We spent a day at the Prussian Palaces and Gardens of Potsdam, not far outside Berlin. Our main visit was to Sanssouci, considered to be the German answer to Versailles.
This was Frederic the Great's favourite palace and means 'carefree'. In addition to visiting the royal chambers, we visited the ladies' wing and the palace kitchen as well as the luxurious picture gallery adjacent to the palace. The building itself is stunning and the paintings are by Rubens, Van Dyck etc.
Later we walked through the gardens to the Orangerie which is a separate palace and we even climbed the lookout tower for views over the gardens.
There was no way that we could visit everything that Potsdam has to offer in one day so we decided our final visit was to Cecilienhof, the residence of Crown Prince William and his wife Cecilie. This is built as a Tudor country house. This became famous as the site of the Potsdam Conference at the end of world War 11.
This was an arduous day of travelling with trains, trams and buses but a thoroughly enjoyable one.
At the end of world War 11, there were three conferences. We have visited two on this trip - Yalta and Potsdam. The first conference was in Teheran - not on our list at the moment.
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| Gail at Sanssousi Palace |
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| The picture gallery |
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| The marble hall at the Orangerie |
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| Detail of the same room |
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| The table where the Potsdam agreement was signed. Only one signature remained the same as the Yalta conference |
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| The red star greets you at the Cecilienhof |
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| View from the tower at the Orangerie |
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