Today I am grateful for our continued travel in Berlin .

It is Tuesday today and we are still in Berlin. Today we caught the train out to Potsdam. It is a very pretty little town with many many castles. 

Potsdam , is the capital and largest city of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It directly borders the German capital Berlin and is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, 24 kilometres southwest of Berlin’s city center.

Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser, until 1918. Its planning embodied ideas of The Age of Enlightenment: through a careful balance of architecture and landscape. Potsdam was intended as “a picturesque, pastoral dream” which reminded its residents of their relationship with Nature and Reason. Around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. ( Information courtesy of Wikepedia). 
We visited the old city center which is full of pretty little shops and then walked up to the Sanssouci Palace. The palace was built by Frederick the Great as a summer residence and is high on a vineyard that was built specially for it. Sans Souci means carefree and it was definitely an illustration of its meaning. I could easily imagine drinking wine and living a carefree existence in this beautiful spot. 

After a traditional Curry Wurst lunch – a German  dish of consisting of steamed, then fried pork sausage (German: Bratwurst)  cut into slices and seasoned with curry ketchup and  topped with curry powder we caught the train back to Berlin and walked along the East Side Gallery. 

The East Side Gallery is painted along a section of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. The 101 large format images painted directly on the wall symbolize  the joy of the wall coming down, for overcoming  the Iron Curtain in Europe, the euphoria about the peace and freedom from persecution, spying and lack of freedom and  the hope for a better, more human society.  

 More than 3 million visitors come to the East Side Gallery every year. In addition, the East Side Gallery is still the only authentic monument of reunification for over twenty years.

I am continually saddened by  the way our human race has treated each other over the course of history and how we continue to treat each other. I am also inspired that the human race seems to always rise up, stand up and fight for what is right and good and it also seems to me that the good and right always seems to be the path that stands the test of time. 

I read this quote this week from a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace prize winner and it seems appropriate: 

Until next time