Day 6: Potsdam and the Phil
Potsdam, along with the Pergamon, was one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting while in Berlin, and it might have been the highlight of the trip. It's a medium-sized city about 23 miles southwest of our hostel, and there was a commuter train that went directly there. We started early in the morning; it was Good Friday, and we wanted to beat any crowds. Here is the main square of the old Potsdam town.
Potsdam has the status Windsor has in Britain: it was the residence of the royal monarchs in Germany until 1918, and it has the magnificent parks, gardens, and palaces of Sansoucci, which was Fredrick the Great's summer palace while he was King of Prussia.
King Frederick wanted a palace where he could relax away from the pomp and pressure of the Berlin court, and "sans souci" literally means "without cares" in French. The palace is a beautiful thing, but the real wonder is the winding, airy, peaceful gardens that surround it, and it truly has the feel of a summer playground.
If you enlarge the picture above, you can see, over a mile in the distance, the vague red coloration of the New Palace. This palace is enormous, and on a straight shot from this East entrance, but many different paths wind around this main thoroughfare. If you walked directly, you could watch the building grow from this small shape. We decided to amble aimlessly, as the weather wasn't too hot and the grounds were full of interesting things.
The first of many surprising buildings on the park grounds, this was the Church of Peace -- a hidden basilica on the outskirts of the park.
Sansoucci itself, elevated above some vineyards.
A close-up. Dig the understated details.
This mother-of-all-trellises was around the corner from Sansoucci, and matches its color scheme. After this visit to the summer palace as the first feature, the paths became more mysterious and directionless.
This building and garden square came out of nowhere through one of the paths we took, and it was a ways off the main road.
We came upon a botanical garden! There were greenhouses with animals and many different plants and flowers here. I felt like I was playing Myst.
In the distance, a little gazebo.
Shazam: the New Palace. It's much bigger, more businesslike, and super-formal compared to Sansoucci. There was some kind of graduation ceremony going on, and many people were taking family pictures (I was the cameraman for at least one.)
After scouting around the palace for a while, we decide to take a different route back.
Back to the start. What a great morning.
Back in town (by that opening picture of the square) we stop off for some brotchen and bratwurst. It definitely had the small-town feel in these parts.
On the train ride home, I saw this huge ad for Doctor Zhivago-flavored ice cream. I think it has alcohol in it. Wild, huh? Does Omar Sharif get royalties?
Back to Potsdamer Platz after a shower and a change into concert-going clothes. We have tickets to the Berlin Philharmonic, who are putting on an exhausting series of Spring Festival concerts. The theme of the festival is works of Alban Berg, who is kind of hard to get into (post-tonal, ultra-modern, thorny orchestral music) but I really dig him, and I'm excited. On the way there, there is a giant rally (with a German rap group headlining) against nuclear power.
If you remember, the symphony hall looks like a big yellow boat. Inside, it has an ingenious seating configuration, with loads of seats to the side and directly behind the orchestra. If you have the bench seats above, you are basically sitting in the percussion section, close enough to turn the timpanist's pages. Man, what I wouldn't have given for a pair of tickets there.
A long shot of the orchestra and a little better idea of the theater's configuration. The guest conductor was Daniel Barenboim, who normally (and coincidentally) conducts the Israeli Philharmonic.
The program, for those interested, was the Berg Violin concerto with Gidon Kremer as the soloist, followed by Bruckner's 4th. Berg's concerto was written for a family who had lost their young daughter to an illness, and it depicts the innocence of youth and the struggle and eventual surrender to death, in two connected movements. While it has a lot of atonality, it's an imaginative and deeply emotional piece that makes use of a Bach chorale in the final minutes while the violin soars gently and quietly into its highest ranges, depicting the spirit ascending into heaven. It was a great performance, and great to be so close to the performers.
I hadn't heard Bruckner before, but it was a fun piece with a smaller orchestra and only one timpanist in the percussion section. I want to check out more of his stuff.
Intermission, with the refreshment stands,
And, a final bow for Barenboim and the orchestra.
A twilight walk back to the U-Bahn.
We had a great traditional German dinner outside on Unter Den Linden (lots of meat, potatoes, and Berliner Weisse) and felt totally and happily spent from a day of walking and listening. Back to Friedrichstrasse station and a return to the hostel; only one day left in town. End Day 6.
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