Ich bin ein Berliner

I spent the past week in Berlin on business. We arrived Tuesday late afternoon and ran events through Friday night. One of my main tasks while in Paris was working on Friday's final event and I can happily say that it went very well!

Knowing that I was going to be in Berlin, I reached out to my family who lives there and was able to spend Saturday and Sunday with them! Saturday morning they picked me up from my hotel and we began a tour of Potsdam and Berlin. Having visited Berlin before, in 2010, I had seen many of the major sites within the city, so we headed out to Potsdam to visit Sanssouci Palace.

Once of the Gardens on the Palace Grounds

Sanssouci Palace, built by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in the 1740s, is known as the Versailles of Berlin. The Palace is much smaller than Versailles and only has approximately only 10 rooms but the park and garden layout and size is similar. The Palace is built on a hill and when you walk out onto the terrace you overlook the gardens and are able to see how extensive they really are. King Frederick used all of the garden space wisely and the steps leading from the palace to the gardens are planted with wine grapes!

Looking up to the Palace

Throughout the gardens and park are smaller houses and buildings. We were able to see the Chinese House, the Gardener's House and the Orangerie. We climbed to the top of the Orangerie and we were able to look over the entire park. I couldn't get over how detailed the parks and gardens were. Each area was perfectly manicured and the gardens and park were designed and planted to look so natural. The Gardener's house looked like it came right out of Tuscany and the plantings around it matched the area as well!

View from the Orangerie

After a wonderful day at the gardens we went back to their house for an apperitivo and dinner. They live in West Berlin towards the outskirts. Their quartier looks like the suburbs and is so quiet, you would never guess they lived in the city! Their house was beautiful and we were able to enjoy our aperitivo outside in their garden! They made a Northern Italian/Ticinese meal which brought me right back to Switzerland and was delicious!

The next morning we headed out to Berlin and did a Boat tour on the Spree. I find it really interesting to see the city from the water and it was nice to go by some of the major sites.

View from the boat

My flight back to Paris was in the mid afternoon so my next stop was the airport. My trip was amazing and I absolutely love Berlin! The city is completely livable and is filled with parks and green spaces. It would be an amazing city to live in (if only I could master the German language) I had such a great time seeing my family and exploring Berlin and its surroundings. Hopefully we will be able to meet up again soon!