Potsdam

Sometimes things don’t go to plan. It happens.

I booked my walking tours in a way to balance out heavy history (Cold War, Nazis, concentration camps) with lighter days of food tours and palaces. Today was supposed to be a day trip to Sanssouci, the summer palace in Potsdam built by Frederick the Great.

It’s an easy trip from Berlin. My seven-day transit pass includes the commuter rail line to Potsdam as well as the bus from the Potsdam train station to Sanssouci. The rail trip had the treat of an accordion player walking into our car, sitting down, and busting out a great rendition of the Doris Day song “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que sera, sera).” Felt a bit random, but okay.

Figuring out the bus was a bit trickier — turns out there are bus stops on both sides of the train station. But I got there and walked up and saw:

Oops. Guess I have a reason to come back now :)

I still got to walk around the grounds, which were impressive even in winter. Foliage had died back but you could see the “bones” of the garden and imagine what it looks like in spring and summer.

It was about 35 degrees so I walked around for a bit and then caught the bus back to the train station. After dark I wandered out in search of Christmas lights and food and scored on both counts.

Dinner was Chicago Williams BBQ. Don’t ask me why Chicago — businesses in Europe often randomly add names of American cities even if they aren’t associated with the thing at hand. (I think there’s an opening for a chain of Chicago style deep dish pizza places in Europe, but that’s a story for another day.)

The pork ribs were delicious. (That’s applesauce on the side.)

Any day that ends with ribs is a good day, right?