BIKING THROUGH POTSDAM - AUGUST 27, 2005

In the past it always seemed like everyone had already visited Potsdam, or maybe just everyone in Germany, or realistically just everyone we knew, but anyway it was very high on my list of must-see-soon. So when we made plans to visit Jenny and Ulf in August and Jenny asked what we wanted to do, it was a no-brainer. Luckily, Jenny and Ulf themselves had only had a cursory look at Potsdam from a car and were more that willing to delve deeper.

The Potsdam experience can be optimized with a little planning. It’s especially helpful if you have an internet savvy daughter who is willing to spend an hour or two searching for the best of all biking tours while you and your husband take a wonderful morning walk around Berlin Mitte. Tour localized, details noted, we hopped on the next S-Bahn in the direction of Griebnitz. Jenny and Ulf took their own bikes with them.

                                                          

                                                          

Ulf on the escalator in the train station.

                                                          

                                                          

After nearly an hour’s ride we arrived at the beginning of our tour a little late, but after Frank and I were fitted with bikes we quickly caught up. Griebniz (which I had never heard of) is aptly located on Griebnitzer Lake (which I likewise had never heard of) and the first part of our tour led us along the gorgeous lakeside.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining without any silliness (see my report of the bike tour of Berlin that didn’t happen).

Frank follows the guide’s discourse (not so) intently while Jenny and Ulf are exemplary students.                                 
                                           
One of the first stops we made was at the Glienicker Bridge, the famous cold war trading post for spies and other undesirables. (Francis Gary Powers, shot down in a spy plane over the Soviet Union in 1960, was the most famous.) I have to admit the atmosphere was all wrong. It should have been at dawn, or maybe dusk, on a cold and very foggy November day. It’s good we all have vivid imaginations so we could keep our lovely summer weather and still appreciate the setting.  This was taken under the bridge. I guess the sign was for boaters.

Soon after that we entered the town of Potsdam, filled with wonderful old houses  that have been, or are being restored. Einstein did some of his research proving the relativity theory while working here, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see the Einstein Tower, which is quite famous. Next time.

There are murals on the walls of the porches. Very Italian.

                                                          

                                                          

                                                          
In 1685 the French, ruled by Louis XIV, evicted the Protestant Huguenots, many of whom found refuge in Prussia. They were welcomed by the Duke Frederick William and his underpopulated country and ushered in an era of prosperity and culture. Half a century later  Frederick William I decided to do something similar, inviting the Dutch to come to Prussia to live and work. He had a whole quarter of Dutch style red brick houses built for them, 134 to be exact. The only problem was the Dutch were not interested in leaving Holland, especially not for the backwaters of Prussia. So the idea flopped, but on the other hand the Dutch quarter is a big tourist magnet today, so maybe we can say he was just ahead of his time.  Having just spent two weeks in Holland, we felt right at home here.

Highlight of any visit to Potsdam is of course Sanssouci (Without a Care"), the summer castle built by Frederick the Great in the middle of the 18th century as a (smaller) replica of Versailles, a tribute to his love of all  things French. As a great admirer and friend of Voltaire, he had a room in the palace built for him, although it’s not certain that Voltaire actually stayed there during his visits. We didn’t get to go through the palace because entrance is strictly limited to conserve the contents and you have to book a tour months in advance.

We did have time to walk around the terraced gardens with their grape vines though. I’m not sure if wine was ever actually produced here. If so, I imagine it’s pretty sour, Potsdam being pretty far north for wine. Frederick spent a lot of money on an elaborate system of pipes and fountains that never worked. Maybe he shouldn’t have built his palace on a hill.  I guess the fountain at the bottom of the hill is no problem.

                                                         

May he rest in peace.
I'm not sure of the significance of the potatoes, but the gummi bears are a nice touch, don't you agree?

                                                         

Not far from Sanssouci is the Russian Colony Alexandrowka, a village built by Frederick Wilhelm III, in memory of his deceased friend Czar Alexander I.  In the beginning Frederick Wilhelm had his Russian choir singers housed here – maybe so they wouldn’t feel so homesick? Two of the houses are still owned by descendents of the original Russians. Today it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site (as is of course Sanssouci).

Is this really what the houses in Russia looked like?

                                                                                  

At a darker time in German history the Russians played a more sinister role. The feared KGB ruled the Russian sector of Germany with an iron hand.  The building they used as a prison for suspected spies and Russian soldiers who tried to desert or were too friendly with the Germans is now a museum.

The torture chamber was in the basement. No kidding!

                                                                                                
A bike tour is not without danger. At one point our guide had us stop to have a look at the Cecilienhof Palace. We were biking downhill on a gravely path and the man in front of Frank stopped rather suddenly so that Frank had to brake sharply. He skidded to a stop but lost control of his bike and fell over sideways, landing on his hands. He insisted he was okay, but that evening Ulf convinced him that he should go to the hospital that is conveniently located right across the street from where they live. There they spent quite a while digging gravel out of his hands and x-raying his foot, which had swollen to a small balloon. There was nothing broken and he was fine two days later when the swelling went down. I of course had (horror) visions of the time when he broke both arms in a bike accident – just days before we moved to where we are now living. Fun! Luckily our guide knew how to give first aid.

The Cecilianhof (also a UNESCO World Heritage Site), built at the beginning of the last century, was the site of the Potsdam Conference at the end of World War II, where the future of Europe was decided. It’s a hotel now with a part of it set aside as a museum.

I wonder if they have signs “Stalin slept Here”.
                                                         

The last sight on our tour before we headed back was the house Truman used as his headquarters during the conference. It was here that the  decision was made to use the atom bomb in Japan after Truman cleared it with Stalin.

We really enjoyed our tour of Potsdam and even though the tour lasted four hours, we didn’t see everything. We will definitely return some day soon and see the rest.