This morning we left the Hotel and when to Potsdam. In Potsdam we took a tour of the Sanssouci Castle and learned about Fredrick the great. Here is a little overview of the Castle (I stole this off the web) -
Sanssouci Palace and Park
Frederick the Great wanted to cultivate plums, figs and wine on Potsdam’s doorstep. In 1744, he had a terraced garden designed in Sanssouci Park for this reason. But, due to the exceptionally beautiful view, the idea crossed the king’s mind of a large summer residence above the terraces just a year later. In addition, the New Palace and the picture gallery were constructed in subsequent years, while the slopes of the castle were used as flower and vegetable gardens. Today, you will also find Frederick II’s tomb on the castle hill. On the pile of ruins to the north of the castle, artificial sections of ruins were grouped into a staffage of the art of the ancient world, which concealed a water basin at the same time. Fountains in the park were to be supplied with water from this. The king was attached above all to the lavish waterworks, which he could only enjoy once in the end, as the system only worked properly after the construction of the steam engine building in the 19th century. The baroque garden, which had gone out of fashion in the meantime, was redesigned in the style of a landscape park under Frederick the Great’s successors and was expanded by Frederick William IV by structures such as Charlottenhof Castle, the orangery and the Roman Baths. They were to bring part of Italy to his native country for him. It is a matter of fact that the castles in Sanssouci Park are a breathtaking backdrop for events such as the Potsdam court concerts or the musical festivals.
These are pictures of the outside. The detail was amazing!! In the bottom left picture is a picture of his grave. This is the 3rd location of his gave. They thought that he was too important to be buried here back when he died in the 1700's. They moved his body here in the 1900's.
This was the first room in the castle. Every inch had so much detail and it was amazing how it was decorated. The pink bench was just for decoration. You can see how narrow it is. No one ever sat on it.
More rooms. The detail is AMAZING! Most of this house has all the original decor. The picture on the top right corner is of him and his parents.
Here are just a few pictures of the outside. This windmill was really cool. You could go up to the top. I love the cobblestone ground. Everyone you go the ground is a amazing. The bottom right picture is where we ate. They had the best potato soup. The best food I have had here yet. The guy in the middle bottom was playing the flute for money.
Driving to the castle all the houses were amazing. I wish that I had pictures of them. I love the style here. I wish it was like this back in CA.
After the castle we left for Berlin. We got to the hotel and then went on a bus tour of Berlin. I tired to take pictures but they did not turn out since we were in a bus and it was dark. The tour was awesome. We went around to see the Berlin wall, churches, hotels, museums and so on. The buildings here are amazing. The detail is amazing! We split away from our group and went out to a nice dinner with our friends that we came here with. The food was really good. We had pork ribs that were slow cooked for 12 hours. After we ate dinner we met back up with about 12 people from our group and rode the subway and got lost. We finally got home at 1:30 am. I know it's not that late but it is late for me. LOL. It was a really fun night! We are going to be exploring Berlin in the morning. Look forward to a ton of pictures in the next post:).
