Saturday morning: A visit to Potsdam

We began our first full day in Berlin with a visit to nearby Potsdam to visit the palaces of Frederick the Great in Sanssouci Park. In the freezing cold we kept moving but were able to stop long enough to admire the impressive size and deccoraton of the 'New Palace', built to impress after the Prussian King's successes in the Seven Years' War in the 1760s. As it is the 300th Anniversary of Frederick's birth there is extensive restoration work going on inside.

We set off through the park to Frederick’s ‘private palace' a kilometre away at the other of the park. There we admired the setting Frederick had created for himself, and paid our respects at his grave, which was moved there after the war.