Potsdam
| Potsdam |
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| City Center part 1 | City Center part 2 | Park Sanssouci |
Population: 159 000 (part of Metro Berlin/Brandenburg) |
ABOUT POTSDAM Potsdam lies only 24 km southwest of Berlin. It is situated on the River Havel and many lakes, forests, parks and castles surround the city core, where you can find significant historical buildings, like beautiful churches and arches. The famous gardens and castles of Sanssouci occupies a large area of the city and is Germany's largest world heritage site. Potsdam has a significant importance in Germany's history; it was a windsor city, a residence for German kaisers and Prussian kings until 1918. The famous Potsdam conference after WWII was held at the Cecilenhof castle. The city is also known as Germany's movie city; it has a film museum and a famous film studio in Babelsberg in the outskirts. It is also home to research, knowledge and science. In the city center there is also a special Dutch quarter, squares and a long pedestrian street. Unlike the hills and gardens that surround it, the city center itself is flat. City is connected by public transportation with trams and buses and is connected to Berlins with trains. The extended Berlin card is valid for transportation in Potsdam. MY EXPERIENCES I visited Potsdam as a daytrip from my 5 days Berlin trip. It took about one hour with the (very slow) train. I saw the city center and the huge gardens and castles of Park Sanssouci. Despite being in August, the weather was unfortunately grey during the whole day. I found it a nice city with many old buildings, parks and greenery. Some streets are heavily trafficated just like in most other midsized German cities, but the atmosphere over all is calm and small scale. There are mostly low rise buildings in the city center, except for the many churches. I was impressed of how large the Park Sanssouci was; it takes hours to walk through it and you can hardly see the end of it while standing in one end. The palace of Sanssouci is very beautiful with its terraced gardens.
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