Potsdam (Lots of Pictures!)

IES sponsored a trip to Potsdam today. Most of us went, but with Christine still visiting her grandpa, she wasn't able to make it. The travel time was about 45 minutes, so not bad. And that was partly because we all bought pastries in the train station.

One of the fun things about Berlin public transportation is the street musicians. We were treated to a full jazz combo (with clarinet) on our S-bahn ride. They didn't stay for long (the police try to keep them off the trains), but it was fun while it lasted.

We met up with our tour guide, who is retired but occasionally still gives tours of Potsdam. He is officially the fastest walking 75-year-old I have ever met. We opened our tour with the downtown of Potsdam. Mostly destroyed after the war, the city is rebuilding itself in the same style. Potsdam used to be somewhat of a royal retreat. The largest concentration of castles in Europe is here. (Seriously, there's a giant park of just castles). The city center is pretty. The town hall has been built to look like a castle on the outside. However, on the side of the castle, in French, it says "This is not a castle". An ode to the René Magritte painting of a pipe titled "This is not a pipe". Even though it looks like a pipe, it's just a drawing. Even though the town hall looks like a castle, it's just a facade. I thought that was cool.

There was also some graffiti that said "Meine Seele schreit". "My soul screams". Weird. Took a picture of it anyway because #tourism.

Across from the city hall was a large Lutheran church. They were tuning the organ, which involves playing really long really high-pitched notes. That was pretty distracting. But the church was pretty! I kind of wish the church I attended looked more like a cathedral.

After hitting the town square, we wandered through the streets of Potsdam. Our tour guide shared a lot of history, but I spent most of the time thinking about how nice it would be to sit at one of the numerous cafes and enjoy some pastries and coffee. It was really warm outside (about 90 degrees), and we were walking a lot. By the time we finally stopped for lunch, I think most of us were completely exhausted.

(A lot of pictures - bear with me! The first two are the "not a castle", one of graffiti, four pictures of the church, two of the streets of Potsdam, another old church that we didn't get a chance to go inside, a memorial cemetery for Soviet soldiers, more Potsdam, two pictures of the old city gate when Potsdam was a walled city, and finally, an old city hall designed to mimic a castle.)

For lunch, we stopped at a little Asian restaurant. I tried roast duck for the first time, and it was fantastic! We all filled our water bottles up in the bathroom sink out of desperation (no free water in Germany!). All too soon, lunch was over, and it was time to explore the park. Downtown had been great and all, but the park is where all the castles are. (And a lot more walking in the hot sun...)

Our first stop was an old church, called the Church of Peace. It's Protestant but designed to resemble an old Italian monastery. And boy does it! I felt like I had been transported back in time (the building was constructed in the mid-1800's, but it feels much older). There was green everywhere, which contrasted very nicely with the yellow stone. Fredrick William I (father to Fredrick William the great) is buried here. Apparently he was quite a military-minded man. Fredrick the Great was not, which caused some really awful conflict between father and son. But that's a history lesson for another day! For now, some pictures. :)

They're all of the Church of Peace. So pretty, isn't it? The sanctuary was under construction so I didn't get many photographs there.

The next stop on the list was an art gallery. The walk over to the gallery was gorgeous. We didn't get very close since there were other, more interesting sights to be seen, but it was pretty nonetheless. Outside was a statue garden. Along the edges of the garden were statues playing instruments (including the flute) which was cool.

Just next to the gallery was the first castle of Frederick the Great. Honestly not super impressive (he upgraded later), but the garden in front was magnificent. Unfortunately Fredrick had to build his house on top of a hill, and I wasn't sure we were all going to make it. I was parched. But our enthusiastic tour guide was insistent, so up the slope we went.

I wish I could remember all the history behind the place, but I was pretty focused on not fainting in all the heat to be honest! The only story I remember was about the windmill behind the castle. It belonged to a farmer, and Fredrick the Great wanted to buy it and tear it down (windmills are loud in the morning). However, the farmer refused, and since he legally owned the land, Fredrick the Great complied with the law and let him keep the windmill.

(Above - The old art gallery from afar)

I think the tour guide was getting a little fed up with us at this point. Not only were we dragging our feet, but several members would get 1-2 minutes behind us and we had to stop and wait for them. I think they were taking pictures. Our IES student assistant was also asking him if he could cut the tour short (we were supposed to be back by 5 pm and it was nearing 3). He didn't take kindly to that suggestion! IES warned us that he really liked to talk, so we probably should have been expecting it. Luckily, he wasn't in that bad of a mood. Mildly irritated, but still excited enough about Potsdam to carry on.

Okay, more pictures! Haha, sorry to dump so many. The format of this website is such that it's difficult to put text in between pictures, so I just have to share a bunch and then explain them.

(First pictures is Fredrick's palace from afar, then the garden in front, Fredrick's grave alongside his greyhounds, Fredrick's grave marker decorated in potatoes [he introduced the famous food to Germany], and the front of his very yellow castle.)

After seeing Fredrick's first castle, we slowly made our way to a unique building. It's a traditional Chinese Teahouse built by our favorite potato king of Prussia. The building was gorgeous, but very clearly roped off. A bunch of American tourists kept jumping over the rope to get a picture in front of the building. This triggered an alarm system, which was basically a nice German voice telling everyone that the security guards would be alerted because the gold statues were very fragile, and then one cranky security guard inside the building banging on the windows to scare off the tourists. This happened multiple times during the 1-2 minutes we stopped here. Ugh!

Finally, we walked to Fredrick's second and more impressive palace. The road there was lined with huge trees. It was so gorgeous. Apparently one of my supervisors gets to bike down this path every morning (he lives in Potsdam and commutes). Plus there was shade, which was all that really mattered at this point in time.

This palace was really pretty, and I wish we would have had time to explore it. Fredrick actually had the servant's quarters built in the exact same style (in a separate building behind the castle) to give his guests something pretty to look at out of their windows. Whatever Fredrick. The servant's quarters are now used as part of Potsdam University, whose campus happens to back right up into Fredrick's castle. Guess I have to transfer now.

I'm totally kidding I love TCU I would never transfer #gofrogs

(Pictures! The first is the Chinese Teahouse, the last is the servant's quarters, and the other three in the middle are the castle.)

Finally there was a bus station behind the castle, aka salvation. Three people opted to stay behind and see some of the things we missed (I don't know how they had the energy for that). The rest of us were so relieved to finally have a cool indoor space. When we got to the train station, we bid goodbye to our tour guide and promptly bought large jugs of water. The ride back was pretty quiet. I think we were all too tired to engage in meaningful conversation. Even though it was just after 5 when we got back to Berlin, I immediately took a shower and put on my pajamas.

I'm glad I went to Potsdam. It was beautiful, and as our tour guide put it, everything Berlin is not. There's no crazy nightlife here, no young personality. However, there is beauty, something Berlin is rather lacking. And I much prefer the quiet town with its little brick row houses and outdoor cafes to the bustling city. Maybe if I end up in Berlin, I'll live in Potsdam. Maybe. ;)