das Schloß - castle

ß = ss - the sharf s (funny looking letter) is being phased out of the language.

yesterday we decided to get out of the city. i guess we weren't museumed out because we decided to see a schloss. we have a schloss down the street but we went to potsdam, a town just outside of berlin that has 4-5 schlosser. we only saw one - the neues palais, new palace. new as in built in 1769. there were royal types living there until 1918.

it is a really big palace, housing many apartments with several rooms each. one may only enter the building when on a guided tour, all of which are in german. those of us who speak english read a card that, presumably, said what the tour guide was saying. the german speakers were laughing quite a bit at the tour guide, but i didn't read anything funny. we saw some very impressive rooms, one with walls all made of shells, geodes and crystals, and another entirely made of marble in different colors. huge rooms! beautiful rooms! freakin' cold rooms! it was colder inside the castle than it was out.

the best part of the palace for me was the fact that, in order to tour the schloss, you have to don a pair of gigantic slippers to put over your shoes. these slippers could have fit a (US) size 28 shoe! imagine 30 or so adults shuffling along in our giant slippers, scarves, hats, and earmuffs, nodding in appreciation at the damask silk wall coverings and gorgeous inlaid wood floors. it was ridiculous.

pictures are not allowed in the palace but i found that out the hard way. had i known i only had one picture to take before being reprimanded i would have taken a picture of my feet. anyway, this is the shell room. i have also included some pictures of dan and i admiring our surroundings. perhaps these pictures will save you the humiliation of having to go to the neues palace and wear your own giant slippers.