Sat, Mar 2, 2013 - 33K - 03:50:00
33K Potsdam Castle Rendez-Vous Run
Today Gisi and I put in some good miles for the upcoming Berlin Half Marathon together in April (now in 5 weeks): I did 33K and Gisi did 22K. Although it was a cool and almost cold day, the sun was shining for the first time during a run in almost six months it seems. I took the S-Bahn out to Potsdam Hauptbahnhof and started my run from there, running past the main castles in town, then back over the Glienicke Bridge (where Soviet and American spies were exchanged during the Cold War), back into Wannsee and down the long Potsdamer Chaussee. Meanwhile, Gisi started her run in Steglitz, up Grünewaldstr. to Clayallee and down to Potsdamder Chaussee. At that point I was still running through Wannsee so she had to run out extra mileage to come meet me, but that gave her the extra kilometers she needed to complete the longest run of her life. It was a fun run but my legs were hammered around when Gisi and I met, and so were hers, so we ran a slow but steady pace back home. 
 
 
 
 
 
45 minutes of Spanish on the way to Potsdam 
 
had to wait for the S-Bahn for 10 minutes in Wannsee so deeply enjoyed the sun: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Potsdam's newest castle, built in 2011 (thanks in part to 20 Millionen Euro from Hasso Plattner): 
 
 
 
Sankt Nikolai Kirche: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My bookstore of yore, still there: 
 
 
 
 
 
Brandenburgischestr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
into Sanssouci Park: 
 
 
 
 
 
Sanssouci Castle itself, I could almost feel the spirit of Voltaire, who walked around these gardens talking to Frederick the Great during his stays here between 1750 and 1753: 
 
 
 
 
 
The King's Orangerie: 
 
The Royal gophers: 
 
 
 
The Neues Palais, built at the end of the Seven Years' War to celebrate Prussia's success: 
 
The Neues Palais in all of its Rococo glory: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Glienicke Bridge, divides Brandenburg and Berlin and was were spies were traded during the Cold War: 
 
 
 
last castle of the day: Babelsberg Castle in the distance: 
 
"German division until 1989": 
 
 
 
 
 
"May their death remind us that no on in our country should ever again be shot to death will trying to escape: the victims of the Gestapo in February 1934": 
 
 
 
 
 
a pair of drinks for my upcoming rendez-vous with Gisi: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
last picture before my smart phone battery ran out: