Today, we disembarked the ship and traveled to Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany. This is the location of the 1945 Potsdam Conference, where Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman met to negotiate the end of World War II. The palace (built in an English Tudor style) is named Cecilenhof Castle and was the home of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire until the end of World War I. The buildings were impressive, but the scenery was even better.
We spent some time in Potsdam’s city center and visited Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. The church, completed in 1870, was quite different from the others we’ve seen on this trip. We ate lunch, and Leroy purchased a Weinachtspyramide (German Christmas Pyramid) for me at one of the local shops.
We then traveled to Sanssouci Palace, built in 1745 as a summer home for King Frederick the Great. It was designed to rival Versailles but is much smaller in size. The name means “without worries” or “carefree,” and its purpose was for relaxation, not a seat of power.
We then drove into Berlin via Glienicker Brücke, also known to us in the US as the “Bridge of Spies.” This bridge was the border between West Berlin and East Germany and was used to exchange captured spies. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen the movie by the same name (starring Tom Hanks).
After checking into the hotel, we walked down the street to explore a little and discovered the ruins of an old church in the middle of the street. It is the Kaiser-Wilhelm Evangelical Church. It was built in the 1890s but was severely damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. They’ve built a new, modern church next door, but it was so ugly that I didn’t even take pictures. You’d think we’d make more beautiful things with modern technology and skills, but we haven’t. We lit several candles for prayers along the way today. (Even in this ugly church.)
For dinner, we enjoyed the best Chinese food I’ve ever eaten.
