Well… This website is indeed dedicated to Berlin – but what would be a visit to Berlin without seeing Potsdam? A bit incomplete maybe? Right. So I decided I just have to dedicate at least some pages to the beautiful City of Potsdam.
The first thing you should probably know – and maybe you already do know – is that Potsdam is a City of its very own – and it’s actually the capital of Brandenburg, the beautiful state that is surrounding Berlin.
There is also a City called Brandenburg – or actually Brandenburg an der Havel – but that is not the capital of Brandenburg State. This might sound a bit confusing at first, but it’s actually not so difficult to understand, I hope. We’ll have a closer look on this later on… (See also: wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg)
Potsdam is probably best known for its palaces. And parks. And lakes. And the old city center. And… so much more. So even though Potsdam may be small, it has a lot to offer and is very well worth a day trip.
How to get to Potsdam
By Public Transport
You probably best get there if you jump on the local train “Regionalbahn / RegionalExpress / RE” – but also the S-Bahn is a good and fast choice. From Potsdamer Platz every 20 minutes an S-Bahn is available – and every 30 minutes you could basically jump on a local train. You may want to check the schedule from the homepage of S-Bahn (Deutsche Bahn) in advance: s-bahn-berlin.de/en/route-information
The travel time will be about 20 to 30 minutes if you start at Berlin Hauptbahnhof and get off the train at Potsdam Hauptbahnhof. A regular A-B-C-Ticket for currently €3,30 will be valid for the trip – so getting there (and back) is actually also quite affordable. If you decide to take a bike with you, which might be a good idea if you want to see a lot of Potsdam’s attractions in one day, then you will have to purchase an extra bicycle ticket for €2.50 (ticket prices may change over time).
By Car
Also going by car to Potsdam can be I nice and interesting experience, if you happen to have one at hand during your Berlin stay. There are basically two routes I would recommend: either you take the Autobahn which would include seeing (and driving) the famous former race track AVUS (see also: wikipedia.org/wiki/AVUS) or you take the Road Number 1 that goes basically all the way from Potsdamer Platz to Potsdam, crossing the iconic Glienicke Bridge (German: Glienicker Brücke – see also: wikipedia.org/wiki/Glienicke_Bridge)
Things to do / Sights so see
- The former summer palace and park Sanssouci
- Park Babelsberg and Schloss Babelsberg
- Neuer Garten (New Garden)
- Marmorpalais (Marble Palace)
- Schloss Cecilienhof
- Schloss Glienicke and Volkspark Klein-Glienicke (near Glienicke Bridge)
- The Dutch Quarter
- The Russian Quarter
- Babelsberg Observatory
- Babelsberg Film Studios
- Einstein Tower