A Palace Fit For Mermaids. Potsdam 5/501

Potsdam is about 50 minutes away from Berlin, in the middle of the German countryside. Nick and I went for a little day trip there during our European Adventures earlier this year and it was gorgeous. The place itself is pretty small. I didn't realise it even qualified as a city until I just spotted it in my book whilst researching my next adventure. But it is well worth the short little train ride - which I seem to recall we spent much of it trying to remember how Coffee & Cigarettes started.

I think the people that lived there had some very grand ideas for their little city. For instance a water pump station was built to resemble a Moorish Mosque. My favourite quirk was a large Egyptian Obelisk that the town had commissioned. It was built before Hieroglyphics had been translated so the designer just wrote what he thought looked pretty. Now it just reads as utter nonsense and they had to put up a little sign next to it explaining why. (Obviously there a lot of people who can read hieroglyphs passing through Potsdam to justify said sign). Also, rather cheekily, they have their own Brandenburg Gate. Wonder how many people have been caught out by that....

My favourite thing about our trip was the discovery that people do actually go ice skating on nearby lakes in winter, it doesn't just happen in Little Women. Maybe it's something I have accepted from living on this little island of ours that going and playing on the ice was fictional or at least archaic as we have killed the world with global wamring, but that actually is quite common in Europe? I was blown away when we came across a huge frozen lake where kids were playing ice hockey and Moms were pushing pushchairs ON TOP OF THE ICE. This does not mean that I trusted it. I stood on the ice for a good 30 seconds-enough time to get a picture- and then promptly ran off again with my head spinning at the idea of what the newspapers would say if I had fallen through "idiotic ginger English girl stupidly fell in ice".

The largest draw to Potsdam is Sanssouci, Frederick the Great's pet project. It is a vast estate with multiple palaces, a Roman style spa, a Chinese tea house, an orangery and a functioning windmill. It is the oddest and possibly the most opulent palace/grand building I have ever been to. He decided that he knew better than his architect so took over the whole build. The main palace is entirely on one floor as he didn't like stairs. Basically making it the poshest bungalow in the world. He then had a separate palace built for his wife (which she never visisted, they didn't get on) and for any possible guests: Charlottenhoff Palace - another ode to me obviously.

There was plenty to see when touring the palaces. The most bizzare of which is the grotto, a huge reception area which is decked out from floor to ceiling in semi precious stones, crystals and shells. Huge sea monsters and mermaids adorn the walls and there are indoor fountains. A few generations down the line from Frederick (I forget who) they decided that the room wasn't decadent enough so they added stripped bands of more crystals and precious stones on all the pillars in the room too. It is spectacular. On top of all this the records of what stones are where have been lost, so now there is no way of telling what or where the most expensive stones are in the room. I quite like the idea that you could chip off a saphire from the wall whilst the tour guide wasn't looking.

Also to see was the chair that Frederick died in (morbid much) and also the apartments that Voltaire stayed in when he visited Sanssouci. The grounds are huge and rambling, there seems to be little logic behind the layout of the palaces and buildings throughout - more of Frederick's genius. It would be good to go back in summer as the pictures on the internet are glorious, but then I would have missed the awesome site of the ice-skating...

Sanssouci litterally translates "without a care" and it probably was the most stress free day out of the German leg of our trip. Also the most informative, as I knew very little of German history before I went - "what do you mean King of Prussia and Holy Roman Empire? Italy and Germany were joined?" Also the best place in the world if you want to know anything about Rococo design as the place was crawling in it. Literally  They decorated their ceilings with gold leaf spiders webs.


Also a hint to the traveller. These palaces were not built with heating in mind. It was -2 INSIDE. I think it was actually warmer outside. It sent us a bit crazy towards the end of our tour.