We had another beautiful sunrise this morning, it starts to get light at about 6:00 AM, and it gets quite bright in the room with the large windows, even with the shear curtains closed. I went ahead and got up at about 6:00 AM, it was just too light outside and inside for me to sleep.
I worked on the blog postings while Stephanie slept in a little while longer. Today we are going to Potsdam to see Sanssouci Park, which includes the Sanssouci Palace, built around 1744 and the New Palace, built later by Frederick the Great. Potsdam is about an hour southwest of Berlin, accessible by the S7 train from the Hackescher Markt Station near our hotel.
Our Hotel – The Adina Apartment Hotel Hackescher Markt
We got a little later start than planned, we just could not get going this morning knowing it was cold outside, about 32 degrees. At least the sun was out for now, but yesterday started the same way, clear and sunny, and ended up snowing.
We stopped for breakfast at the same small bakery as yesterday, Kamps Backstube, right around the corner from the hotel entrance. I had another apple pastry, it had been so good yesterday, and Stephanie had a large croissant that had some ham and cheese cooked inside it while it baked. We got them to go since we were already a little late, and ate them by the train station entrance, out in the sunshine.
The S7 Train To Potsdam
We headed up the stairs to the platform, and within a couple of minutes, the S7 train arrived, and we boarded. Of course, it was “go to work time” for most of the other passengers, and the train was packed with people. Stephanie got a seat after about two stops, and I finally got a seat after a few more stops, as people got off at the more popular stations.
It was a nice ride once the train emptied as we headed farther away from Berlin. However, as we got closer to Potsdam, another wave of people boarded, heading to the Potsdam Hbf, (train station). This was our stop and also the end of the S7 line.
The Potsdam Hauptbahnhof
From the Potsdam Station, we headed outside to catch the 695 Bus, which goes over to Sanssouci Park. There were signs to catch buses pointing to both ends of the station, but more people seemed to be heading one way, so we followed the crowd, and found a large bus station outside. We found the designated stop for Bus 695, and waited about fifteen minutes for the bus to arrive. We boarded the double section length bus and headed to Sanssouci Park, about a 20 minute ride away. We arrived, and exited the bus at the Visitor’s Center, and went inside to purchase a ticket. We got the combination ticket that allowed us access to several of the buildings, and got a discount for using our Berlin Welcome Card, about Euro 8.00 off. Some of that was used to purchase a Euro 3.00 “photo pass”, which was a tag you attached to your camera strap. The photo pass was a fee to allow you to take photos inside the buildings. We have seen this a few times before, but it is always a bewildering concept. We saw others with the photo pass attached to cameras, but there were a few that did not appear to have them.
We headed outside, and went to the WC. It was 0.50 per person to use the facilities, but they were clean. We later found out that all of the WC facilities in the park were pay for use, from 0.50 to 0.70 per “deposit”.
The Front Courtyard Of The Sanssouci Palace
We had a designated time to visit the Sanssouci Palace, which was only about ten minutes from now, so we walked to the entrance. I think we were actually a little early, and ended up at the tail end of the previous time slot group, and joining them for the tour. There were no lockers for storing our backpacks, and we were not allowed to wear them on our backs, they had to be on the front of our bodies.
In addition, the audio guides we received were the type you have to hold up to your ear, they had no headphones. It was just about impossible for me to hold the backpack, the audio guide and take pictures. After each room we exited, they would close the doors so we did not see or hear the subsequent group. This was obviously a way to control the size of the crowds, which was nice, but it made us feel little hurried at first, like they were waiting on us to leave.
Sanssouci Palace Ceiling
Stephanie tried to hold my bag and hers, and put one on her shoulder but was scolded a couple of times because it was too much on her back, and not in the front. After a while, I just set my backpack down on the floor, listened a while, then took pictures. I even tried to put the audio guide under my scarf near my neck, I could hear it fine, but it would not stay there long by itself.
The interior of the Palace was beautiful. We took a lot of photos that we will add to the Berlin Day 4 Photo Album. There was a tour group in the time slot behind us, and that was a little annoying at times because the guide was verbally giving the group a description of each room instead of them using the audio guides. Luckily, there were only a few times that there was not a closed door between our two time slots. However, it made us feel little rushed because our audio guide descriptions were sometimes longer than her verbal explanation, and their door would open for them to proceed before we were done in the room ahead of them.
There were several rooms to see, most of them were bedrooms with adjacent chambers, but there was also a music room and a dining room. The Palace itself was not that large, and we only saw a portion of it.
The Sanssouci Palace
There was another building nearby that had been built for staff and administrative use, but had been converted to a building called the “New Chambers”, which was to accommodate additional overnight palace visitors. That was the next building we were heading to, but we first stopped to take some pictures from the back side of Sanssouci Palace that looked out over some terraces to a fountain in the park. The terraces were grassed on top, but the vertical sides were concrete walls, and the walls had what appeared to be grape vines growing on them from the terrace below. The vines appeared to be inside a protective glass door that could be closed for the winter time, and opened for the spring and summer. Unfortunately, it was too early in the year for the vines to be growing, so it was not the plush green walls that we would have seen in the summertime.
The New Chambers
We walked back toward the New Chambers and went inside for our self guided tour. This time there were free lockers to store our backpacks in, and we certainly took advantage of that. When we went to get our audio guides for this tour, they were out of them, and they handed us a laminated booklet with the room descriptions printed on it in English so we could read about each room. They gave us the option to wait for the audio guides to be returned by guests finishing the tour, but we opted to go ahead with the written material. We started in the first room, and noticed that the audio guides for this building’s tour included headphones, so we went back to the ticket counter to wait for some of them to become available.
The New Chambers
By the time we returned, they had already gotten a supply of returned audio guides, so we traded in the written material for an audio guide with headphones. The audio guides were so much better with the headphones, it was easier to hear, the sound quality was better, and it was hands free, allowing me to take pictures as we went.
The New Chambers was actually nicer inside than the Palace, maybe because it was a little newer. Once again we took a lot of photos that we will put in the Berlin Day 4 Photo Album.
Historic Windmill
After finishing the tour of the New Chambers, we walked back to take some photos of a large windmill that was part of the property. We had mistakenly walked up to it on the way to the Palace from the visitor’s center, thinking it was the path to the Palace. We did not want to walk all the way back up the hill to the windmill, so we just took some photos from the lower street level.
We also needed to figure out the layout of the park so we could head to some of the other buildings on the park grounds. The location of the windmill in relation to the Palace helped us to get our bearings. The palace actually sat sideways to the length of the park, and we had thought it was at one end, and another larger palace, the New Palace was at the other end. The map we received with our tickets was for more than just the park, it included all of Potsdam, so the lack of detail made it hard to determine the directions to head for buildings that were close together. Some were just represented by numbers, not actual physical locations. We wished there was just a large scale map of the park, it would have made navigation easier.
Looking Toward Sanssouci Palace – Grape Vines on Terraces
Once we figured out the route to the New Palace, we headed out in that directions. It was about a thirty minute walk from Sanssouci Palace to the New Palace, giving a sense of scale of the size of the park.
There were a couple of other buildings to stop at on the way. When we first got the tickets at the visitor’s Center, the person there had said only the Sanssouci Palace, the New Palace and the New Chambers were open today, which we did not fully comprehend at the time. We saw some fountains, but opted to take a photo from afar, and save the walking time. There was a lot to see here, and with our late start this morning, and the time it took to travel here, it was already after 12:30 pm.
The Chinese House
Next we headed to the Chinese House, a small round building decorated in a Chinese motif. It was a beautiful building, with gold gilded statues all along the outside. It was not open to go inside of, and we began to understand what the lady had told us at the ticket counter about the “open” buildings. Apparently, it was early in the season, and some the buildings were still closed for the off season, either for repairs, or maintenance. We still wanted to see them from the outside, so we next headed to another building called the Charlottenhof Palace.
It was a fairly long walk from the Chinese House, so we headed out. Along the way, we saw the Roman Baths building, which was not that spectacular from the outside, so much so that we did not even know what it was until later in the day when we looked at a more detailed map on a sign in the park.
As we approached the Charlottenhof Palace, we could see that it was covered with scaffolding and plastic wrap, obviously under repair, so we did not take the time to go all the way there, it was not worth the effort since we would not get any good photos of the outside. We were still quite a walk from the New Palace, so we decided to go directly there in order to have enough time to do a tour.
Back Of The New Palace From Sanssouci Park
We still needed to get a reservation time for a tour, even though we had already purchased a ticket. We walked up the back side and that is when we noticed that the New Palace was also under renovation, there were quite a few temporary construction buildings and equipment visible from the back side when we approached.
We had to walk around to the front of the Palace in order to get to the ticket office. We went inside the ticket office and there were several available slots for the next tour in about 15 minutes, so we got our reservation ticket and headed to the palace entrance.
The Two Service Buildings For The Palace
There were two large buildings across from the Palace that we passed on the way to the entrance. There were signs on them indicting they were part of the university, which seemed a little odd, but we later found out that they were originally service buildings for the palace, all of the staff for the palace were located there, as well as the kitchen. This was to avoid food cooking odors from being inside the palace when food was being prepared, and to prevent the palace from catching on fire in a kitchen accident, all of the food was originally cooked on fires in ovens and stoves.
These large building were not originally attached to the palace in any way, so all of the food and dishes had to be carried across the grounds to the palace. Eventually, there was an underground service corridor installed to make this task easier, but these buildings we still quite a ways away from the Palace. Today, these building are part of the Potsdam University, but we were unable to determine in what capacity they are used, either for classrooms, administrative facilities or dorm rooms.
Left Half Of The New Palace
The New Palace was under renovation, and the entire right side was blocked off for construction. Apparently, the Palace has been under renovation for some time, and will be for some time going forward. We later learned during the tour that there were significant structural issues in the original design that were now being addressed.
We entered the Palace, and found that there were no more lockers open and available for our backpacks, so we were back in the same situation as we had experienced in the Sanssouci Palace, trying to carry our backpacks on the front, and juggling a non-headphone audio guide, and a camera. One of the attendants noticed our struggle and asked about using a locker, and we told here none were available. At first, I am not sure she believed us, but as more people came inside with their backpacks, she understood. We waited a little while, thinking maybe a locker would become available, and the lady attendant actually looked for us, but said there were none. We decided to go ahead with the tour, and just struggle with the backpacks. While we were in the second room, the attendant came and got us, she had found us an open locker, and had it held for us by another attendant. We were very appreciative and it made the tour much easier.
Beautiful Shell Room
The second room we had entered was lined with 500,000 shells and beautiful agate, in a sea motif. It was just spectacular. There was some renovation going on in this room, but only the crystal chandeliers were missing, as well as some of the furniture.
There were quite a few spectacular rooms in the New Palace, one being the large ballroom. It had just recently been renovated, there had been severe structural issues from the original design and construction. The King had not wanted columns in the room below when the palace was built, it was some type of grotto, which we did not see.
The Grand Ballroom
Apparently, within just a few years after it was built, the wood beams supporting this large open room with marble floors, started to rot and fail. Several attempts were made to fix it over time, but they did not work well either. We found out that this room had just been reopened in 2016 after very delicate, but extensive repairs were made to the structure for the floor. It was a beautiful room, and the marble floors were spectacular.
We visited several other rooms, including the King’s Bedroom, which was furnished with furniture from the period, but not original. It was really amazing that these facilities were even standing after all of the destruction in Germany from WWII, but these had been spared from bombings.
The Service Buildings – To Far Away For A Hot Meal!
By the time we finished the tour, it was about 2:30 PM, and was getting cloudy. We headed to the bus stop to go back to the Potsdam Station and head back to Berlin. We did not want to make it too long of a day, we needed to start packing for tomorrow’s journey home. There were two bus stops for different buses. We knew we could take the 695 bus back, just in the opposite direction of the one we used to get here. The first bus stop we came to was not for the 695 bus, but there were two other buses going to the Potsdam Hauptbahnhof, the train station we needed.
Front Of The New Castle
Unfortunately, we could not figure out the schedule times. It appeared to list hours of the day, and then be followed by minutes that we assumed meant when the bus arrived for that hour. Unfortunately, it looked like the schedule was for later in the day, as in, these buses came later than the current time.
We headed over to the next stop we had seen, about three blocks away, hoping that the bus did not arrive while we were walking to the stop, making us miss it, and have to wait for the next bus, They only run about every twenty minutes. That did not happen, but we did see a bus from the other stop come by and the signage on the bus indicted it was going to the station. We did not see it until it passed us from behind, but it was going pretty fast, and we do not think it stopped at the other stop, just passed by as the schedule had indicated.
We waited a few minutes for our bus, and in that time, quite a few other people arrived at the stop, so we knew it must be time for the bus to arrive. Of course, the locals know the schedule, and only arrive a few minutes or less before the bus gets to the stop. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later the 695 bus arrived. All of this uncertainty was due to the fact that we had gotten off the 695 bus earlier today at the Sanssouci Palace stop, and this was the New Palace stop.
The bus ride back to the station was about 25 minutes long, but was never that crowded, and we had seats. When we got to the station, we headed inside and out to the platform for the S7 train back to Berlin. We were going down the escalator and we saw that the train was at the platform. There were some locals running down the escalator, obviously knowing the train was about to leave. We started to walk down the escalator steps, but were too late to get to the train before the doors closed and the train departed. The electronic platform schedule said the next train left in 20 minutes, which seemed like a long wait. We did not realize at first that the next train left from the other side of the platform and only saw this when people started to line up on that side. Sure enough, the electronic platform schedule on this side showed the next train in about 8 minutes. Since Potsdam is the stop and start of the S7 line from and to Berlin, they alternate sides of the platform, and the trains run every 12 minutes. The next train arrived from Berlin, and this train became our train back there.
It was nice to have seats and we were at the end of a car, and not close to the doors, which can get crowded as people board and depart the train. It was about a 40 minute ride back to the Hackescher Markt stop, and the train never got as crowded as it had been this morning. We walked back to the hotel to relax a little before heading to dinner. It was about 5:15 PM, and we already had a long day, with a lot of walking. The most unfortunate part of the tour to Sanssouci Park was the lack of eating facilities, some of which were not yet open for the season. We had only really seen one cafe, and it was still closed. There was another shop selling ice cream and snacks, but we did not find anywhere to eat any lunch at the park, so we were really hungry when we got back to the room.
Once we were back at the room, we decided to go to the grocery to purchase another bottle of Rose wine so it could chill while we were eating dinner. We also wanted to take all of our bottles from both the water and the wine back to see if we could master the bottle deposit return at the grocery and get our bottle deposit money back. We also took two aluminum Diet Coke cans we had brought from the ship.
The bottle deposit machine was easy to use. It is just a recessed machine mounted on a wall in the store and you just place the bottle, or can, in a hole and it goes on a belt that rotates the item to read the bar code. If it has a deposit associated with the bar code, the same one that is scanned for the original purchase, it registers the amount on a screen and takes the item into a bin behind the wall. All of the plastic water bottles we had included deposits, apparently not so for the glass wine bottles, and the coke cans from the ship. We knew it accepted cans for deposits, but apparently, since these came from the ship, the barcode did not register. After we were done scanning our items, we pushed a lighted green button, and received a receipt to take to the register. We got Euro 1.50 back, so it was worthwhile. We purchased our other items, some yogurt for me for breakfast in the morning, and a bottle of wine for tonight, and headed back to the room to drop them off before heading to dinner.
We headed out to dinner at about 6:20 PM, and went to the Grand Rocka Restaurant, the same one we had gone to earlier in the week for burgers and nachos. Stephanie had not liked the attitude of our last server at the Barist restaurant last night, and although we really liked eating there, and it was really busy and crowded, we decided to try the Grand Roca again.
On the way, we stopped by the front desk to ask for some washcloths, they had not left any when they cleaned the room. They did not have any near the lobby, so they would have to bring them to the room. We then also asked the receptionist for two clean towels, and she sort of looked irritated that we had not asked for these the first time. We just told her to have them brought to the room together with the washcloths, we did not see why it was an issue. When I was putting away the room card, I realized I had forgotten my wallet, so we headed back up to the room to get it. We rode up with a hotel employee, and as it turned out, he brought us the towels while I was getting my wallet. We think he wanted a tip, but we did not think it was required since they had not given us washcloths to begin with.
Actually, the whole towel situation at the hotel was confusing. There was a sign in the bathroom to place all towels on the floor that you wanted them replaced, but there was also a green door hanger about ecology that said if you used this, they would not change the towels if they were hanging up, and also use more environmentally friendly cleaners in the bathroom, and not change the sheets, which were only changed every three nights anyway. Adding to the confusion, there was not a “clean the room” door hanger, only one for do not disturb. The first day, we used the green door hanger, and put our towels on the floor, and they were changed. The second day, I forgot to put my towel on the floor, and it was not changed, following the rules of the green door hanger. On the third day, we both put all of the wet towels on the floor, but it appeared they were not changed, just picked up off of the floor, folded and put back on the racks. That was what prompted the request for two new towels, who wants to use towels that had been on the floor.
Last Dinner In Berlin
After getting the towel situation under control, we headed out to eat. We were tired, hungry, and needed to get back to the room for packing, so we wanted quick service, and not a crowded restaurant, and the Grand Rocca fit the bill.
We got a nice quiet table, and ordered two beers and looked over the menu. I had liked the chicken nachos Stephanie got the other night, so I ordered those, and Stephanie had a spicy cheeseburger with jalapenos, served with fries. Just your typical local German cuisine. The beers and the meal was good, we just wished we had not eaten as many snacks before we went out to eat, it was a struggle to eat all of our food. It is so funny here with the tips. We will need to do some research on what the tipping policy really is for Berlin. Most of Europe seems to be tip free, but here, they make it a point to let you know that tips are not included in the bill, nor are they really anywhere in Europe, but the expectation for tips is different in different places.
Chicken Nachos – Berlin Style
Our server was OK, but not great, she really just brought us our food. They do not serve any tap water, and do not really come by often to check on you, you have to flag them down, as we needed to do for more ketchup. However, she made it known that the tip was not included and wanted to know if I wanted her to add it to the amount she entered in the credit card machine she brought to the table. I told her I had the tip covered with cash, but to even ask was strange. Obviously, tips are expected here, but we do not know if it is because these are restaurants visited by tourists, and they know we are used to tipping, or that this is the policy for most of Berlin. In any event, we have only been tipping ten percent, right or wrong.
We do like having the credit card machine brought to the table, it is standard policy in Europe since it requires you to enter a PIN, and it would be impossible to do that without the portable credit card machines at the table. Also, you never have to give your card to someone to take away, it is always in your presence.
After dinner, we walked around some vendors that had set up in the park by the station for the day, and visited one store before heading back to the room to pack.
View From Our Room At Night
We began the packing chore once we got to the room, and started by folding all of the dirty clothes, and any other clothes we had placed on the shelves, but had not needed here in Berlin. We set aside our clothes for tomorrow, and started packing the suitcases. It was not too bad, we had left a lot of the cruise clothes in the suitcases, so we only had to repack about half of our total clothes. We placed our jackets in the bags for the initial weigh in, we did not want to have them on the plane with us, but needed them in the morning for the walk to the bus stop since it was forecast to be about 42 degrees. We got Stephanie’s suitcase right at the 50 pound limit, and mine was a few pounds lighter, so we knew the rest of the clothes we had for tonight would have to go into my bag, hers was full.
We enjoyed some refreshments while we were packing, and within about an hour, the packing was as done as it could be until tomorrow morning’s final effort. I worked a little on the blog and Stephanie read her book. Stephanie set an alarm on her phone for 5:20 AM, and I called the front desk and requested a wake up call for 5:30 AM as a back-up. We needed to be at the bus stop tomorrow by 6:30 AM to catch the bus to the airport. At about 10:00 PM, we turned in for the night.