After our initial frustrating yet rewarding first visit to Potsdam (I know, sounds confusing but have a read of the post here and you’ll understand what I mean…), we returned to Potsdam the next day with all the eagerness in the world and a plan to visit all the major sights in this amazing city!
Thing is though, when we got to Potsdam from Berlin, we arrived to the thickest fog imaginable.
I didn’t even think much of it till we arrived at our very first stop – the Glienicke bridge.
Despite the fact that the bridge is one of the sights to see in Potsdam (can’t remember why now), I actually didn’t arrive here for the bridge, I arrived for the spectacular view of Babelsberg Palace across from the bridge. (When we arrived here yesterday – the water was still and the reflection was beautiful – alas, you can’t go into the Palace itself as it’s still undergoing renovations so the best you can do is the view from here).
As you can tell from the photos, with that fog, there was absolutely zero visibility of the Palace. I can even begin to tell you how disappointed we were.
This disappointment disappeared totally and was replaced with enchantment as we made our way over to our next sight – Marmorpalais; The Marble Palace.
Sitting eerily across the Lake, this palace was apparently built for the King’s mistress back in the day and is absolutely stunning. Hauntingly so even…
I think it was at this point that we realised how much the fog had just transformed Potsdam into an almost mythical fairytale destination.
We carried on to our next stop, Belvedere on the Pfingstberg.
Wandering around here, that Disney-esque fairytale feeling just grows stronger and stronger. Like if Belle and The Beast just walked out of the fog, I don’t think I would even have flinched for a second.
I almost forgot to mention how we got around! Instead of taking a tour today, we hopped into a taxi (like your regular old taxi parked by the train) and asked to be taken to all the sights (I’d made a list of all the places I wanted to visit).
I figured we paid like €25-ish each for the tour and so, if the taxi cost came in at say €50 for the entire trip, it made sense. In the end, the taxi cost came in at, with tips, at €50 for a 2-hour ride around the city. Our taxi driver was also quite knowledgeable so it just felt like it made so much more sense than the tour we took the previous day.
Next stop, we headed over to Alexandrowka, the Russian Colony for a quick gander…
…before heading over to The Bornstedt Crown Estate – one of the Palaces of the Sanssouci Park.
Our next stop was one we saw from a distance the day before but didn’t get to visit properly – The Belvedere auf dem Klausberg.
Given the foggy weather, we had pretty much all the sights to ourselves – with a fair number of them being impossible to see from a distance… until, of course, you arrive a lot closer to them.
Next up, we walked over to the nearby Dragon House, which is actually a restaurant and would make a great stop for lunch (or even just a drink).
Our final stop in the taxi was the orangery, which was pretty empty and desolate, save for a couple other visitors as eager as we were to take in the sight of Potsdam in the fog.
With the typically full fountain drained and devoid of people, the Orangery just looked and felt haunting.
From the Orangery, it was a fairly short walk to the New Palace– which we intended on going into, via the beautiful Sanssouci park.
It was the first time all day we’d gone on a proper walk and it just felt so magical! Crisp leaves crunching underfoot were the only sounds you’d hear – broken up by the sound of chirping birds.
In our over-eagerness, we decided to take the long route through the park, stopping off at the Chinese Pavillion…
…before carrying on to the New Palace.
The New Palace almost seemed to creep up on us. The fog just seemed to get thicker and thicker as the sun dipped below the horizon and it wasn’t till we were actually close to the Palace that we saw the lights faintly twinkling through the fog.
Alas, by the time we got the Palace, we’d just missed the last entry in (turns out, it was about an hour before the actual palace closed).
If we hadn’t been in such awe of Potsdam and thoroughly chuffed with being able to see all of the sights we’d missed out the day before, I would have probably been disappointed but having managed to see some of the most gorgeous buildings in the city – and in such a dramatic setting, we left Potsdam for Berlin in such a high!
The fog in Potsdam was definitely not what we were looking for when we arrived but had managed to make the magic and mystery of Potsdam come truly alive!
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