Potsdam

We added this to our Berlin list (thank you Kelli) - but I had no specific itinerary. So Jordan starts us in the morning on the underground, then the train..good grief, I could never have done this myself. We were following him like little puppies..up the stairs, down the stairs, across the platforms.

We depart the train and follow our “guide” on what was the auto route (as opposed to the walking route).

So he points out electricity, a gas station and a walk sign that includes bicycles. This has got to get better.

We enter the old Dutch village, which was very quaint. He taunted us with a review of strawberry cake, but ultimately said it didn’t get great reviews, so he stopped for a coffee and carrot cake. I could not get the thought of strawberry cake from my mind.

So now we head to the palace. Sanssouci Palace sits on 760 acres and I think we walked it all.

It was built by Frederick the Great in the mid 1700’s.

Here are the things I remember learning today about Frederick.

1. He loved to read- - but his father wanted him to play sports. To try to prevent him from reading his father burned all of his books.

2. He was in an arranged marriage and his wife never lived with him in the castle until after his death….when she moved in.

3. He actually ruled over all of Prussia - which was Germany and so much more.

4. He was 5’2”” tall.

Sitting on the piano was the actual flute that the king played

This is the actual chair Frederick sat and slept in the last years of his life (I would have preferred a recliner). And a portrait done of his death in the chair.

It is impressive, but now we move on to the Chinese House that Frederick had built to adorn his gardens.

And we continue on to the new palace.

There is major renovation going on at the palace.

This is obviously the statue cleaning station.

Inside the new palace is also undergoing extensive renovation.

We start off in a spectacular large room completely adorned with shells.

As we exit the shell room, Jim is compelled to touch the shell doors. The German guard told him in no uncertain terms to not touch!

If you look closely on the scaffolding you can see an artist working on restoring the painting.

On the way out we walked by one of the buildings that was half way clean…remarkable what they can get off.

Notice the far left back side has been cleaned. It is definitely more ivory and salmon color than the front.

Time to leave the park and hit one more stop. The bridge of spies. The bridge was on the border of communist East Berlin and the free side of Potsdam. This was the location during the Cold War where prisoners were exchanged. The most famous exchange was

US spy plane pilot Gary Powers who was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. His exchange happened on this bridge 2 years later.

Back in Berlin we grab dinner in an indo-China restaurant.

We walk back to the hotel and call it a night.

Jim has been learning how to edit iPhone pictures…and came up with this.

A floating crown that was once on top of a building now hangs in thin air.

But look at these darling Berlin bears that are everywhere. They are buddy bears and with open arms they symbolize peace. I didn’t figure out they were a thing in til we had passed many. Wish I had captured more.

24,500 steps today….it wasn’t supposed to be that kind of day!

On to Amsterdam tomorrow.