For our first full day in Berlin, we headed out to Potsdam to visit the famous palace of Sans Souci, which means “without worry” in French. Frederick the Great spent his summers there in the 18th century. The entire park houses several different palaces. Sans Souci was Frederick the Great’s favorite palace. It is actually not that big for a palace, with only about a dozen rooms. We took the train from Berlin out to the park. We arrived near the new palace, but had timed tickets for Sans Souci, which is on the other side of the park, so we had a pretty long walk to get there. Fortunately it wasn’t rainy.
Meg by the map of the grounds 
Back of the new palace 
Greenhouses in the park 
The Chinese tower 
Dibbles by the Chinese tower 
Mistletoe in a tree 
Strolling through the gardens 
Terraces of Sans Souci 
Swan in the river 
Ducks near Sans Souci 
Pretty duck 
Meg and Spencer with Swan in background at Sans Souci park 
Meg on the steps of Sans Souci 
Ceiling of entryway to Sans Souci 
Clare in Sans Souci 
Chandelier and rokoko relief 
Rokoko table, with leaf designs inspired by nature 
Fireplace 
Portraits of Frederick the great 
This room was later resigned with neoclassical columns 
Ornate rokoko ceiling with spider’s nest 
Chandelier and ceiling 
Piano – Frederick the great was an accomplished musician 
Marble bust 
Marble floor 
Ornate dome 
Crystal chandelier 
More rokoko detail 
Guest bedroom 
Subtle door 
Paintings of Italian scenes 
Snowball vases from Meissen 
Fancy clock 
Flower chandelier 
Flowery details on walls and ceiling 
Andy Warhol’s Frederick the Great
After the tour of Sans Souci we had a little snack of leftover rolls from breakfast and some fruit, and then found a bus that took us back to the new palace for the tour there. We stopped at the museum shop there to get a cookbook that Meg liked, and then we got a tour of the new palace, which is much bigger than Sans Souci. Frederick the Great had it built to display the wealth and power of the kingdom of Prussia. Emperor Wilhelm the second spent much of the last several years of his reign during World War I here. One of the many interesting facts we learned was that Frederick the Great allowed common people to tour the palace even while he was in power, so long as they were dressed appropriately (which for women apparently meant wearing a dress 6 feet wide).
Gigantic porcelain vases 
Previously the kitchen for the new palace, now part of Potsdam university 
Gate connecting two buildings 
The new palace was built to display the wealth of the kingdom of Prussia 
View from the steps of the new palace 
Statue near the entrance of the new palace 
Statue in the grotto room 
Marble floor in the grotto room 
Real seashells in the walls 
Over 20,000 seashells in the walls 
More seashells 
The red salon 
Ornate rokoko 
Parquet floor 
Sans-Souci-051 
Snowball vases 
Photograph of the room from 1913 
A signature pineapple in the chandelier marks it as being made in Berlin 
The fest hall marble floor 
Marble stucco wall 
Ceiling of the fest hall 
The fest hall is 6000 square feet
After the tours we had a tasty lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Potsdam, then made a brief stop at the Nauener gate before heading back to our aparment in Berlin near the Brandenburg gate.
We had to change trains from the S-Bahn to the U-Bahn at Zoologischer Garten, and I managed to drag everyone to the Kaiser Wilhelm remembrance church, which, while only a few blocks away, seemed long for tired legs. I think it was worth it though, to see the contrast of one mostly-destroyed church from WWII, and the new church right next to it, which is bathed in blue light from the stained glass windows.
Meg lighting a candle in the blue church 
Crucifix in the new church 
Blue church with large crucifix 
Fedibbletys at the remembrance church 
By the Gedächtniskirche