Day 11 - Berlin, Potsdam, to Copenhagen
I was packed up and out of the hotel fairly early, but travel ended up taking longer than I expected, so I didn't get to San Soucci palace until 11:30, but it wasn't to crowded, an I got a ticket for 12:30. I spent the intervening time going through the kitchen exhibit, and through the historic windmill, which was a little interesting, but was labeled exclusively in German (a rarity on this trip), and while my vocabulary had gotten a little better, it's still rather narrow.
This palace, which is on the small side was Friederich the Great's summer palace, and appears to genuinely have been his retreat from governing. To the point that the chair he died in is still in the palace, an he was, after reunification, buried in the garden as he has wished. What's open to the public is elaborately decorated in the Rococo style, which, while not my favorite, does occasionally produce some beautiful work. I actually paid for photo permission this time (I don't usually, because my indoor photography isn't great, but hopefully I'll have some pictures up when I get home). Oh, and in addition to my grand staircase, I want a walk down bathtub with dolphin faucets just off my bedroom.
Just off to the side, tucked into the side of the terraced garden on the south side (the terraces have grapes and fig trees, with each tree in it's own little niche with doors), is the picture hall. Essentially one long, huge hall with south facing windows, the entire north wall is hung paintings. While the effect is impressive, it doesn't really make any of the paintings stand out. Which, admittedly may be just as well. While only about half the inventory is original (the rest having gone missing somewhere between the Nazis and the Soviets, as usual), almost everything on display is "in the style of", "from the workshop of", "From the school of", etc. This also showed up at the next stop, where there was an entire room dedicates to German artists doing copies of Raphael. I kind of feel that Friederich was trying to play catch up to the sorts of collections that existed in Versailles or Rome or Florence, and only doing so-so at it.
Anyway, that next stop was the Orangery. Just what it claims, in the main, two large greenhouses, the center and end sections were converted into guest quarters. (By a later Friederich, or Friederich Wilhelm, or Wilhelm, it's hard to keep track. This was required when he moved his residence into the guest quarters of San Soucci, in order to preserve F. The Greats apartments in place. The rooms in the center section (the ones open for the tour) are well decorated with original pieces including porcelain, tortoiseshell inlay furniture, malachite, and so on, as well as the aforementioned Raphael room.
From there it was a bit of a hike I the new palace, the ticket window of which is off to one side and not well labeled. As an aside, I've decided I don't mind pay toilets, but at a sight like this, they should be covered by the ticket. Anyway, this is the large palace on the grounds, built deliberately as a place to impress visitors, official or otherwise. To give you an idea of scale, the two service buildings flanking the gate are bigger than any building I've live in. Including my current seven family apartment building. The most impressive room in the interior is the shell room. Decorated, liberally with shells, polished rock chunks on the walls, and so on. It was built as an atypical indoor grotto, and certainly has that appearance. It had just reopened after beams between it and the "marble room" (above, still closed) has been replaced. Also of interest where various other decorative elements throughout the palace, we'll see how my pictures come out. There was also the scrawl painted hammer and sickle on the green silk walls behind some of the paintings. No idea how contemporary that is. This palace is having major work done, but obviously it is still in need of more repair. From there it was bus back to train to bus to airport to plane (to hoping that the flight information screen that showed an altitude of 100 feet while we were still on the ground wasn't the same one the pilots were using) to metro to the center of Copenhagen. I'm airBNBing it again, and the apartment is like two shot blocks behind Christiansborg palace. Of course it's also a fourth floor walk up, and the suitcase gets heavier as the trip goes on. Dinner was a bagel from 7-11, because it was late and I was tired.
Tomorrow should be sights around Copenhagen. I have to plan a bit, because a lot of sites close at 4 or 5 rather than the fairly universal 6 in Berlin or even Prague.
This palace, which is on the small side was Friederich the Great's summer palace, and appears to genuinely have been his retreat from governing. To the point that the chair he died in is still in the palace, an he was, after reunification, buried in the garden as he has wished. What's open to the public is elaborately decorated in the Rococo style, which, while not my favorite, does occasionally produce some beautiful work. I actually paid for photo permission this time (I don't usually, because my indoor photography isn't great, but hopefully I'll have some pictures up when I get home). Oh, and in addition to my grand staircase, I want a walk down bathtub with dolphin faucets just off my bedroom.
Just off to the side, tucked into the side of the terraced garden on the south side (the terraces have grapes and fig trees, with each tree in it's own little niche with doors), is the picture hall. Essentially one long, huge hall with south facing windows, the entire north wall is hung paintings. While the effect is impressive, it doesn't really make any of the paintings stand out. Which, admittedly may be just as well. While only about half the inventory is original (the rest having gone missing somewhere between the Nazis and the Soviets, as usual), almost everything on display is "in the style of", "from the workshop of", "From the school of", etc. This also showed up at the next stop, where there was an entire room dedicates to German artists doing copies of Raphael. I kind of feel that Friederich was trying to play catch up to the sorts of collections that existed in Versailles or Rome or Florence, and only doing so-so at it.
Anyway, that next stop was the Orangery. Just what it claims, in the main, two large greenhouses, the center and end sections were converted into guest quarters. (By a later Friederich, or Friederich Wilhelm, or Wilhelm, it's hard to keep track. This was required when he moved his residence into the guest quarters of San Soucci, in order to preserve F. The Greats apartments in place. The rooms in the center section (the ones open for the tour) are well decorated with original pieces including porcelain, tortoiseshell inlay furniture, malachite, and so on, as well as the aforementioned Raphael room.
From there it was a bit of a hike I the new palace, the ticket window of which is off to one side and not well labeled. As an aside, I've decided I don't mind pay toilets, but at a sight like this, they should be covered by the ticket. Anyway, this is the large palace on the grounds, built deliberately as a place to impress visitors, official or otherwise. To give you an idea of scale, the two service buildings flanking the gate are bigger than any building I've live in. Including my current seven family apartment building. The most impressive room in the interior is the shell room. Decorated, liberally with shells, polished rock chunks on the walls, and so on. It was built as an atypical indoor grotto, and certainly has that appearance. It had just reopened after beams between it and the "marble room" (above, still closed) has been replaced. Also of interest where various other decorative elements throughout the palace, we'll see how my pictures come out. There was also the scrawl painted hammer and sickle on the green silk walls behind some of the paintings. No idea how contemporary that is. This palace is having major work done, but obviously it is still in need of more repair. From there it was bus back to train to bus to airport to plane (to hoping that the flight information screen that showed an altitude of 100 feet while we were still on the ground wasn't the same one the pilots were using) to metro to the center of Copenhagen. I'm airBNBing it again, and the apartment is like two shot blocks behind Christiansborg palace. Of course it's also a fourth floor walk up, and the suitcase gets heavier as the trip goes on. Dinner was a bagel from 7-11, because it was late and I was tired.
Tomorrow should be sights around Copenhagen. I have to plan a bit, because a lot of sites close at 4 or 5 rather than the fairly universal 6 in Berlin or even Prague.