#17

We cannot bear a day without Be(a)rlin. And after all the time we spent together, we guess neither can you. Nevertheless we mustn´t forget the wonderful sights Berlin´s surrounding area offers. Let us have a look at these today.

First of all we visit our nearest and dearest neighbour, the city of Potsdam. The capital of the federal state of Brandenburg emotionally belongs to Berlin anyway. But even when looking at it more objectively, we find many of those prefering a city life, that is not quite as loud and as fast as it can be in the capital, moving to the town in Berlin´s southwest. With its stunning buildings as the city castle, Nikolai Church and Barberini Palace as well as the romantic Dutch Quarter (see picture above), the city immediately leaves a lasting impression. This is what the UNESCO might have thought, when adding some of Potsdam´s buildings to the world heritage in 1990. Why don´t you come over for a while now?

If you are in town at the end of the month, you should not miss a performance of the independent theatre company “Neues Globe Theater Potsdam“. Should you understand a little German or just yearn for that Festival of Avignon - feeling of not understanding the actors´ words, the company can provide you with an evening of classical Elisabethian theatre, just as in Shakespeare´s times. Reduced props and scenery and a very direct and honest way of acting are ensured by founders Kai Frederic Schrickel and Andreas Erfurth, both actors and directors. The company is co-founder of the festival “Schirrhofnächte“, Potsdam´s open air summer festival for independent theatre. We love events like this one and take the train for the opening night of Don Quijote on July 30th. Why don´t you get a first impression of their version of good old King Lear now? (Copyright picture: Gerrit Wittenberg)

“Hoooney? Isn´t Potsdam the town, where Frederick the Great had his hut?“ - Jep, exactly the one. The hut would be Sanssouci Palace, where Old Fritz preferred retreating at the end of the 18th century. Even today the park and the castle offer a marvelous view and help slowing down very quickly.

In order to stay cool when looking at all this decadence, we jump into the lake Scharmützelsee a few kilometres further east. The second largest natural lake of Brandenburg in the community of Bad Saarow invites all for a swim, to paddle and enjoy the beautiful sunset. Even Germany´s famous poet Theodor Fontane liked it here. Evidence can be found in his work „Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg“ (walks through the region of Mark Brandenburg).

It is not very far from here to the biosphere reserve of Spreewald. Maybe the name distantly reminds you of pickled cucumbers? Well, you are perfectly right then. But the forest with lots of natural branches of the river Spree and additional artificial canals has a lot more to offer than this local speciality. Our apprentices could discover this some weeks ago on an excursion, where some of them got quite wet while kayaking. But the pituresque scenery and the well preserved fauna (they said Hi to beavers, fireflies and coypus) totally made up for it.

Talking about culture - let us make a geographical jump to the north of Berlin. The small town of Biesenthal - which also lies at a beautiful lake - annualy plays host to the ART Biesenthal, an open air art festival, where sometimes even Berlin restaurant colleagues of one Michelin star restaurant Nobelhart und Schmutzig provide what you need for a picknick in the gardens of the gallery. We are looking forward to the next festival.

Only a few kilometres further we arrive at the village of Chorin. You can see the lake Amtssee in the picture above, but the place is first and foremost known for its Cistercian monastery. The gothic building from the 13th century is worth the trip already, but when it comes to the art exhibitions and the cake at the café, an excursion to Chorin becomes mandatory for all interested travellers.

Let us now return to the capital. We know we have promised you not to start raving about Berlin´s sights today, but the district of Spandau is the very last part of Berlin until we reach the border of Brandenburg, so that doesn´t really count, does it? Once you get there, you shouldn´t miss a walk through the old town from the 13th century, which is today a vibrant pedestrian area. Our highlight of this part of the city, though, is the citadel. One of the best preserved fortresses of the High Renaissance in Europe, it serves more peaceful reasons nowadays. One of you might especially be interested in the site´s history, while others might prefer admiring some handcrafted artwork made in the castle´s yard or enjoying the flood of new impressions in one of the exhibitions. But we shouldn´t forget the concerts! You might be surprised about the names of the artists playing in little Spandau citadel: Sting, Scooter, Hollywood Vampires with their frontman Johnny Depp and many more of the big, big ones. 

Wow, what a day! Berlin´s sky turns pink. Now we are really looking forward to a cool drink at the Orania.Bar, stirred or shaken by our bar manager Laura. We are probably going to enjoy it in one of these bar chairs we can never again get up from. Do you know what we mean?