Potsdam

We spent today in Potsdam. This is the capitol of the German state Brandenburg. It is a short train ride away from Berlin, which also lies within Brandenburg (hence Brandenburg Gate).

ARCHITECTURE

Today was filled with more historic buildings of Potsdam. We saw a church (Nicholaikirche by Schinkel) first. It was another building that was destroyed somewhat in the war and restored. So, its hard to say whether we're really looking at Schinkel's work or not. So the building that we see is virtually new, but made to look authentic. Ontop of these anachronisms, if you will, Schinkel being an architect of the 1800's (this

building particularly 1837), designs in a neoclassical style - meaning bringing back classical column styles, proportions, etc. So, studying his buildings in person can become a little confusing to fit into a time/style. I think tourists that aren't necessarily architecturally trained might not see this confusion at face value.

We also got to walk through the gardens of the Sanssouci Palace (above). We didn't go inside of the Palace, but we walked around the exterior and absorbed the Baroque style through the exterior ornamentation. This Palace was a get away

home for the royal family, and has been used as a meeting place for significant dignitary engagements. I enjoyed seeing the Baroque details. They make an old building a little more playful and light hearted.

Later after walking through Potsdam a little ways, we headed towards an old castle - Babelsburg Palace (above). The organization that keeps up the palace has had a hard time raising money for restoration work, so the interior was not quite as interesting as the outside. They had huge canvas prints of old pictures to reference what the rooms looked like originally, so we were able to get some idea of how life was living in this castle.

CULTURE

Food: Today I tried schnitzle for the first time w/ a schnitzle sandwich. It was really good. Its basically like chicken fried steak only with pork or veal - I think I had the pork. And then on the sandwich came tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and a little mustard-ish sauce. For dinner I tried to stay cheap and just had a salami sandwich. We've learned that when the sign says salami it really means salami. I'm still learning my other meats. One in particular in german is schicken.... which you would think would be chicken, but its not. I think from the looks of it is ham.

I think I'll devote some blogging time today to German fashion. The more I have observed and thought about it, this too brings about cultural divides. I think the Germans can pinpoint us as Americans simply from the way we dress and present ourselves. I'll just point out some key differences: German men wear capris; American men wear shorts. Germans wear taller socks and socks with sandals; Americans will go w/o socks alot of times and wear more flip-flop options. Germans will combine several prints together (stripes with plaid, plaid on plaid, floral on floral etc); Americans generally don't mix too many prints (or else they get sent on "what not to wear"). Germans dye their hair many different colors sometimes having one color in one big spot and a brightly contrasting color in another spot. Their haircuts are a little wilder than mainstream Americans also. Different lengths in different directions with different colors. Their eyeglasses are more modernly designed. Also, I've seen that older does not necessarily mean more conservative like it does in the US - esp. in the south. I realize that in bigger cities around the world you get a wider variety of fashion styles, but being in Berlin after having been New York, Paris, and LA - some of the biggest fashion cities in the world - Berliners are very much more casual and not concerned with super high fashion. (at least by our American standards) It actually has been kinda nice to not have to compete w/ the high fashion or feel like you have to be glitzed up in gucci, prada, or chanel to fit in.