Potsdam Interlude
Maidens: deflowered. Peace accords: signed. Wars: ended. Palaces: built. Pleasure gardens: well used.
According the Wikipedia, Potsdam used to be called Poztupimi. That is hilarious because it makes me think of plasticky fish rolls with bright pink "reconstituted synthetic crab substance" filling, but as we all know Germans are devoid of humor and thus went with the more sober 'Potsdam' as befitting a city of Royal Residence.
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Potsdam was supposed to be soooo easy to get to. Unfortunately we hadn't reckoned on our train taking a 25 minute break at Warschauer Str. station for no apparent reason, so I executively decided to bike to Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof where we'd be able to catch either the S1 or S7. I don't like waiting. Especially not for trains. Especially when I forgot my book at home.
We probably didn't gain any time by biking all the way across the city, but time on a bike in the sunshine is time well spent if you ask me.
At least getting there is cheap: just an ABC ticket on the s-bahn and an extra 1.50 for each bike. You can't ask for a cheaper day trip, really, especially considering entrance to the park at Potsdam is free. We finally arrived at Potsdam Hauptbahnhof around lunchtime, bought some victuals at Netto, and went on our way.
Discoveries: there is an old Dutch quarter in Potsdam. I felt I had been transported to Haarlem in the Netherlands, but with more parking and commercial signage. There are plenty of cafes in this area to have some kaffee und kuchen (and I recommend that you do!)
Like Haarlem, but in Germany.
Well this is an ideal time to tell you that we didn't actually go into the palaces, some of these photos are from the time I went to Potsdam with my mom back in 2010. I really do think that the grounds are beautiful enough to visit without feeling compelled to tour the palaces, but if you want to be impressed and only want to pay for one ticket, then I recommend the New Palace (Neues Palais).
