Potsdam Day Trip

It is fast approaching Herbst (Autumn) in Germany and the good weather is on the way out. Before the long days of the summer sun become a memory we wanted to make good use of this weekends great sunny forecast.

We had heard that Potsdam was a great day trip to take from Berlin. Easy to get to by train and great to explore by bike. We have just bought a couple of bikes so the scene was perfectly set. However, my bike fell to bits the night before which necessitated a midnight McGyver type repair...which did the trick.

Our buddy Joe is also on his last couple of weeks in Germany so we all decided to go together.

Conveniently Potsdam is accessible through the normal Berlin transport ABC zones (being in zone C), even though it is a separate city in its own right. Even better is that because it is within the ABC zone we could catch a regional train which are nicer and quicker trains that run limited stops in Berlin and get us out to Potsdam in just over half an hour. We took our bikes on board and had to buy special bike tickets.

Once at Potsdam we went to hire Joe a bike (11 euros for the day) and then we set off.

We had a basic map and wanted to get around Potsdam in a logical way however some roadworks forced us into the city centre and we landed at the Alter Markt and the Nikolai Church.

After regaining our bearings we set off in the way we originally intended to get to Park Sanssouci - a large park in which the famous Sanssoucci Palace is located.

There is quite a lot to look at around this park and we didn't attempt to see it all. Instead we, by accident, went to the Neues Palais (New Palace) first, which was a very impressive cluster of buildings.

We then headed towards the Sanssouci Palace, riding through the beautiful park and coming across the Orangerie Palais...

and the Historic Windmill.

I thought that all that was going to be in this park was Sanssouci Palace, not all this other impressive stuff. I wonder if anyone else knows about all this other stuff. Pays to do a bit of research before just (literally) rolling up.

Then we came to Sanssoucci palace, built by Friedrick the Great (King of Prussia) in the mid-18th Century as an escape from the hoo-haa of being King. Just like Elvis's Graceland, I was struck by how modest (small) such a place was for the King (get it? because they both were 'the King' and their houses were small...der).

The size of Sanssoucci doesn't detract from how impressive it is. Looking beautifully symmetrical, its Rococo style looks absolutely beautiful set amongst the huge terraced gardens below it.

This was a great place to have a picnic. After our riding around we were hot and hungry so we put a picnic blanket under a tree at the lowest terrace and enjoyed the ambiance of a beautiful day and a beautiful setting.

Just as we were nearing the end of our little picnic a couple of old guys, Sansoucci workers, came up to tell us we weren't allowed to picnic there. They asked if we spoke German and after we replied 'yes, a little' the went on to explain at great length and with good spirit why were weren't allowed to be 'here' but could sit 'there'. We had pretty much finished anyway so we just packed up and walked the rest of the Sanssoucci grounds and tried not to offend anyone.

As beautiful as Sanssouci is, it does need a new coat of paint.

 From here we rode out of the park and through to the other side of Potsdam. We went up past the Russian Colony...

...right up to the 'Old Dairy' which was a brewery / restaurant on the Jungfernsee lake...

...and then the short ride to the Cecilienhof. The Cecilienhof is the place where after World War II the heads of the victorious powers (represented by Churchill /Attlee, Stalin and Truman) met to work out what to do with Germany and then divided it up into the British, French, Soviet and US occupied zones.

The Cecilienhof is a lovely place. Built in the early 20th century, it's outward appearance gives the impression of a small'ish place yet is houses 176 rooms.

We were most impressed by the many decorative chimneys.

We left this area to go back into the main part of the city, and this was a pleasant ride by the waters of the Heileger See. On the other side of the lake were many Germans practising their nude outdoor sunbaking and swimming. They were too far away for us to assess the talent - even with the zoom lens of Joe's camera.

Back in the city centre we rode through the Neuen Gate...

...through to the Dutch Quarter.

Being in the Dutch Quarter was very surreal. Somewhere around 150 red brick Dutch houses are here, built in the early to mid 18th Century for the invited Dutch craftsmen to settle in Potsdam. It is so beautiful and well kept that it feels more like a movie set than 300 year old stinky houses.

The place was buzzing with lots of outdoor activity. Restaurants and markets filled the streets with life. One whole street was devoted to pottery...

...another to fruit and vegetables...

...and another to arts and crafts.

From the Dutch Quarter it is only a short ride to Brandenburger Strasse - the main shopping street of Potsdam. Here it was very busy with tourists. 

The main historical site here is Potsdam's own Brandenburg Gate, confusingly named the same as Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

After leaving this area we were riding along the cycle path in the non-interesting part of Postdam and heading back towards the train station. As we cycled along the designated path we came upon some roadworks that appeared to block the cycle way. Nordine and I chose to ride along the road (which is a normal thing to do usually anyway) but Joe noticed that the cycle path was not blocked, just detoured, and was able to stay on the cycle way as he was the last of us.

Nordine was quite a bit in front of me and cleared off the road as soon as she was able. Leaving me alone on the road. I was happily plodding along when a VERY loud siren speaker thing shouted VERY angrily behind me in German 'THIS ROAD IS NOT FOR BICYCLE RIDERS!'

I looked behind me to see a police car up my arse, but luckily I was able to quickly pull off the road onto the cycle path. In my shock I just got off my bike and walked. I looked to see both Nordine and Joe follow a native Potsdamer cyclist through a 'red bicycle and red man' traffic light as they crossed a side street.

As I was on foot I patiently waited for the red light to go green before crossing. The police car had stopped and two police officers, and male and female, were confronting Nordine and Joe. I thought I was the one to be busted, but there they were having to hand over their IDs. I went up to them and found out I was in the clear.

The female officer only wanted to speak German, and when Joe said we only speak a little she angrily deferred to the male officer and instructed him to speak English to us. He was a reasonable guy and explained that they were pulled over for running the red light. He explained that a fine would be involved but he didn't know how much - maybe 25 Euros and a point off their licenses. Joe, only visiting Germany, had just his foreign license to give them, but Nordine had to hand over her German one. 

After much discussion it didn't look like the cop was able to show leniency on the issue. We thought this was all a bit ridiculous and I certainly didn't want to be paying any fines so we started to *gently* argue our case. The case in our favour was that there were confusing road works, that we were foreigners following a native Potsdamer, that Joe's license was foreign and that we were all unemployed (all true, no BS).

All of those things seemed to go in our favour with the friendly policeman, but it was the unemployment thing that appeared to get us off the hook. When that was mentioned he said 'Okay, well you didn't need to tell me that, but I trust you are telling me the truth and I will give you just a warning'.

He gave back the licenses and we were allowed to go back on our way without any more hassle. PHEW!

After that we had just one more thing that we wanted to see but we were so nervous riding our bikes. We were super cautious about where we could go and looked out keenly for any traffic lights.

Our last stop was the Glienicker Bridge, know for being a 'Bridge of Spies' during the cold war - where spies could be traded and the opposing forces could come face to face. Today it is just a nice bridge.

Once we had seen the bridge and read the historical placards we rode back to drop off Joe's rent a bike and then got the train back to Berlin.

Potsdam was an unexpected beauty of a city with lots to see. Cycling was definitely the best way to go about it (aside from the run in with the law which threatened to sour the day). Definitely one of the best day trips we have ever taken.