A day trip out of Berlin is the best thing to do, this time using the train and bus to Peacock Island and Potsdam. A good way to stay clear from crowds too!
I was lucky I made it just in time to catch the bus from Wansee station to the ferry point before getting to Peacock Island, as I only realised they have very irregular bus services on weekdays. If I had miss this bus, I would had to wait for another 2 hours before I could get a bus. There are hourly bus depatures on weekends though.
The bus ride was quite pleasant, as it goes through a narrow road between the woods, and then it's a 1 minute ferry ride across to the island.
Although I had sunny clear skies most part of the day, it actually felt colder than the last few days. Weather report says it was about 2°C.
Peacock Island is named because of the peacocks that could be easily seen on the island. It is easily walkable within 2 hours, although I spent most of the 1st 3/4 of the time trying to find where the peacocks are hiding.
I suppose because of the time of the year I had chosen to come, alot of things were closed, so we could only see the buildings from the outside. Even the palace building was under renovation when I was there.
The dairy, designed as the Gothic ruins of a monastery
The Memorial Temple for Queen Louise
The neo-Gothic Kavaliershaus to house members of the court
And some other random buildings
Nevertheless, it was still quite a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours in nature.
And then finally as I was close to completing the entire loop of the island, I saw the peacocks and peahens. They were all located around the sanctuary, I assume its because the weather is a lot colder this time of the year, thus they didn't really venture out and about the island.
The travel from Peacock Island to Potsdam was also really easy, taking the bus back to the train station and then 3 stops on the S7 train.
Originally I thought the only thing worth seeing is the Sanssouci Palace, but I was so wrong. The town is really pretty and pleasant to walk through.
Christmas markets had also just started, and in this small town, I already chanced upon 2 Christmas markets!
And then I made my way to Sanssouci. Wow, its huge!
I walked around the park and realised there were even more things to see in this massively huge park. It's so huge that walking the park alone took me over 2 hours to cover.
There were buildings like the Orangery Palace, which seemed to house only plants, and we are not talking small ones - even huge palm trees that grew so tall it is almost touching the ceiling!
The Belvedere on the Klausberg was further along the path, which appears to be under some renovation.
And then I walked towards the New Palace. I was quite impressed with the Sanssouci already, but the moment I saw the New Palace building, my jaws dropped! All those statues and intricacies and flamboyance. And HUGE!
This building appears to be the only one which was opened for visiting, I didn't go in as I was already quite tired and it was getting late, but I took a peek at one of the rooms from the outside window and even the inside looks flamboyant.
Behind (or in front) of New Palace was another beautifully architectured roman style building which I later realised is now a University campus, but the 2 buildings so close together was what made my jaw dropped even further.
There's also a Roman Baths within the Palace Park grounds and this building called the Chinese House, in the same gold flamboyant style.
By the time I had finished walking the park, night had fallen. Christmas lights are now on in the town centre and it was really pleasurable just walking the streets.
Grabbed a quick dinner on the walk towards the Potsdam train station at Globus Grillbar Der Hähnchenspezialist - roasted chicken here is really cheap, and for the price, pretty good!
Walking back towards the Potsdam train station, I came across yet another couple of beautiful buildings surrounding a small square, that it felt like a mini Rome.
I can understand now why Potsdam has been described as the "Versailles of Berlin" .
Because its been such a clear day, for the 1st time since I been in Europe, I finally saw the moon!
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