Ed and Annette's Excellent European Adventure: Day Trip to Potsdam

Potsdam - A must see!!!! This is the Germany we remember. A quick train ride from our favorite morning bakery in Berlin is the city of Potsdam. This is a hidden jewel that should be seen by travelers in the area. The former communist region has so much to offer it made our day trip full and very enjoyable.

We arrived and walked through the old town area - through the old russian colonies, to the palace called Schloss Sanssouci which was the summer house for Frederick the Gross (Great). The palace and grounds were as you would expect; opulent, excessive and beautiful.

Leaving the palace grounds and walking through the historical town we found a great "Back Werk" for a nice lunch before heading off for more sights. Catching the very convenient city bus we rode up to the exclusive area of Potsdam to the Schloss Cecilienhof, the home of crown prince Wilhelm. This is where in 1945 Stalin, Churchill, and Truman held the Potsdam conference; creating the establishment of post-war order, peace treaties issues for the now surrendered Germany. The building and grounds were beautifully manicured. Oh to have the flower gardens.....

Back on the bus for just a couple minutes we found an old building with quite the soviet history. In this plush and upscale residential neighborhood stood an old church rectory that the communist seized during the war and built it into a prison. Sealing off windows and adding heavy security bars and doors they made this into a very ominous structure; Oh if the walls could talk! Political prisoners and those that opposed the communist party were held here with no trial or rights. This was operated by the KGB and I'm sure there were unspeakable brutalities that happened within the walls. It remained open until 1994, when the last prisoners were moved and the building was given back to Germany.

Back on the bus we headed back to the center of town to catch the tram to the railway station. Europe sure does have this whole transportation system down; everything is interconnected and very easy to use. Back on the train we headed to Berlin's shopping district.

Ka De We, the largest department store in Europe was our next stop. How can this be described? It is basically like Harrods in London. The six story building was chock-a-block full, especially the top two floors dedicated to food. There were so many chocolates that it was so overwhelming I couldn't decide and walked away with nothing!

We enjoyed a non-traditional German dinner downtown. However, we were encouraged to settle the bill because the restaurant closed at 6 PM - we were the last ones out; how odd. We headed back to the hotel to rest our tired feet and plan our departure to Dresden the next morning. Back in the room we caught up on the happenings at home through text and Skype. It is amazing to have such instant communication, even half a world away.