Monday, June 20, 2016

Berlin, Germany - Day 4: Potsdam

     It's day 4.  We are all pretty tired from all the walking, but we got up early in order to take the train to Potsdam.  This was going to be our day trip out of the city for the day.  Apparently there are some palaces out there that we need to see and take pictures of.  The following photos are a mix from my 5d and my G7X.

     One of the many cute doggies that I saw in Germany. :)


     Graffiti is everywhere in Berlin.  Eventually, you just get accustomed to seeing it.  I think in America, we think of graffiti as being synonymous with questionable neighborhoods, but in Berlin you definitely don't feel that way once you get used to seeing it everywhere.  Seriously. EVERYWHERE.  There were some places I saw graffiti where I wondered how in the world they even did it. 


     When you venture further outside of the city, you see less and less people at the train stations.  This one was pretty empty. I don't remember what day it was, so it could've been the day of the week as well.



     Nineteen euros for an all inclusive pass to see all the palaces.  



     I don't remember which palace we saw first, but it was one of the "must see" ones on our list.  I was glad we went to this one first.  You'll understand why later.  

     This palace (and I assume the others as well) was very ornately decorated.  What stood out the most for me though, was the lack of air conditioning.  I figured they'd want to keep the place cool to help preserve the place, but all I saw were a few portable AC units in some of the rooms.  It was definitely stuffy in the palace. 
















     My sunglasses only saw the light of day a few times.  It was a bright day, so luckily I got to use them.  More over-packing horrors later on.




     It was so warm outside that some of us started tapping out early.  We pretty much wanted to sit somewhere cool and NOT walk anymore.  So we tried to look for the next palace by taking a walk to a bus stop.


     We were either confused, or we were at the wrong bus stop.  All I know is that the bus we wanted never came.  We saw plenty go by though. 


     I tried to make the best of the situation.  By now, I had put my 5d away and resigned myself to using just the G7X.  I decided to play with the manual mode on my camera and do some macros.



     When your feet are tired from walking, and you have blisters forming, what do you do?  You buy new, expensive shoes, that's what!  Check out Patty's new kicks! :)


     Seriously, where the hell is our bus?!?  By this time, we were all tired, and pretty much about to lose our cookies. Mmm cookies.  I wish I had packed some snacks for this trip.  Hell, I've got everything else in my bag - where the hell are my cookies?!?




     We took a short bus ride somewhere...I think we took it just because we wanted to get away from where we were.  A few steps off the bus and - Oh look! A biergarten! YESSSSSSSS!!!!



     My new drink of choice in Germany (because there is no diet Coke here) - Coke Light with lemon!  I was a bit bummed by the lack of ice, but hey...more Coke light! :)


     I ordered this cordon bleu dish.  The presentation of the food at this place was fantastic, and so was my food.  Everyone else's food looked great, too.









     We decided to make an executive decision to not visit any other palaces.  We just weren't feeling it after the fiasco of trying to get to the next one via the bus.  This man came up to us with these pamphlets and low and behold, our next adventure waste of money awaits us!  We are down 33 euros by now, but it's okay, because this time, we would be chauffeured around by a tour bus!


     Oh yes, we are loving this.


     And we can be on our phones...


     The clouds looked great, but most of the time the bus was moving too fast to really compose any photos.



     Okay, so that was the last photo because we ALL fell asleep on the bus.  I remember dozing in and out my nap only to hear the very bad narrative provided by the self-guided tour device they gave us.  It reminded me of a bad soap opera.  Luckily, I was able to rejoice in my 14 euro nap. :)

     Back at our station, and ready to go home to our Airbnb.



     Being gluttons for punishment, some of us decide we should go out and do some night shots at the Victory Column.  We passed by Tiergarten Park walking to it. It's like Central Park in New York City, but looked waaaaay bigger and greener.  This entry in to the park looked inviting, but I promise you when we walked back after shooting, it looked scary as F.


     Nothing like standing in the middle of a busy street to get that adrenaline going.




     Jon decided to see if this tunnel was the safer way to cross the busy street.  I took this photo in case we never saw him again.




     The shot I really wanted was from higher up on the column, but I believe you need special permission to access it. Sadness. :(



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