Today I went to Potsdam, a town to the west of Berlin with an amazing collection of things to visit. My first destination was the Neues Palais, a huge palace commissioned in 1764  by King Frederik II of Prussia and completed in only five years. It was built to house and entertain visiting dignitaries – although it had rooms for Frederik, he rarely stayed there, preferring to return to his favourite Sans Souci residence a short distance away (covered later in this post). The colossal Neues Palais was partly modelled on Versailles and built to impress……..which it certainly does.

I could only visit as part of a guided tour, which was conducted only in German. They gave foreign visitors an audio guide, but from the reactions of the local visitors, its descriptions were much shorter and less amusing than the guide’s anecdotes. All the same, no explanation was needed to be taken aback by the magnificent rooms – first an unusual, sea-shell themed Grotto Hall……

…and then a bit later the amazing Marble Hall located directly above the grotto.

Frederik was actively involved in designing the Neues Palais and he insisted that no extra supporting pillars be added to the grotto underneath to carry the huge weight of the Marble Hall. This requirement led almost immediately to structural problems which engineers have wrestled with over the centuries.

From the Neues Palais I headed through an attractive park back into the town of Potsdam. On the way I stumbled across the incredibly cute Chinese House.

I grabbed some lunch in Potsdam, a pretty town, before heading to the Barberini Museum, housed in a baroque palace also built by Frederik II. It had both an impressive temporary Modigliani exhibition and an amazing permanent collection of impressionist paintings, assembled quite recently by Hasso Plattner, billionaire founder of the SAP software company and patron of the arts.

After a couple of hours in the museum I had to hurry back towards the royal park to visit Potsdam’s main attraction – Sans Souci Palace.

This is a much more modest construction than the Neues Palais, and Frederik much preferred to spend his time in this more intimate and relaxing residence, whose name means “without worry” in English. Sans Souci is exquisite and tasteful, and if I had the choice, I would probably agree with Frederik and choose it as my home. However, although it is the best known and most popular attraction in Potsdam, I would rate it as the least interesting tourist experience of a day that had so many highlights. Entry is by timed slot, and since space inside is limited, you join a continuous dense stream of fellow tourists, all attentively listening to their audioguides.

It felt rather mechanical and cramped compared to our tour around the vast spaces of the Neues Palais. After my visit I had time to stroll around the park and enjoy the gardens and glimpses of yet more huge royal edifices. The early evening was enhanced by the fact that the sun had finally emerged.

I rounded they day off with dinner with my friends at a restaurant on the banks of the nearby Wannsee lake – a perfect way to end an exceptional day.

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