On our last day in Germany we decided to take the train to the neighboring city, Potsdam. When we left the train station it was clear that we were tourists as we had our guide book out trying to figure out which way to go. So, the tour bus guy came to us and ended up convincing us to take the tour. Overall I think it was a good decision. The English audio tour didn’t have the personality that the German tour guide did, but we were able to see much more than had we walked around on our own.

The first stop on our tour was the Cecilienhof Palace. It was built to look like an English tudor home. It was a beautiful palace. It is now a museum and a hotel. For 400 euros per night you can stay in the hotel. Cecilienhof Palace was the location of the Potsdam Conference with Winston Churchill, later Clement Attlee, Joseph Stalin and Harry S. Truman. (this is the palace where I broke the fountain.)

The second palace on our tour was Sanssouci, which means “without care”. It is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. This was a place of rest for the King so even his wife was not allowed to go with him to Sanssouci.

The third palace was Neues Palais, the New Palace. This palace was the work of Frederick the Great and was built after the Seven Years War. The guide said that this palace was meant more as a show of splendor than anything else. Even the servants quarters were made to be elaborate, almost like a mini-palace.

After our tour of the palaces and driving through the city we had dinner at a small French restaurant. It was a fantastic meal. It was so good we didn’t take pictures of our food, we just ate it! The girls were thrilled with their dinner, caramel crepes. It was really more like dessert than a dinner. They didn’t mind.

It was a great way to end our stay in Germany. We had a fantastic trip!