Today we took the train to Potsdam which took about 30 minutes. At the station there, we bought tickets for a city tour, & it was great. I was most interested in two things: Frederick the Great, whose castles are here, & the Potsdam Conference between Churchill, Truman & Stalin. We actually stood on the terrace where those fellows posed in wicker chairs. They were there to make the big decisions about land divisions after World War Two. It was held in Cecilienhof, home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern of Prussia. Ceciliennhof was built in the English style with half timbered walls & a magnificent garden.
From there, we drove through the "Siberian" area of Potsdam, where homes are still occupied by Russians & look like big log houses, but the guide said the logs are fake, merely attached to brick walls. Oh well, they looked good anyway.
A famous Potsdam castle built by Frederick the Great is named Sanssouchi, which means, "no worries/cares." He loved this place & mostly lived here during his life. He's known in Germany for introducing the potato to the people, who were starving but refused to eat anything from beneath the ground. They thought that stuff was only for animals, so they were eating only leaves during a famine which didn't fill them enough. Nowdays, people lay potatoes on his tomb; there were some there today. Here's Sanssouchi:
Frederick built Neues Palais, or New Castle, to celebrate a war victory, but he didn't really live there; he mostly hosted official events there but lived in his beloved Sanssouchi. The New Castle is huge & opulent.
We got off the bus after the tour in the city center & walked around the big pedestrian street where we had lunch. This brings me to a bad joke. The wurst is good here, but I'm the worst for having eaten so much! Really, I was so happy to have pasta tonight for dinner. It seems the choices are: Italian, German (lots of pork & potatoes---tasty but tiring), a few Thai & Asian restaurants or McDonalds. I nearly forgot, I've seen some Argentinean beef places too. No shortage of meat here!
Potsdam has its own Brandenburg Gate, a smaller version of Berlin's.
We're taking the train back Frankfurt where Dana & Chris will pick us up. Funny, how far away from Moraga they live, so I should be used to separations from them, but I've missed the 4 (5 if you count Diego) of them a lot this trip. We might take a little trip with them next week. It depends on Chris' job & getting some time away. The kids are off from school all next week!
I'll leave you with one of the many welcome bears around the city. This one's in front of our hotel, & it says welcome in many languages all over it. I almost got run over by a bicycle when taking the picture. I stupidly backed up on the sidewalk, getting into the bike lane, to take the picture just as a fast moving biker I didn't see approached. For once, I'm glad I don't speak German, because her tone spoke volumes as she gave me the what for! I said sorry, but ........
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