Werder and Caputh

Whenever I look at a map of Potsdam or Berlin I always find new surrounding towns that I want to visit. Yesterday I crossed two off my list.

I took the train to Werder and then a bus to the old town. Yesterday was hotter than the day before and the sun was unyielding. I chose a bad time to travel - right when the sun was at its peak and shining with full force.

 A memorial to victims of the Stasi.

Several gravestones had these stickers warning that the stones were loose and accidents might happen.  Many of the loose stones were actually from the last couple of years.

 

When I arrived at the edge of the altstadt island I discovered a boat was arriving in five or so minutes. I had planned to take a boat on the other side of the island straight to Potsdam a few hours later, but this timing made me get on this boat. At least on the water there would be a breeze.

 I have no idea what this or where it is, but it's so pretty!

I got off the boat at Schloss Caputh, which I discovered is pronounced kaput. Awesome.

I sat on a bench near the Schloss for a while, just resting in the shade. Then I walked into town and stopped for an ice cream (watermelon and raspberry, my current favourite pair). I was clearly so hot that I forgot to take photos of anything. I checked the train schedule for how to get back to Potsdam and decided to walk down the street to a bridge, cross the river and then up to the train station, to catch the train leaving 45 minutes later.

A pretty random bridge to be full of locks...

Google maps gave me some incorrect information about which side of the street the train station was on, but nevertheless, I arrived at the deserted station with about six minutes to spare.

This train is a small regional train with only eight stations and it only leaves once an hour. I was looking at the train map when I heard it approach but I turned around to see it zoom past the station. It took me a minute to process what just happened. I turned back to the schedule and noticed that it said something to the effect of "the train only stops on request".  There was no indication of how to actually make a request for the stop, and the train was going too fast for the driver to be checking for someone on the platform. I know trams and buses require stop requests, but trains? Hourly trains?

So, my only options were to either figure out how to request a stop and wait an hour for the next train, or walk back to Caputh and take the bus. Of course I choose the bus, and I took the short route back to town, which includes the 50 cent ferry that takes about eight cars plus cyclists and pedestrians across the river.

By the time I finally arrived at the bus stop, I was an exhausted sweaty mess. I'm not sure how many more days of this heat I can handle.

a ferry and Sanssouci

There is a small ferry in Potsdam, so I decided to cross that one off my list next. It was in a part of town I'd never been to and was near the end of the bus line. Two or three stops from the end 15 or 20 people got on the bus, which always makes me wonder "Should I get off here? Is there actually something here?" But I stayed on the bus and got off at my chosen stop, and a short distance away saw a path through a park, indicating that I was indeed heading in the right direction.

The ferry was arriving just as I did, but since it's only a three minute ride I waited for the next one and took some photos of the water and boats.

 I love all of the lily pads in every body of water here.

The little ferry! It runs every 15 minutes, which seems pretty regular considering I don't actually know what it's there for - is there something on either side that I'm missing?

Once I was across, I decided to walk to a side entrance of the gardens of Schloss Sanssouci. I last walked around a bit of the gardens two winters ago, so it seemed like time to see them in the summer.

 

I have half-wondered to myself if fields that look like this were hay, but that seemed random and out of place. That bale has pretty much confirmed my suspicions regarding all the fields at Babelsberg.

I rested on a bench in the shade in the middle of the park, on the main pathway between the two palaces. A lot of tourists visit the gardens, so it was fun for me to watch them all walk past and then catch a peripheral view of the Orangerie and stop to take photos. Many gasped in surprise because they didn't expect it to be there.

 The sides of most of the benches in the park looked like this.

 I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but I like it.

And, finally, Schloss Sanssouci. I arrived at about 5, when the park was still full of tourists who were wandering the gardens and climbing up to the Schloss.

I made plans for my boy to meet me in the park about an hour later, so I set out my blanket and read a book. I think this is the best view my blanket and I have ever had. It only lasted an hour, though, as a guard came and told me that sitting on the ground was forbidden. There were no signs, and there were others resting as well (it was yet another hot day), but I was the only one so prepared as to have a blanket.

I packed up and went back to the fountains. It was clearly after peak tourist time, so they turned the fountain off. There was never a moment without at least one person climbing those stairs.

 By the time we finally left the park, the sun was setting.

Fredrick the great was the Potato King, and he has not been forgotten. Unless the staff leave these...

the ferry to Kladow

I didn't wake up yesterday with the plan to cross one item partially off my summer to do list. There are six BVG ferries in Berlin, so I can't even cross this item off yet, but I can cross off the F10 ferry. Yay.

I had an errand to do in Potsdam and then I realized the tram and bus schedule was perfect to catch the hourly ferry with only 15 or 20 minutes to wait, so I had to go.

When I joined this line, I almost regretted the choice because it was so damn hot yesterday and I wasn't actually planning to spend time in the sun so I hadn't applied sunscreen and didn't have my blanket to lay down in a park.

 There was such a nice breeze on the 20 minute ferry ride that it was a perfect afternoon excursion.

 At a distance the water looks blue. Up close it looks brown.

 The approach to Kladow.

 The lilypad-surrounded, duck-filled inaccessible island across from Kladow.

There are always a ton of swans and other ducks at Kladow and they follow you around assuming you are there to bring them food.

Are these Canada geese? Wikipedia tells me there are some Canada geese in Germany, so I'm going to say yes, they are.

Just out of shot was a ten year old girl feeding the birds.When the swan stood up and stretched its neck, it was the same height as her. I stand by my statement that swans are pretty but scary.

After walking around the water for a bit I found a bench in the shade and spent some time reading before I caught the return ferry.

The Wannsee beach.  I'm pretty sure there is an entrance fee for all beaches like this in Berlin (and there are a ton), but I am debating visiting one day.

cotton rug

A few months ago I bought some recycled cotton yarn with plans to make puffs and carpets and baskets.  However, I was moving and couldn't bring everything with me, so it all went into storage.  A couple of weeks ago I revised what was in storage (like all of my spices - what was I thinking?) and at the same time, I needed to buy a new carpet for the kitchen.  I kept putting off going to the store to get one until finally something clicked in my head and I decided to turn the cotton yarn into a small rug, so I could move my bedside carpet to the kitchen. I think it took only one episode of a TV show to make this thing.

 Of course, as soon as I put it down Tilly came to investigate.

I'm quite happy with it, but it's smaller than I'd like mainly because I couldn't use all of my colours. They are all different widths and thicknesses - I mean one row of black is thicker than two rows of grey. Still, it's cute and pretty and will be covered in cat fur in a few days, I'm sure.

green hexagons

The car trip this weekend gave me plenty of time to crochet, so I've finished my green hexagons.

I could make a few more with the leftovers from each ball, but I haven't decided if I want to make half-hexagons for the edges.  I also haven't decided on the layout or colour pattern.

the Baltic, again...

It was my boy's birthday this weekend, so even though we are poor right now, we took another one night trip to the Baltic, this time near the Darß-Zingst Peninsula. The plan was to actually go there on Saturday, but we regularly change our plans, so we didn't.

I failed to remember to take photos of a lot of things this trip. For example, we rented a BMW, since it's his birthday and he's a guy and likes cars, but I forgot to take a photo.

As we are in Germany, for large stretches of road the Autobahn has no speed limit. I like speed limits and safety and arriving safely at my destination, so generally prefer we don't exceed 140. But, I think we went as fast as 240 this weekend. Let's just say that made me a nervous passenger. Especially when I was napping and woke up to the roar of the engine as it went past 220.

This was our hotel. We came up to this tiny town last year, because I like to choose points on maps and drive to them to see what they are. The beach faces east, so it was also an option if we managed to wake up to see the sunrise. The sunrise yesterday was at 4:55, so there was no way we would be able to wake up in time. Last year it was probably at 6:30 and we still didn't make it up in time.

The weather was gorgeous and perfect all weekend.

These spikes had clearly come from the water.

This picture was taken from the water. This beach was small and sandy and wonderful. Maybe the best point was that there were only seven or eight other people on it. I don't like busy beaches.

My skirt was long, so I had to knot it so my hands were free to take photos. As this beach was sandy I wanted to go swimming. However, it was also seeweedy, which I don't like. In fact, at the point where I was in the water knee-deep there was almost a barrier of seeweed across the entire beach that just prevented me from passing. Others went in, and it seemed like they had fun. But I've learned that Germans don't mind swimming in dirty, brown, rocky, seeweedy water. I like clear, sandy water. So, I'm still on the hunt for the right beach.

Some of the aforementioned seaweed.

I took some long-exposure shots from our hotel window, well after sunset.

And one of the stars, none of which were visible to the naked eye.

My boy noticed some duck prints in the water. These were probably swan prints because the water was mid-calf at this point, and these prints were quite big.

Someone clearly turned the seaweed into a nice pile. I don't think this could happen naturally...

 I gasped aloud and scrambled for my camera when I saw this family of swan babies!!!
 

A statue of cranes outside the hotel. Cranes are big in this area of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and we saw some last year, but I don't think we saw any this year.

After this we decided to go to Karl's Erlebnishof, which is a big strawberry-filled adventure land. We painted ceramics last year, so we had to do some again. We each painted a coffee cup and a bowl. And I forgot to take photos... But they'll arrive in the mail in about two weeks, at which point I will take enough to make up for my mistake.

We also bought two 2-kg baskets of strawberries. The container is too big to fit in my tiny fridge, so it's currently sitting on my table as I debate turning them into jam or syrup or just eating them fresh.