From August 30th, and our time in Potsdam! 

We forgot to post this information on Potsdam and the Sanssouci Park/Palace Grounds.  Hope this helps all of you while viewing the pictures of Sanssouci.  

We visited Sanssouci Park in Potsdam.  Sanssouci Palace, is a one story, ten room summer palace, one of two palaces built by Frederick the Great in the park that contains 700 acres!!!  We walked for 3 hours around the entire grounds.  Frederick the Great was king of Prussia, which was a kingdom including, what is now Germany, plus Poland and a large part of Russia.  The name sans souci means “with out a care”.  The unique thing about Sanssouci is that it is one of the best examples of the rococo style which riles upon the seashell design and the six terraces that dominate the back of it with 132 steps leading down to fountains and the park.  The terraces were built to be his vineyards and the palace was to be his vineyard home where he would come and enjoy during the summer months. Each terrace is braced by glazed metal niches that are about 12 inches deep in which to grow figs inside of them and further divided by strips of grass. 

The other palace which Fredrick the Great built 20 years later, is Neues Palais which was to be more grandeur, show his power and strength and created in the baroque style.  There is also a Chinese Tea house, and the Communs.  This is a UNESCO sight, one of several we have visited.  When we walk through these palaces, even the so-called SMALL summer palace, it is hard to image how these people really lived with all this wealth.  One example we thought interesting is that the library in the Sanssouci Palace was reproduced 9 times in its entirety with over 3000 books in it for each of his homes because it was to burdensome to travel with all of these books. 

 Norm and Rita