Potsdam

Phoned my Dad in Shepparton this morning. Dad is nearly 93 years old and though he may be slower these days, his mind is certainly not!!! "Hello Dad." "Hello. Are you home already?" was his cheeky reply. Today we caught the train out to Potsdam. A bus tour was easy to obtain. This is where many palaces were built. The most fascinating for me was SCHLOSS CECILIENHOF, built in early 1900s in English Tudour style. The magnificent surrounding parklands were also English in design ... Many stately trees, hedges, flower beds, some topiary and enormous lawns. It was here that Russia, England and USA signed the Potsdam Agreement after Germany's surrender. I stood right outside Stalin's office. As today is Monday we could not enter any palaces. But as we have had drizzle each day, we were happy enough that weather was sunny and clear today ... right up to MERE MINUTES after we returned to back inside Bahnhofspassengen Potsdam for the train trip back to Berlin. Our guide was a 30 year old former GDR woman, who is very proud of her background. It was interesting to hear her bias for her area, Potsdam and Brandenburg, over neighbouring rival Big Bad Berlin. We drove through the former "forbidden city" : the Russian KGB area. We both loved the film "The Lives of Others" about a German Stasi officer. She said the training school was only a few kilometres away. A family friend of her family was discovered, after the Wall came down, to have been a Stasi informer. One of the rulers built an enormous SCHLOSS (palace) but as bricks could not be produced fast enough, had fake white lines painted the red exterior to look like brick. Seriously!!! Voltaire spent some years living there until the two fought and fell out. The town of Potsdam itself is delightful. There is a Dutch quarter built to entice Dutch workers, who knew how to drain swampy land, to settle and work here. Great idea. Only tempted 20 or so families of the 100 + it was built for. Swampy land is a theme we keep hearing. We have noticed large pipes, several side by side, emerging from lots of big buildings. One had a truck hooked up and pumping something from the building. Not a pleasant smell so you can guess what we thought it was!!! WRONG! Berlin is a former swamp and boggy water needs to be pumped from building foundations regularly. In new builds they have an ingenious system of lolly pink pipes which go up and over pedestrian walkways so they don't have to dig up paths and streets constantly. And so our fascinating time in Berlin is nearly over. Tomorrow another train. Another city. Another country. We can't wait.