At the end of January a wintery trip around Potsdam took us to Lake Sacrow in Brandenburg and the beautiful chapel "Heilandskirche".
frozen Lake Sacrow - in the distance you can just make out a lonely ice skater
Heilandskirche was built in 1844 in Italian style with a campanile and arcades collecting warmth in the sun. Here the river Havel is half frozen.
On the following picture from 1981 presented in a documentation inside the chapel, you can see the situation from 1961 until 1989. The Heilandskirche was then in No-Man's-Land between the river Havel, which separated West- from East Germany, and the "Todesstreifen" (death strip) behind. The church has been rescued from its sorry state and was restored from 1991 to 1993.
View from Sacrow park towards Glienicker Brücke and Potsdam across the Havel.
... and looking over from the Berlin side....
the other direction : Glienicker Bridge ("Bridge of Spies") in the distance
Further upstream another island gem in the Havel is Pfaueninsel (peacock-island). Like Sacrow and the many Prussian Castles of Potsdam it has been classified as UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site.
Ferry "Luise" takes you over.
This romantic small Castle was built by the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm II. for his mistress on this idyllic island. It is made from wood and nowadays rather looks like a theatre stage decoration (these pictures are from a summer visit).
a keyhole view of the castle
The Kavaliershaus for staff and guests
Peacocks roam freely and are of the less-aggressive kind, at least when we visited.
To top off a perfect day, one might visit the new superb museum Palazzo Barberini in Potsdam. Hasso Plattner, the co-founder of SAP company, has created a private museum and rebuilt a palace in the historic centre of Potsdam with modern museum technology to house his huge art collection. Monets, Sisleys, Munchs, Picassos, Richters ... a visit is very highly recommended!
For the moment they have curated a very fitting "winter" exhibition.
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