CARL LEGIEN

Only on a bicycle tour through Prussia's Arcadia can you really experience the full splendour and beauty of the Potsdam palace and garden landscape.

Coming by S-Bahn from Berlin, we get off at Wannsee station and visit the beautiful Borussia with a wonderful first view over the Großer Wannsee.

Afterwards we go into the Bismarckstrasse past the Kleist monument and along the most beautiful villas and first the Kleiner Wannsee, the Pohle and Stölpchensee to the Griebnitzsee which flows into the Tiefen See in Klein Glienecke.

A break in the beer garden of the Söhnel shipyard is a good idea...

Along these lakes you can marvel at many a jewel before we cross the Babelsberg Castle Park and the work of Lenee'und Pückler-Muskaues with our vehicle.

On the right side the picturesque Glienicke Bridge, we drive along the bank, the Great Curiosity in sight and can see Potsdam's panorama with Schinkel's Nikolai Church, the Barberini Palace and the City Hall.

At Strandbad Babelsberg we now cross the bridge to the city and we recommend a small snack with homemade pasta from a Californian chef with esprit in Gusto Gastronomia near the Nauener Tor.

Strengthened, we now go to the park of castles, to Sanssouci...

Now every Berliner has his own favourite places here, my favourite is still Schinkel's Charlottenhof or the Belvedere and the Orangery.

Here is a nice side trip to Krongut Bornstedt before we drive to the second big castle park at the Heiligen See and visit the wonderful marble palace and the orangery in the new garden.

Leaving Park Cecilienhof to the east and crossing the Glienicker Brücke, a wonderful path now stretches along the left bank of the Havel River with a view of Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) along the Moorlake Inn, with bathing bays along the astonishingly clean stream all the way to the Flensburg Lion and the beautiful Max Liebermann House.

Those who still haven't had enough of wonderful bathing bays and shady idylls can continue cycling along the Havelchaussee and learn to love Berlin in summer either in the Grunewald Tower or the restaurant ship "Alte Liebe" at a wonderful sunset.