FINALLY IN POTSDAM
We finally made it to Potsdam. It rains so much here that every Saturday we planned to go it was pouring rain. Since my roommate was leaving Monday we just bit the bullet and went to Potsdam rain or shine. And it was raining… all day.
It takes about an hour to get there by train. I got to take the S-Bahn for the first time, it was really lovely. The S-Bahn is Berlin’s above ground rail system. Once in Potsdam we walked to the Old Market, the girls and I thought there would be a flee market or something but when we got there it was empty. We later found out, Old Market just means “the old town square”. We walked the area a bit and came to this huge courtyard. I could imagine the town meetings or the carriages of important people arriving, or even soldiers preparing for war. There’s a lot of history in Potsdam.
After our walk we went to the Potsdam museum, it’s very small but it’s full of interesting things. The museum takes you through the history of the town from 995 to today. It was really cool seeing the old furniture of the King and an expansive wood model of the courtyard we were in just moments prior. This was also my first museum in Germany that dealt with the war and its atrocities. At the time, Potsdam was uniquely positioned. It was close enough to Berlin that Hitler had visited and performed many propaganda speeches, but also far enough away that the people of Potsdam remains rather ignorant of the goings on in the city. One thing that stood out to me was that in 1939 soldiers from Potsdam returned from a conflict in France, and with that the people of Potsdam thought the war was over without many casualties. but by summer 1941 when Germany declared war on Russia, soon they realized the war was only beginning.
There was also a special exhibit of paintings by Peter Rohan. He experimented with all kinds of mediums from sketches to aquarels to oils to acrylic. It was a wide and varied collection. I quite liked his sketches, my favourite was the one of The Beatles. Not many people know, but The Beatles cut their teeth here in Germany, in a club in Hamburg to be exact. I hope I have the chance to see it before I head to Rome.
After a great Italian lunch we made the trek to Sanssouci Park. Sanssouci is a palace surrounded by a huge park, and to get to the palace you have to walk the whole park. From the outside it feels grand and palatial, but when you go inside it’s actually quite small, only 11 rooms. The music room and the hall were my favourite. The hall had a gorgeous domed ceiling modelled after the pantheon and the music room had one of the first pianofortes ever made. So cool!
With all the rain and walking we decided to cut our day short in Potsdam, head home, warm up, and got out for a fun last dinner with my roommate before she goes home. We went to what I would call the quintessential German/Bavarian bar. It was one giant room with tables and benches and a band made up of grandpas in lederhosen, and everyone is dancing with large Steiner glasses of beer. It was so fun!
My time in Berlin is coming to an end only two weeks left.
