Another restful night spent being rocked to sleep on the Spree River and another beautiful Berlin morning. A coda for last night: it seems that the crowds that we encountered so late were people going to see a famous German techno music artist who was putting on a show in some performance space. It was a good turnout!
We checked out of the hostel and hauled our bags off to the S-Bahn stop but not before getting some German pastries for the road. I picked up a giant jelly donut that was delicious and satisfied three of us for a quick breakfast. We ditched our bags in a locker at the Zoo train stop which is a very major stop on the train system and continued on our way to Charlottenburg Palace.
The palace was built as a summer home for Sophie Charlotte and her husband Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg who became King Friedrich I of Prussia. The two were eventual grandparents of Frederick the Great.
During World War II the palace suffered quite a bit of damage so a great deal of it has been restored rather than being original but most of the restoration was superbly done and at times it’s difficult to determine what is original and what wasn’t. The guidebook that we had said that the palace wasn’t much if you’ve seen others but being that I hadn’t it was plenty impressive to me! There was so much gold leaf and expensive chandeliers and damask wallpaper. Sophie Charlotte also had a very impressive and extensive ceramics collection that was interestingly displayed in some rooms.
After a lunch in the palace café (complete with a very talented violinist), we had a very nice long walk through the palace grounds and toured the outbuildings such as the mausoleum and the belvedere. It was especially nice that the grounds were open to the public as everyone in the surrounding area were out bicycling through or walking or jogging or just enjoying the day. It made the place very warm and pleasant.
We stopped in a little Italian sidewalk café on our way back to the train station for ice cream before our train ride back to Hamburg. We parted ways with Ingrid and made our way back down to the platform of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and caught the regular train, no ICE this time, back to Hamburg. Roland and Susi’s daughter Carolin (Caro for short) met us at the train station and drove us back to the family home and the rest of the night was spent getting to know everyone including Susi’s older son Christoph (Chrissi for short).
From here on out we’re hanging out in Hamburg. Tune in tomorrow for some Hanseatic adventures!
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