Berlin to Potsdam

I started out pretty late at 10:30 in the morning today. Of course I had gotten home late the night before because I was lost trying to find my way to the hotel..again.

I had decided I wanted to see Potsdam, and that it wasn't that far so I could ride my bike. Wow..what a day.

I didn't even have a map but I knew the general direction (Southwest of Berlin), so I just followed my map down to that part of the city and then took down street names and attempted to go in the right direction. Lucky for me it worked out.

First I headed for the Victory Column since it seemed like a good starting point.

I made my way to Altonaer Straße, heading by Hotel Albion near the Spree.



From the Victory Tower I took Hofjägerallee then a right on Stülerstraße and ended up on Budapester Straße which seemed like a neat area.

There was Aquarium Berlin and right across the street was the Kaiser-Wilhelm- Gedächtniskirche (The Protestant Kaiser William Memorial Church).



I decided it was time to make my journey to Potsdam now, so I found Kurfürstendamm and took it all the way to Rathenau Platz. After following the rotary to Koenigsallee, I was ready to make random guesses. I took at least 6 side roads through neighborhoods which seemed nice until I ended up at Unter den Eichen. I stopped to get food and I asked the person how to get to Potsdam. He told me to just go straight down the road I was on. I felt pretty good having my lunch and then knowing which way to go. It was quite a few miles, but it eased my mind knowing I was at least headed in the right direction.

I passed by Wannsee and stopped for a moment. I didn't get any good pictures there, so I won't bother posting. I headed on..

It was a long bike ride and when I first entered Potsdam, I was disappointed. The houses going in were pretty but there was so much construction work going on. The feeling began to melt as I biked further and away from the construction.

Platz der Einheit Square



Katholische Propsteikirche St. Peter und Paul (St. Peter and Paul Church) and a nice building across the street.



Just on a whim I started biking down a street and ended up near Sanssouci, one of the most beautiful places..

Here is a small tour. This is one of two colonnades enclosing the "cour d'honneur" on the northern side of Sanssouci Palace I believe. I took this information from wikipedia. :)



I took these a little further down the road. The windmill is more for looks I think..the rock wall was pretty cool.



After biking around for a bit, I decided to go back to the park I had seen riding up. There was a pedestrian only sign so I locked my bike up and checked out the grounds on foot.

I believe this is all a part of Friderizianischer Garten.



And then the beautiful Sanssouci Palace came into view.



There were many paths..I decided to go left here because I saw something pretty.



Chinesisches Haus (Chinese House)



I wandered around for a bit and then found my way to the largest building in the park I think. I was in awe..

Here is one of the many statues..must've been at least 100 if you include the statues on the building.



And the paths around were nice too.



And finally...

Neue Palais (The New Palace)






I was standing way back when I took these with a 35mm lens. It took 3 shots!



The Communs at the New Palace



I had been in the park for awhile so I decided to head out. Since I was riding my bike back to Berlin, I knew I should leave soon.

I headed back into the city of Potsdam and took a few pictures and snacked before leaving.

Brandenburger Tor and Brandenburger Straße.