Auf Wiedersehen Berlin

This morning it was off to Potsdam on our tour bus. Typically, we do these little excursions ourselves; however, today we opted to take a pre-arranged tour.

It was a short 30 minute ride out to Potsdam, which is only 25 km outside of Berlin.

This is a picture of the gate to the city. It is one of the oldest remaining gates to a city.

Our guide had to do the tour in both German and English. We have to give her credit as she did a really good job, and didn't even talk that fast.

Potsdam has a population of about 152,000 people. The city is working very hard to recreate itself as it was almost completely destroyed during WWII. The city has alot of very new development and still some very old buildings.

They have a 5-10 year plan that sounds incredible. We enjoyed the short time we were in Potsdam so much, that we all agreed, we would definitely like to come back in a couple of years to witness their improvements and growth.

As you have probably already guessed...this is one of the old buildings that has not be refurbished yet.

After a tour of the city, it was off to Sanssouci Palace (the summer residence of Frederick the Great). Frederick the Great is truly one of Joey's heroes.

This was a summer palace and was only occupied from April to October.

The absolute highlight of the tour was the room known as the 'Marble Hall'. You are not allowed to take pictures inside the palace, so we bought the book, and took a picture of one of the pages (I know....pretty creative).

This room is almost completely done in marble that was imported from Italy. It has a cupola that is sealed with glass to the sky. Sitting on the ledge (cornice) in the cupola are the allegorical female figures of architecture, music, painting, sculpture and astronomy flanked by little cupids.

This is truly the best and most amazing room we have seen in any of the palaces to date.

Here is a shot of Joey and I standing by one of the many vines (figs and grapes)in the gardens of the palace. They actually produce wine from the grapes grown here; however, the guide told us that the wine is seriously sour.

Here are some great shots of Potsdam and the gardens of Sanssouci - you could literally spend a few days in Potsdam wandering the town and the beautiful gardens - there are 25 palaces (not all grand) spread out throughout the park.

The site where Churchill, Stalin and Truman met.

A world historical site that was on right on the wall which bordered the lake (we think it was a dairy farm).

Some older architecture within the city. There are some beautiful homes that the line the streets as you wind through the park and the guide mentioned that the soviets had come in and given the people 2 hours to pack up and leave their confiscated their homes.

Jim was determined to have a bratwurst and raspberry Berliner Kindl before we wrapped up our time in Berlin today.

He thinks this is something that should come to North America - wheat beer with flavour shots, what a combination.

We capped off the evening back at our favorite restaurant to enjoy some Jagerschnitzel and potato dumplings (aka spatzle).

Overall, we all agreed that Berlin was a fantastic experience, and even though we only scratched the surface (we didn't even get to Dresden). We would definitely come back. Beautiful sites and country side, friendly people (we did not meet a single person who wasn't helpful) and excellent food (I think we all gained a few pounds) and fantastic beer (even at the movies).

We tip our hats to Berlin.