Wednesday 18th October 2017

After getting breakfast from Yezda’s we took the subway to the Zoological Gardens and then the S Train towards Wansee. On the way we stopped at Sundgauer Strasse station and Michael was waiting in the platform for us. We continued on the train to Wansee station where we disembarked and walked towards the lake which was shrouded in fog so that we couldn’t see any part of it except the very edge where we were standing. 

One of the fine villas at Wansee

Misty Wansee

The whole area is filled with very lovely villas and is populated by the rich and famous and as Michael described them ‘the Hollywood set’ of Berlin. Wansee is a bay on the river Havel and not really a lake. 

Wikipedia 

"Wannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee (Greate Wannsee) and the Kleiner Wannsee (Little Wannsee), are located on the River Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee Bridge. The larger of the two lakes covers an area of 2.7 km² (1.0 sq mi) and has a maximum depth of 9 m (30 ft)"

Its name is forever infamous for the conference held there at one of the villas where the arrangements for the logistics of the ‘final solution’ of the ‘Jewish problem’ were discussed. This awful event is a stain on the beauty of the area. 

Wikipedia

" On 20 January 1942, senior Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Villa (built 1914-1915) to ensure the cooperation of the major government organizations in the Final Solution to the "Jewish Question", the extermination of the Jews of Europe. The event, presided over by Reinhard Heydrich and conducted by Adolf Eichmann, has since become known as the Wannsee Conference. Today, the building serves as a memorial and education centre.

In 1944, after the failure of the assassination attempt on Hitler in which he had been involved, senior SS and Gestapo official Arthur Nebe went into hiding on an island in the Wannsee but was later arrested after a rejected mistress betrayed him.

After walking a short distance to the shores of Wansee we returned to the road and caught a bus towards Potsdam. We got off the bus at Glienicke Palace a small chateau which was used by Prince Carl of the Hohenzollerns and his family. The house and grounds are exquisite with much statuary and beautiful landscaping by Linnea. The palace was designed by Schinke an architect of choice for the Royal family at the time and was one of several in the area all of which were cleverly landscaped for the premium views of Potsdam or the lake or tree dotted rolling land.

The house and gardens of Gleinicke Palace

Close to the house is the Glienicke Bridge which at one-time, during the 'Cold War' divided East and West Germany and was also used as the exchange point for prisoners from both sides and became known as ‘The Bridge of Spies' and was immortalized in a Steven Spielberg movie of the same name. Although the bridge no longer divides the two sides of Germany, the fact that there is a different paint color on one side of the bridge than on the other is a silent record of the role it played in the past. 

The Glienicke Bridge, you may be able to make out where Michael is walking in the center of the bridge the change in color which marked the border between East and West until 1989

At this time, we realized we were late to catch the tram the other side which would take us into Potsdam. So, we walked fast and ran the last few yards and a sympathetic tram driver allowed us to board even though he was past his scheduled departure time.

The tram took us into Potsdam past more lovely houses owned by the wealthy of the city. After we got off, we had to wait for the 695 bus which would take us to Sans.Souci. No one knows why Frederick the Great spelled the name which means ‘without care’ with a comma between the two words), The very extensive grounds of this palace are also beautifully landscaped and the trees in October have great colors. 

The grave of Friedrich the Great, complete with potatoes

...and the graves of his dogs.

I have too many photos of Sans, Souci to include but here are some external views

We walked a long way to the foot of the terraces which lead up to the house which was built by Frederick the Great also colloquially referred to as ‘Old Fritz’ in 18.. after he had fought and won the ‘7 Years War’. At the top is the grave of the owner. He died at the palace and asked to be buried there together with his dogs but after his death he was taken and buried at the Garrison Church in Potsdam but quite recently was exhumed and re-buried, as he had asked, at Sans, Souci. His present resting place is decorated with potatoes in memory of his introduction of the vegetable into Germany. The terraces leading up to the house are filled with grape vines and Frederick referred to Sans, Souci as his ‘vineyard’.

We bought tickets for a tour in about 90 minutes and took the chance to have a nice alfresco lunch at a restaurant close to the house. The lunch was very nice and I had something called ‘flame tart’ which was a delicious thin crusted flatbread. After lunch we embarked on the self-guided audio tour of the rooms of the house which are very richly decorated. Frederick was multi-talented, a soldier, musician, writer, philosopher and friend of Voltaire who often stayed at Sans, Souci. He was also an autocrat. He lived apart from his wife who he married reluctantly at the insistence of his father.

Meissen China

Some impressions of the interior of Sans, Souci

 A painting of Friedrich the Great by Andy Warhol (who was, of course, not alive when Friedrich was alive!!

After visiting the house, we walked through the extensive grounds which were lovely in the autumn late afternoon. There is a fantasy Chinese Tea House decorated with golden Chinese figures and a Roman bath house. Both house and grounds are full of either original or copied Roman artifacts such that it is not hard to imagine one is in Italy when wandering the grounds. There are also many fountains and small gazebos for sitting and contemplating.

Just one of the many enormous trees in the park.

Some views of the grounds of the Sans, Souci Palace including the Chinese Tea Room . None of these photos do justice to the sheer beauty of the place and the day we were there was a spectacular autumn day.

After we left the grounds, we walked into Potsdam and visited the ‘Dutch Quarter’ which was built because the area’s water-table is high and Frederick though they needed Dutch engineers to fix the problem and built Dutch-style houses for the guest-workers but they never came but the Dutch houses still stand proud in this part of Potsdam.

The Potsdam 'Dutch' houses

This is the Barberini Museum

Some of the wonderful old buildings in Postadam

We walked through the main square where the city hall and a very large church stand and on over the river to Central Station where, after a magnificent day, we bade farewell to Michael and took the train to Berlin, tired but very happy with the day. We stopped at Spittelek a small restaurant close to our ’home’ for dinner.

When we got home we tried to check in again for the Air Berlin flight to Rome the next day. After several failed attempts, we called the airline and found out that they had cancelled the flight and not told us. This caused much consternation but eventually, MAC called American Airlines with whom we had originally booked the whole trip and they came through with a Lufthansa flight to Rome via Munich which would only get us into Rome a few hours late. Much relieved, we finished packing and went to bed.