Sans Soucci

Famous Windmill
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Hello again

First I must wish my younger sister a very Happy Birthday.

Squirrels!

While most of you are looking at finishing your day, we have done so. And we are wiped out. I kept the kids very busy.

The gardens
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Today we loaded the bus and headed to Postdam after breakfast at the hostel. Ok - and after I braided almost all the females hair. I refused the boys.

We drove to San Soucci - the residence of Friederich the Great. He liked art, reading and yellow. He also played music. We ate at a Imbiss Stand and then saw the historic Windmill that continued to opporate even after the Emperor wanted it torn down because the owner had a great case in court. Very unheard of. We walked to the castle and the kids walked through some of the water gardens whil I purchased the tickets. We then went on a tour inside the castle. They made us wear giant slippers over our shoes to protect the floor and cameras were not allowed to protect the art. What an art collection! He had great tatse. The opening hall was Rococo and very gold. The rooms that followed were better and better. The white marble room was outstanding and so well done. We saw a gold owl and golden staffs. We were observed by the artwork, it was that lifelike!  Each sleeping chamber opened up to the gardens and had private entrances.   The final room was  - well hard to describe. It was yelllow and had three dimensional grapevines, flowers and animals. We could not leave until we found the squirrel.  Voltaire wrote in that room.  Then we saw a painting Andy Warhol made of Friederich the Great.  We followed this with a tour of his graveside - he was buried beside his dogs. Then to his painting gallery. In there we saw over 100 pieces of artwork dating back to the late 1500's and 1600's. The painters included Rubens to Van Dyck. Oh My!  I loved the Romulus and Remus not to mention the the boy skating. Do we still have artists with that type of talent? Each student found their favorite.

Josh, Winston and Katie on the way to see real art
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After a gentle walk through the water gardens, we headed back to the bus. We spent 5 hours in Sans Soucci and the kids were Beat!  They were asleep on the bus within 2 minutes. The heat did not help. So they opted to skip the Cecilienhof to be replaced by the Olympic Stadium. (We have many soccer fans) We played soccer in front of the stadium and Amanda and Sean ran! That place is huge. I cannot imagine what it took to build in the 1930's.  Then off to the Berlin shopping Strasse  and a bit of down time. They heard a true German Oompah band and visited the Gedächtnis Kirche. (One of the few major German churches destroyed by bombs in WWII.)

Nice view
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We made it back to the hostel about 8 and have been chillin' - as Jason would say - until bed time. Tomorrow we have a guided tour of Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie and the controversial Holocaust Memorial.

Talk to you then. Frau PS I still have not figured out the pictures yet.

But I have now. Frau