Potsdam

The New Palace

Day 4: Potsdam

Going to Berlin it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and bustle of the city, but (if you have the time) it is well worth making the short trip out of Berlin to the small city of Potsdam.

Potsdam is a complete antidote to Berlin, it is a quiet city with cobbled streets galore and the beautiful Sanssouci Park to explore. 

The name Potsdam may ring a bell from history class because Potsdam was the location of a pivotal post-World War II conference between the various allies; but Potsdam was also the residence of Prussian Kings and Kaisers up until the early 1900's. This gives much of the city a distinctly regal feel and Sanssouci Park in particular was a splendid place complex reserved for royalty and dignitaries. 

We decided to leave Potsdam for the last day of our trip before heading to the airport and arrived at Potsdam Hauptbanhof later than expected, due to U-bahn problems, but with plenty of time to explore. Since we were heading to the airport straight from Potsdam, we were carrying around our backpacks and, first things first, we looked to ditch them! We left our bags in a locker at the far end of the station (near the exit where the buses go from) for the low cost of €4 for the day - a bargain! 

Bags ditched we wandered through to the centre of the city and, because Potsdam is so small, it wasn't long before we stumbled on something interesting and pretty!

First stop was the Potsdam Cathedral and the hoard of wolves that are currently outside of it. The Cathedral itself is an imposing stone building, which seemed to me impossibly clean! But the thing that interested me the most were the wolves; these humanoid-wolf sculptures stand around outside the cathedral in an imposing sort of army. At the time my poor German wasn't enough to translate the signs, and Internet searches since I got back haven't proved any more fruitful, so I'm having to make my best guess as to what the wolves are actually there for. My best guess is that the are a strange art installation with a socio-political message but isn't immediately obvious to me - if anyone knows any better than me then please let me know what they are!

After peering at the wolves we continued deeper into the city and to the cobbled streets that make Potsdam so quaint and such an opposite to Berlin. Although the streets are lovely to just wander around we headed pretty promptly to the main event, Park Sans Souci and its various palaces. 

I mentioned before that Potsdam was originally a residence for royalty and this is demonstrated in Park Sans Souci. It really is a glorious place. As with many of the French kings, the theme is classical architecture and gold. Lots and lots of gold. It is a huge park and everything is focused around the 2.5 km avenue that runs down the centre of the park, and joins the magnificent Sans Souci Palace with the equally magnificent New Palace.

Sans Souci

Really these are the two main attractions in the park and it's easy to see why, but there is plenty more to see too. Dotted around the rest of the park are various buildings designed for royalty and their guests to wile away lazy afternoons in. 

The Orangery (currently undergoing massive restoration work) is what it says on the tin, a place to grow oranges except it is huge. You can't go in it at the moment but it is an inside promenade flanked by full grown orange trees, meaning that there was always somewhere pretty to walk, regardless of the weather!

The Chinese House 

Another small but pretty building is the Chinese House, a tiny garden pavilion which is beautifully painted inside with stereo-typically Chinese scenes.
Although small, many of these other buildings are definitely worth a visit in the park, and are often a welcome change from the crowds in both the main palaces. With so much space to explore, it is always possible to find a quiet section of the park.

But beside all the small delights Park Sans Souci holds, the main attractions are definitely the New Palace and Sans Souci Palace.

Detail in the Grotto Hall

When we visited Sans Souci was closed, a big disappointment as it is truly spectacular, but luckily for us the New Palace definitely doesn't disappoint. While Sans Souci is reminiscent of the Palace of Versailles with it's walls of mirror and gold covered rooms, the New Palace is unlike anything I've ever seen. I won't ruin the entire palace by going into too much detail but there are some highlights which can't be glossed over. Built as a palace for entertaining, the whole pace is full of jaw dropping rooms but I'd say the most spectacular room of all is the Grotto Hall. The entire hall is completely covered in shells and precious stones to give the impression of being under the sea. The huge windows make the whole room sparkle and you can just imagine how overwhelming it would have been to step into that room as a guest of the King!  We made the most of our time at the New Palace by taking advantage of the audio guide on offer, it has an awful lot of information but if you have the time it is definitely worth a listen. After our slow amble around the New Palace it was nearly time for us to leave for the airport so we wandered slowly back towards the station via a restaurant in the centre of town, grabbed our bags from their lockers and headed back to the station to head to the airport.
As luck would have it the trains were completely messed up and it didn't look like we were going anywhere. We pooled a taxi with a random French girl we met on the train and eventually made it back to the airport to end our Berlin adventure. All in all in was a fantastic trip and Potsdam was the perfect end to a fast-paced trip full of culture, friends, and surprised around every corner.

For more about our trip and Berlin see my other three posts about our time: Culture, Cool and Chill.

Transport: Potsdam is so easy to get to. It actually has a station at the ends of the Berlin U-bahn system, a Berlin ABC ticket will get you to Potsdam Hauptbanhof.