Potsdam and the Neues Palais

Yesterday (Saturday) IES went on a little excursion to Potsdam, the once beautiful but now recovering city only a half hour train ride fsouthwest of Berlin. You may recognize the name if you paid attention in history (so not you victoria) because it was where the Allied leaders met for the Potsdam Conference which ultimately led to the Potsdam Agreement and the Potsdam Declaration which caused Germany to be separated into four sections. All that to say, there's a lot of history here but once the DDR (German Democratic Republic) took over things went downhill and the capital of the state of Brandenburg is still putting all of the pieces back together.

In the morning one of the Humboldt University professors gave us a tour (in German) of the city showing us the Catholic church of St. Peter, the Holland quarter, and Mozart's house.

But by far the BEST part of the day was our tour of the Neues Palais (again, in German) which was fabulous! Unfortunately, they won't allow cameras in the castle...sad. But my favorite room was the garden room which had a ocean/water theme running through the room. The coolest part: the thousands upon thousands of real sea shells that lined the walls to keep the room cool.

After our tour we headed back to Berlin and I headed to my computer to watch the Deacs defeat Ole Miss!! Enjoy the pictures from Potsdam and have a wonderful Sunday!!