Remember 2011? Well, back in December I made a solo visit to Potsdam (15 miles outside of Berlin) while DH was busy earning his keep.
Until 1918, Potsdam was the home to Prussian royalty. Now it’s just home to regular old boring Joes.
My main goal was to visit the Schloss Sancoussi, but I missed the bus stop and ended up the Orangerieschloss instead. The grounds were practically empty.
Apparently the Orangery served as a guest house for foreign royalty and their ilk. Now it seems like the inside is mostly overgrown with plants. Let’s hope that there are no dead dignitaries in there.
After some solitary exploration of the Orangery grounds, I walked east toward Sancoussi. This windmill is one hundred percent functional and zero percent historic (it’s a replica):
Frederick the Great is responsible for Schloss Sancoussi. It’s a modest building by palace standards, but lovely regardless.
You won’t like Schloss Sancoussi if you don’t like the color yellow.
If you’re on the fence, I recommend visiting in the middle of a mostly-grey December, and then basking in the resulting pick-me-up. Why not give yellow a fighting chance?
The Sancoussi Palace is famous for its beautiful gardens. The grounds are pretty in the winter, although my guess is that their time to shine is in the warmer months.
From the palace I took a bus back into the town center, where the Christmas markets were in full swing. Christmas markets are old news now, so let’s just move on.
Berlin’s Brandenburger Tor is a fame monger, but Potsdam’s Brandenburger Tor is the older of the two Tors. I’ll let you decide which one is cooler, because I resent having to make all of your decisions for you.
I spent four hours in Potsdam but only saw a few of its major sites.
On my next visit, I intend to visit the historic bridge where spies were exchanged during the Cold War. Of course, I’ll bring a suitcase full of top secret documents, sidle up to a tourist on the bridge and say,”The weather in Volgograd is good this time of year, I’m told.“
