Berlin - Report 2

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

We took the S-Bahn to Potsdam today, and then a bus to the palace grounds. We first went to the Sans Souci Palace, which was created by Frederick the Great, starting in 1744. It was supposed to be a summer retreat, and was therefore only one story -- a lovely late Baroque palace.

We had to go back outside the gate at lunchtime to get a bratwurst from a vendor.

We then walked down the terraces to a fountain in the park below the palace, and then walked about a kilometer through the park to the Neue Palace, which was built in the 1760s. It was a very large and not particularly attractive building. We then returned to our hotel in Berlin via two buses and the S-Bahn.

We went out looking for a German restaurant for dinner, but couldn't find one that wasn't a smoky bar. We finally found a café on a side street that had Turkish and Italian food. We both had Italian -- Mary Ellen scampi and me lasagna -- and the food was outstanding.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

We didn't have a whole lot that we had to see today. In the morning, we went to the Gemäldegalerie, which is a very new building that now houses the entire collection of old masters from both West and East Berlin -- it was almost too much. We had lunch -- quiche Lorraine -- at the cafeteria in the museum. After lunch, we walked to the Potsdammer Platz and took the S-Bahn to the Charlottenburg Palace -- on the west side of Berlin. It was built around 1700. We toured the ground floor, which had the King’s and Queen’s apartments and formal rooms, but didn't bother with the first floor. We took two buses to get back to the hotel and are now packing to leave very early in the morning for our flight home.