Good Morning. It is August 30, 2013, Friday and we are in Potsdam, Germany, a suburb of Berlin, Germany. We left Copenhagen yesterday morning around noon. We drove two hours and boarded Ole Betsy on a car ferry for an hour trip from Denmark to Germany. Then, we drove until 6:30 PM. Rita did a great job of getting us here on the autobahn. Everyone at Andretti Autosport would be very proud of her. She drove 170 KPH which is 105.653 mph!! I kept complaining that the scenery I came to Europe to see was just one big blur out my window!! While she is a great driver, I will post a photo of her parking skills which leaves a little to be desired. I will also post of photo of another strange thing we saw on a German roundabout. Today we are going to see Sanssouci, a palace which means no worries in French. After Sanssouci, we will travel into Berlin to spend a night or two.

For those of you who are keeping track, today is our 91st day on the road. We are halfway through our trip. We have been to 16 countries, taken 5 train trips, 7 flights, stayed in 35 hotels, eaten 91 straight days in restaurants, taken over 5500 photos, and taken 4 car ferry trips. Quite a milestone. None of this could have been possible without the love and support of everyone back home helping us. We truly mean this. So, we want to sincerely thank all of you for your love and support. Please keep it up.

We are still having a good time. We are still speaking. We have been together 24/7 for all 91 days. Try that sometime with your loved one!! We are not tired. We are not homesick, although we dearly miss our kids, grandchildren, friends and work colleagues. (But, your emails help and encourage us greatly!). We are still excited about the places we have to visit. We are having a great time and enjoying ourselves. The food is great. Breads are wonderful where ever we go. Goulash, wiener schnitzel, beef stroganoff, herring, chicken kiev, pasta, pates, cauliflower and broccoli gratin, asparagus, black rice, wines and cosmopolitans have never let us down. The attractions are breathtaking. The people are kind and helpful. We are very blessed to be able to take this trip.

Not all has been roses. We don’t like rain when we have sightseeing to do. We don’t like cloudy days because our photographs do not have good color. We think everything is way too expensive. We don’t like all the smokers in Europe. It would be nice to eat a snack some days instead of a meal, but snacks are hard to find. It would be great if the air conditioning in our hotels could be set lower than 68 degrees. Rita wishes she had more time to blog and more time to spend in some locations. We wish that loading photos on the blog did not take three hours. We wish the hair dryers had more watts and had an on switch instead of a button you have to hold down the entire time. We wish our luggage was lighter. Rita wishes she had brought high heels.

That’s all folks. Love and miss you. Norm & Rita

Potsdam, Germany was a pleasure to us, a hidden gem of a city!

Although Rita’s driving skills are excellent, her parking skills need a little work.

Sanssouci Palace

Close up of Sanssouci

The levels in this garden are incredible.

This is from the pond at the end of the gardens.

Interior of Sanssouci

Just the vestibule and its chandelier

The gardens

The China House – where they would go for afternoon tea. This is in back of the gardens.

The “Tea Room”

Inside the China House

Pillars of gold with ornamentations

Ornate statues on outside of the China House

The Neue Palais – on the back of these same grounds of Sanssouci

This is the servants quarters across from the Neue Palais

The Roman Bath house

Another view from the Roman Bath House

We see the strangest things again in the roundabouts.