More from Deutschland

So my project finally finished and I finally had some time to go site seeing. Jim and I originally planned on hopping a train this morning and spending some time in Prague, Czech Republic and then coming back to Berlin. But our stinking hotel failed to give us the wake up call this morning at 530am. In restrospect, it was probably better that we didn't get the call because had been up to 1230am Friday night finishing the project.

When we finally rolled out of bed we decided to go to Potsdam, Germany (they call it the Versailles of Berlin) (Its about 20 min. train ride from Berlin) (see http://www.germanplaces.com/germany/sanssouci-potsdam-sights.html). Its a pretty cool town. Frederick the Great, former Czar of Prussia (I think) built these palaces in Potsdam. They are pretty opulent.

We got to Potsdam around noon, hopped on a trolley/train type thing and rode it into town. We went to Sanssouci Park and saw a couple 18th century palaces. That was pretty cool. (I'll post pics when I get state side). The downer was that it was freakn' cold. I'm mean Omaha, Nebraska dead of winter cold. Unfortunately, when we left the hotel it looked quite nice and of course we were not properly layered as a result. Well that's all fine and dandy b/c you know we are guys and guys are tough. But when we discovered after leaving the palaces that the bus stop did not have a bus passing by for another 2 hours we had to walk back to the downtown area (think Freakn' Cold." Anyway, we had to walk for about 40 minute (in the Freakn' cold) before we got back to where we found a place to warm up and eat some dinner. And yes, I left my new earmuffs in the hotel that my lovely wife bought be right be for my trip. DOAH!!!!!!!

Anyway, the palaces were cool and Potsdam is a cool little city - a must see next time you are in Berlin. But we really were blessed when we found this restaurant (http://www.pfefferundsalz-potsdam.de/index1.html). An Italian restaurant on Bradenburg Street in Potsdam. It was really good italian food and hit the spot.

One annoying thing about Potsdam - 90% of the restaurants seem to close at about 6pm on a Saturday night. Crazy eh? This italian place was only open to 7pm(or so they said when we arrived at 6pm) even though they were still sitting diners when we left around 7pm - Go figure...
The thought did cross our minds that they might just not like Americans - I guess we will never now.

Anyway, the plan tomorrow is to sleep in, go to Church, and then see as much of Berlin as we can.

More to come, until next time, as they say here in Berlin -

Hasta La Vista, Baby!