Germany: Potsdam

While we were in Berlin, Mike insisted that we visit Potsdam. From his house, it's a 45 minute train ride. Right near the train station in Potsdam, we rented bicycles and spent the day riding around a very charming city. The first stop was Sansouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great of Prussia, built in 1745. The grounds of Sansouci actually contain several palaces. In fact, Potsdam must have the highest number of palaces in any single small city. I'll post photos of all the palaces we saw in one day below, but before I do that, I want to mention the other claim to fame of Potsdam.

On 16 July 1945, the "big three" leaders met in Potsdam to hammer out post war issues. Germany had surrendered only eight weeks before. Below is a photo of the leaders who met there: British former prime minister Winston Churchill, American president Harry S. Truman and Soviet prime minister Joseph Stalin. After you see the big three, you can see the house where they met and the beautiful garden there. The hose is Cecilienhof, the home of a Germany prince.

Now the palaces. The first six photos are of the palaces on the grounds of Sansouci (which means "no worries" in French. You can really see the influence of Versailles at Sansouci. It was as if every king in Europe had to try to top Versailles.) The additional palaces are scattered around Potsdam.

The downtown of Potsdam was charming, with a few pedestrian streets. Mixed in were some other palace-like buildings, adding to the sense the Potsdam has an amazing number of extravagant buildings.